Fuso-class battleships
Kongo-class battle cruisers
Haruna of the Kongo-class
An item reported that at the Japanese navy and private shipyards were under construction 2 battleships, 4 cruisers and 2 destroyers. The destroyer Yamakaze (1) under construction at the Mitsui yard would received some modifications similar to the ones on board of the British destroyer Swift.(2) The available budget allowed the building of 4 battleships and 3 armoured cruisers.(3) Well informed sources however claimed that the budget was to be used for 4-26.000 ton dreadnoughts.(4) One should be already ordered in England. A reasonable part of the budget was to be used for increasing the Yokosuka docks where on very short notice the keel was to be laid down of the first of these dreadnoughts. The already very large dock of the Mitsu Bisji was even further to be extended.
Notes
1. Launched at completed at Nagasaki, Japan in 1911 with a displacement of 1.150 tons.
2. A 1.825 tons destroyer leader, laid down at Cammell Laird, Birkenhead, England in 1905, launched on 7 December 1907, commissioned in August 1910 and sold to be broken up on 9 December 1921. The ship was however a failure, not fast and heavy armed enough and too expensive.
3. The 29.800 tons (standard) Fuso-class consisting of the Fuso and Yamashiro respectively laid down built at the Kure Naval Arsenal in 1912 and 1913 at the Yokosuka Naval Arsenal, preceded by the Kawachi-class and succeeded by the Ise-class.
4. The Kongo-class 27.384 tons battle cruisers designed by the British naval architect George Thurston of Vickers, consisting of the Kongo (laid down in 1911 by Vickers, England) and the Hiei (l911 at Yokosuka), Kirishima (1912) and Haruna (1912), the latter three built in Japan, succeeded by the Amagi-class.
