&sq=Qlik&lang=&file=File:Crucero_Esmeralda.jpg) Illustration of Esmeralda by Norman Davis for the Illustrated London News, 1891
| |
| History | |
|---|---|
 Chile | |
| Name | Esmeralda |
| Namesake | Chilean corvette Esmeralda[1] |
| Builder | Armstrong Mitchell, Elswick, United Kingdom |
| Yard number | 429 |
| Laid down | 5 April 1881 |
| Launched | 6 June 1883 |
| Completed | 15 July 1884 |
| Fate | Sold to Japan, 1894 |
 Empire of Japan | |
| Renamed | Izumi |
| Namesake | Izumi Province |
| Stricken | 1 April 1912 |
| Fate | Scrapped |
| General characteristics | |
| Type | Protected cruiser |
| Displacement | 2,950 long tons (2,997 t) |
| Length | 270 ft (82 m) (pp) |
| Beam | 42 ft (13 m) |
| Draft | 18 ft 6 in (6 m) |
| Installed power |
|
| Propulsion |
|
| Speed | 18.3 knots (33.9 km/h; 21.1 mph) |
| Complement | 296 |
| Armament |
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| Armor | Up to 1 in (25 mm) deck armor |
The Chilean cruiser Esmeralda was the first protected cruiser, a ship type named for the arched armored deck that protected vital areas like propulsion machinery and ammunition magazines.
The British shipbuilder Armstrong Mitchell constructed Esmeralda in the early 1880s, and the company's founder hailed the new ship as "the swiftest and most powerfully armed cruiser in the world".[2] After it entered service, the Chileans deployed Esmeralda to Panama in 1885 to show the flag during an emerging crisis in the region. The cruiser was later used to support the Congressionalist cause during the 1891 Chilean Civil War.
In 1894, Esmeralda was sold to Japan via Ecuador. Renamed Izumi,[A] the cruiser arrived too late to participate in the major naval battles of the 1894–1895 First Sino-Japanese War. It did see active service in the Russo-Japanese War ten years later. During that conflict, Izumi contributed to the decisive Japanese victory in the Battle of Tsushima by being one of the first ships to make visual contact with the opposing Russian fleet. After the war, the aging cruiser was decommissioned and stricken from the Imperial Japanese Navy in 1912.
- ^ Vio Valdivieso, Reseña historica, 96.
- ^ "The 'Esmeralda,'" Record (Valparaiso) 13, no. 183 (4 December 1884): 5.
- ^ Corbett, Maritime Operations, 465.
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