Service Record
Shortly after commissioning at Kure Naval Arsenal in 1907, and with Admiral Goro Ijuin on board, Tsukuba was sent on a voyage to the United States to attend the Jamestown Exposition of 1907, the tricentennial celebrations marking the founding of the Jamestown Colony. It then traveled on to Portsmouth, England and returned to Japan via the Indian Ocean, thus circumnavigating the globe.
After its return to Japan, Tsukuba was assigned to the escort fleet during the visit of the United States Navy’s Great White Fleet through Japanese waters on its around-the-world voyage in October 1908.
Tsukuba participated in numerous missions in World War I in the South Pacific and Indian Ocean as part of Japan's contribution to the Allied war effort under the Anglo-Japanese Alliance, protecting the sea lanes from German raiders. Tsukuba was also at the Battle of Tsingtao.
On December 4, 1915, Tsukuba was in an Imperial Navy Fleet Review off of Yokohama, attended by Emperor Taishō in which 124 ships participated; a similar Navy Fleet Review was held again off Yokohama on October 25, 1916.
On January 14, 1917, Tsukuba exploded while in port at Yokosuka, and sank with a loss of 305 men. The cause was later attributed to a fire in its ammunition magazine.
Afterwards, the hulk was raised, as used as a target for naval aviation training. It was formally removed from the navy list on September 1, 1917 and broken up in 1918.
Read more about this topic: Japanese Cruiser Tsukuba
Famous quotes related to service record:
“We too are ashes as we watch and hear
The psalm, the sorrow, and the simple praise
Of one whose promised thoughts of other days
Were such as ours, but now wholly destroyed,
The service record of his youth wiped out,
His dream dispersed by shot, must disappear.”
—Karl Shapiro (b. 1913)