Nissin (cruiser)

Corps

Booking

Artillery weapons

The cruiser’s main caliber is four 203-mm separate loading systems of the Armstrong system with a 45-barrel long barrel. The guns were placed in pairs in oval-shaped towers with a flat roof in the bow and stern. Tower installations had an electric drive and redundant manual control ^[1] . The maximum firing range was up to 18000 m, the maximum rate of fire up to 2 rounds per minute ^[2] .

Medium-caliber artillery consisted of 14 152-mm quick-fire separate loading systems for the Armstrong system with a barrel length of 40 calibers. The maximum firing range was up to 9100 m, the maximum rate of 5-7 rounds per minute ^[3] . Of these, ten guns were placed in an armored battery - five guns on board, four guns were placed on the upper deck ^[1] .

Ten 76-mm quick-firing guns were installed: six on the upper deck (three on board), two guns were in the bow and aft on the battery deck. The maximum firing range was up to 10740 m, the maximum rate of fire up to 15 rounds per minute ^[4] .

Six 47-mm Hotchkiss guns were installed two each on the aft and bow bridges, and one each from the starboard and port side at the mast. The maximum firing range was up to 6000 m, the maximum rate of fire up to 20 rounds per minute ^[5] .

There were also four 7.62 mm Maxim machine guns .

Mine weapons

Powerplant

Russo-Japanese War

On April 11, 1904, the cruisers Nissin and Kasuga , having completed the transition from Italy, became part of the United Fleet. On April 12, Nissin and Kasuga, together with the 1st combat detachment, went to Port Arthur to cover the laying of sea ​​mines with the Korio-maru transport ^[6] . At night at Port Arthur, a battle took place between the 2nd detachment of fighters covering the mines and the destroyer " Terrible ", as a result of which the Russian ship was sunk. The armored cruiser “Bayan” , which came to the aid of the destroyer , was fired upon by the cruisers of the 3rd combat detachment, sent specifically to “lure” the Russian squadron into the Korio-Maru minefield. The ships of the Russian squadron led by the battleship "Petropavlovsk" under the flag of Vice Admiral S. O. Makarov - "Poltava" , "Askold" , "Diana" and "Novik" went to the place of death of the "Scary", successfully passing the minefield. "Petropavlovsk" opened fire on the Japanese cruisers and they began to retreat east. By 09:15, the 1st combat detachment arrived in the battlefield along with the Nissin and Kasuga ^[6] , after which the Russian ships turned away to Port Arthur. Here he was joined by the battleships "Victory" and "Relight" , after which Makarov again went on rapprochement with the Japanese ships. This time, the course led directly to the mines. At 09:43, "Petropavlovsk" was blown up by a mine and sank with most of the crew. Japanese ships, not daring to attack the Russian squadron under cover of coastal batteries, returned to the anchorage ^[7] .

On the evening of April 14, as part of the 1st combat detachment, Nissin and Kasuga again went to Port Arthur. On the morning of April 15, “Nissin” and “Kasuga” separated from the detachment to conduct cross-over firing on Russian ships located on the inner roads of Port Arthur ^[8] .

Around 09:30, both cruisers opened fire on the city and harbor. The first shots damaged the battleship "Retvisan" and the gunboat "Brave" . One shell hit the underwater armor belt of the battleship "Relight", but did not explode and did not cause damage ^[9] . On the Japanese cruisers, coastal battery fire was opened from the Liaoteshansky Peninsula and ships anchored in the harbor, the Nissin and Kasuga were able to suppress the coastal battery fire, and when shells fell close to Russian ships they maneuvered, evading hits. At 12:50 on the command of Admiral Togo, the shooting was stopped ^[10] . In total, about 190 shells fell on the city and port, as a result five lower ranks were injured, seven were killed and three Chinese were wounded ^[11] . Russian ships fired at Nissin and Kasuga 34 shots, including: Peresvet - 28, Sevastopol - 3, Poltava - 2 and Victory - 1, there were no hits. When firing on the battleship "Sevastopol", a breakdown of the machine of the right fore 305-mm gun occurred, which could not be put into operation until the end of hostilities ^[12] .

After the first frequent shots, the enemy fired more rarely; his 8-mm shells were torn mainly on the Tigrovoy, in the aisle, under the Golden Mountain and on the Perepelka, where 2 shells fell apart one after the other, bursting among Chinese fanzas, and 3 Chinese were killed and several wounded. 4 of their shots fell into the pool literally next to one near Peresvet, another with Poltava and the third with Kazan, but, fortunately, none of them exploded. Fragments fell at the very "Sevastopol". Following a shell explosion on the Tiger's Tail following them, part of the large zinc shed of the landing command was destroyed, from which a stretcher was carried out after the sim and then reported on the phone that it had wounded two sailors with fragments. It was also said that one of our shots hit the Nissin, but it seems that it did not cause serious harm, since the cruiser continued firing, and then, when the bombardment was over, he left with the others, apparently not requiring outside help.

- Diary of Colonel S. A. Rashevsky: (Port Arthur, 1904) / Comp. A. A. Bregman; S. A. Zalessky; D.K. Zherebov; Ed. and with the foreword. A. L. Sidorova. - M.-L.: Publishing House of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR, 1954.- 342 p. (Historical archive. Issue X).

During the cross-sectional firing, Japanese ships that were outside the firing range opposite the entrance to Port Arthur harbor corrected the fire by wireless telegraph . Acting Commander of the Fleet Rear Admiral P. P. Ukhtomsky ordered the radio stations of the battleship Pobeda and Zolotaya Gora to interrupt Japanese telegrams with their higher power signals ^[12] , which significantly interfered with the accuracy of the Nissin and Kasuga firing ^[10] . It is this case that is considered the first successful use of electronic warfare and is marked as the day of the specialist of the EW troops of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation ^[13] .

Between Two Wars

World War I

Service Termination

• 1st rank captain Takeuchi Heitaro - from February 16, 1904 to December 12, 1905 ^[14] .
• Captain 1st rank Fukui Masayoshi (Fukui, Masayoshi) - from December 12, 1905 to May 17, 1907 ^[15] .
• 1st rank captain Kamaya Tadamichi (Kamaya, Tadamichi) - from October 22, 1906 to August 5, 1907 ^[16] .
• Captain 1st rank Nishiyama Yasukichi (Nishiyama, Yasukichi) - from August 5, 1907 to April 7, 1908 ^[17] .
• 1st rank captain Usida Juzaburo (Ushida, Juzaburo) - from April 7, 1908 to November 20, 1908 ^[18] .
• 1st rank captain Yamada Naranosuke (Yamada, Naranosuke) - from December 10, 1908 to December 1, 1909 ^[19] .

• Conway's All The World's Fighting Ships 1860-1905 / E. Gardiner, R. Chesnau, EM Kolesnik. - London: Conway Maritime Press, 1979.- 448 p. - ISBN 0-85177-133-5 .
• Frade T. Jane. The Imperial Japanese navy. - London: W. Thacker and Co, 1904. - 410 p.
• Kofman V.L. Armored cruisers of the Garibaldi type (Russian) // Marine Collection: Journal. - Moscow: Model Designer, 1995. - No. 3 . - S. 32 .
• Nenakhov Yu. Yu. Encyclopedia of the Cruisers 1860-1910. - M .: AST, 2006 .-- 464 p. - ISBN 5-17-030194-4 .
• Suliga S.V. Ships of the Russo-Japanese War of 1904-1905 Japanese fleet. - Askold, 1993 .-- 51 p. - ISBN 5-85259-077-0 .
• Russo-Japanese War: The Siege and Fall of Port Arthur. - M .: LLC "Publishing house AST", 2002. - 733 p. - ISBN 5-17-024932-2 .
• Russo-Japanese War: From Vladivostok to Tsushima. - M .: LLC "Publishing house AST", 2002. - 605 p. - ISBN 5-17-025036-3 .