Japanese cruiser Yodo

	Yodo in 1908 at Yokosuka
History
Empire of Japan
Name	Yodo
Ordered	1904 Fiscal Year
Builder	Kawasaki Shipyards, Kobe
Laid down	2 October 1906
Launched	11 November 1907
Commissioned	8 April 1908
Decommissioned	1 April 1940
Fate	Broken up for scrap, 1945
General characteristics
Class and type	Yodo-class cruiser
Displacement	1,270 t (1,250 long tons)
Length	93.1 m (305 ft 5 in) o/a
Beam	9.5 m (31 ft 2 in)
Draught	3 m (9 ft 10 in)
Propulsion	2 shaft reciprocating (VTE) engines; 4 Miyabara boilers; 6,500 shp (4,800 kW); 339 tons coal; 76 tons oil;
Speed	22 knots (25 mph; 41 km/h)
Complement	116
Armament	2 × QF 4.7 inch Gun Mk I–IV s; 4 × QF 12 pounder 12 cwt naval gun s; 1 × machine gun; 2 × 457 mm (18.0 in) torpedo tubes;
Armour	Deck: 62 mm (2.4 in); Conning tower: 50 mm (2.0 in);

Yodo (淀) was the lead ship in the Yodo class of high speed protected cruisers in the Imperial Japanese Navy. Officially rated as a tsūhōkan, meaning dispatch boat or aviso, Yodo was named after the Yodo River outside Osaka, Japan. Her sister ship was Mogami. Yodo had a clipper bow and two smokestacks, whereas Mogami had a straight raked bow with three smokestacks.^[1]

Background

Designed and built domestically in Japan, the lightly armed and lightly armored Yodo-class vessels were intended for scouting, high speed reconnaissance, and to serve as dispatch vessels. However, they were already obsolete when designed, with the development of wireless communication used during the Russo-Japanese War of 1904–1905.^[1] Yodo was the first warship to be built by Kawasaki Heavy Industries at its Kawasaki Shipyard in Kobe.

Service life

Completed after the end of the Russo-Japanese War, Yodo was used initially for training and coastal patrol duties.

In November 1911, Yodo was dispatched to Bangkok, Siam as part of the Japanese naval delegation attending the coronation ceremonies for King Rama VI of Thailand.

Yodo was re-classified as a 1st class gunboat on 12 October 1912.^[1] In World War I, she was assigned to the Japanese 2nd fleet, and although present at the Battle of Tsingtao, did not see any combat. She was subsequently assigned to patrols of former German Micronesia, which has been occupied by Japan during the early stages of the war.

After World War I, Yodo was used as a surveying ship and made various survey trips along the China coast, along with being assigned various miscellaneous auxiliary duties, from its home port at Kure Naval District. With the growing conflict in China following in 1931 Manchurian Incident, Yodo was assigned primarily to patrols of the north China coastline in the 1930s, with her patrol area extending to the central China coastline after the start of the Second Sino-Japanese War in 1937.

Yodo was demilitarized on 1 April 1940 and renamed Hulk #13. It remained moored to a pier at Iwakuni throughout World War II, and was towed to Hikari, where she was broken up for scrap in 1945.

Notes

^ ^a ^b ^c Conway, Conway's All the World's Fighting Ships 1906–1921, page 236

References

David C. Evans; Mark R. Peattie (1997). Kaigun: Strategy, Tactics, and Technology in the Imperial Japanese Navy, 1887-1941. Naval Institute Press. ISBN 978-0-87021-192-8.
Gardner, Robert (1985). Conway's All the World's Fighting Ships 1906–1921. Conway Marine Press. ISBN 0-85177-245-5.
Howarth, Stephen (1983). The Fighting Ships of the Rising Sun: The Drama of the Imperial Japanese Navy, 1895-1945. Atheneum. ISBN 0-689-11402-8.
Jentsura, Hansgeorg (1976). Warships of the Imperial Japanese Navy, 1869-1945. Annapolis, MD: Naval Institute Press. ISBN 0-87021-893-X.
Roberts, John (ed). (1983). 'Warships of the world from 1860 to 1905 - Volume 2: United States, Japan and Russia. Bernard & Graefe Verlag, Koblenz. ISBN 3-7637-5403-2.
Roksund, Arne (2007). The Jeune École: The Strategy of the Weak. Leiden: Brill. ISBN 978-90-04-15723-1.
Schencking, J. Charles (2005). Making Waves: Politics, Propaganda, And The Emergence Of The Imperial Japanese Navy, 1868-1922. Stanford University Press. ISBN 0-8047-4977-9.