Japanese cruiser Naniwa

Naniwa in 1887
History
Empire of Japan
Name	Naniwa
Namesake	Naniwa-ku, Osaka
Ordered	1883 Fiscal Year
Builder	Armstrong Mitchell, South Tyneside
Laid down	27 March 1884
Launched	18 March 1885
Completed	15 February 1886
Stricken	5 August 1912
Fate	Wrecked, 26 June 1912, and sold for scrap, 26 June 1913
General characteristics (as built)
Class and type	Naniwa-class protected cruiser
Displacement	3,727 long tons (3,787 t)
Length	320 ft (97.5 m) (o/a)
Beam	46 ft (14 m)
Draught	20 ft 3 in (6.2 m) (full load)
Installed power	6 cylindrical boilers 7,500 ihp (5,593 kW)
Propulsion	2 shafts; 2 compound-expansion steam engines
Speed	18 knots (33 km/h; 21 mph)
Range	9,000 nmi (17,000 km; 10,000 mi) at 13 knots (24 km/h; 15 mph)
Complement	338
Armament	2 × single 26 cm (10.2 in) guns 6 × single 15 cm (5.9 in) guns 2 × single 6 pdr (57 mm (2.2 in)) guns 10 × quadruple 1 in (25 mm) guns 4 × 10-barrel 11 mm (0.43 in) guns 4 × 14 in (356 mm) torpedo tubes
Armour	Deck: 2–3 in (51–76 mm) Conning tower: 3 in (76 mm)

Naniwa (浪速) was the lead ship of her class of two protected cruisers built for the Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN) in the 1880s. As Japan lacked the industrial capacity to construct such vessels, the ship was designed and built in the United Kingdom. She participated in the First Sino-Japanese War of 1894–1895, playing a major role in the Battle of the Yalu River and lesser roles in the Battles of Port Arthur, Weihaiwei, the Pescadores Campaign and the invasion of Taiwan. Naniwa played a minor role in the Russo-Japanese War of 1904–1905 where she participated in the Battle of Chemulpo Bay, briefly helped to blockade Port Arthur at the beginning of the war, helped to sink a Russian armored cruiser during Battle off Ulsan and participated in the climactic defeat of the Imperial Russian Navy in the Battle of Tsushima.

After the war the ship was relegated to auxiliary roles and served as a survey and fisheries protection ship. Naniwa ran aground in the Kurile Islands north of the Japanese Home Islands in 1912 and could not be refloated before she was permanently wrecked a month later. Salvage rights to the wreck were sold a year later.