Tone was designed and built in Japan by the Sasebo Naval Arsenal, under the 1904 Emergency Fleet Replenishment Program to recover from losses to the Japanese navy in the Russo-Japanese War. As funding was limited, the Diet of Japan rejected budgeting for a sister ship or for subsequent construction of the same design.
Design
Plan and profile drawing of Tone
Although dimensionally similar to the British-built Yoshino, Tone had the raked funnels and clipper bow that would be a feature of future Japanese warships.[1]
Her powerplant consisted of two Mitsubishi vertical 4-cylinder triple-expansion steam engines with 16 Miyabara boilers, driving two screws. The boilers could run on a mixed-mode of coal sprayed with oil, and could drive the ship at a maximum speed of 23 knots (43 km/h; 26 mph), with an endurance of 7,400 nautical miles (13,700 km; 8,500 mi) at 10 knots (19 km/h; 12 mph). Tone was the last ship in the Imperial Japanese Navy to be powered by a reciprocating engine.[2]
Her main armament consisted of two Type 41 6-inch/45 caliber naval guns[3] behind gun shields, and secondary armament was twelve QF 4.7-inch guns and four QF 12-pounder 12 cwt naval guns. Tone also had three deck-mounted 457 mm (18 in) torpedo tubes.[2] However, the foremost of the 4.7-inch secondary guns were located in a cramped location with a very limited field of fire, and were soon removed and not replaced. After World War I, two 76 mm (3 in) anti-aircraft guns were added just aft of the first smokestack.
Tone utilized Krupp armor with a thickness of 38–76 mm (1.5–3.0 in) on the decks, and 102 mm (4.0 in) on the conning tower. The design did not incorporate any side armor.[2]
Soon after completion, from 1 April 1911 to 12 November 1911, Tone was sent as part of the official Japanese naval delegation to Great Britain, as part of the coronation celebration for King George V together with the cruiser Kurama.
Stricken from the navy list on 1 April 1931, and renamed Haikan No 2, the ship was expended as an aircraft target off Amami Ōshima on 30 April 1933.[6]
Notes
^Jentsura, Warships of the Imperial Japanese Navy; page 103
^ abcChesneau, Conway's All the World's Fighting Ships 1860–1905, page 236
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Howarth, Stephen (1983). The Fighting Ships of the Rising Sun: The Drama of the Imperial Japanese Navy, 1895-1945. Atheneum. ISBN0-689-11402-8.
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Watts, Anthony; Gordon, Brian (1971). The Imperial Japanese Navy. Macdonald. ISBN035603045-8.