The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1908-03-07
QUICK wARsHIP BUILDING.
Japanese Complete a Cruiser In Stx
Months

me Japanese naval office is congrat-
uiating itself and the vernacuIar press
OF the empire is filled with praise over
.ne ieat recently accomplished of
ser lbuk from the government ship
building yards at Kure within six
months after the laying down of the
Keel NOT only do the Japanese believe
that they have beaten all previous rec
ords Tor speed in the construction OF
war vessels Of this class, but the Ibuki
also is unique because Of the fact that
from keel to fighting top she was built
entirely or materials forged and put to-
gether in japanese government yards.
The cruiser Ibuki, which was launch
ed by Prince Hfgashi Fushimi on No
vember Il, Is sister ship to the Kur-
suka yards. Her length is 450 feet,
beam 1855 feet, and displacement 14,600
tons. Fitted with the Miayabara boil
er, the invention of a JaDanese naval
officer, and the Curtis turbine, the
Ibuh is expected to develop %, 500 horse
power.
Both the Ibuki and her sister ship,
the Kurama, were designed by Japa-
nese naval engineers, as all of the bat
tleships recently built in Japan have
May, 1907, and Immediately a double
force of men was put at work. The
naval office denies that any special eff
fort was made to rush the cruiser
through to completion. but the Japa-
neSe papers say that the bureau was
not averse to a demonstration of inst
now quickly fighting machine could
De turned out by its artisans.
Every ounce of steel used in the con-
stTuctlon or the new cruiser came from
either the kure steel foundry, which is
a part of the great naval plant at that
port, or the Wakamatsu iron works an
| independent concern. subsidized by the
government Heretofore Japan had
been dependent in a greater or less
measure upon England and America
for armor plate, and until very recent
years for the heavy guns and turret
parts. but in the case of the Ibuli even
the armor plate ingots were stamped
into shape and the turret plates forged
at the Kure and Wakamatsu foundrfes.
Nobody but Japanese was admitted to
the yard where the Ibuki was built
during the course of her construction.
The speed in building the Ibuki was
almost equaled in the case of the FIRST
class battleship Aki, which was launch
cd from the yards of the Kure plant
some months ago, just eight months
after her keel was laid. The Aki is OF
$4,000 tons displacement. In her case
night and day forces of men were en-
p1oyed and the naval office strained ev-
cry nerve to get the big boat into the
water as soon as possible.
The ability of the japanese shipbuild-
ers is remarkable, when the fact is ta-
ken into consideration that prior to the
summer of 1904 nothing bigger than a
gunboat had been built at any of the
government yards. Under the spur of
war the naval office began to build its
own ships and to equip it's plants as
rapidly as possible for perfect inde-
pendence of American and English
manufactures.
Kure on the inland sea, and Yoko-
suka, in Toxic bay, are both inaccessi-
BILE pockets, because of the narrowness
of the entrance to the inland sea and
the channel leading into Toxic bay and
the tremendous fortif1cation works that
have been put at each avenue Were
the existing Japanese fleet to be swept
from the sea another could be built at
these two plants secure from the guns
Of an enemy, unless the island itself
was successfully invaded.--New York
Sun.