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Japanese cruiser Yūbari 1944

Japanese cruiser Yūbari: Yubari - 19-N-9957
Image: Unknown authorUnknown author, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Marker: recorded wreck position (Second World War).

Key facts

NameJapanese cruiser YūbariWikidata label
Year lost1944Wikidata P793 significant event, point-in-time qualifier
EraSecond World Warderived from year
Ship typelight cruiserWikidata P31 instance of
Cause of lossWar actionKeyword match in English Wikipedia lead sentence
Nationality / flagEmpire of JapanWikidata P8047 country of registry
OperatorImperial Japanese NavyWikidata P137 operator
ConflictWorld War II, Battle of Wake Island, Battle of RabaulWikidata P607 conflict
Sea / oceanPhilippine SeaNatural Earth marine areas (public domain), point-in-polygon
Position5.6333, 131.7500Wikidata P625 coordinate location (CC0)

About the wreck

Yūbari (夕張) was an experimental light cruiser built during the early 1920s for the Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN) to test new concepts for reducing the hull's weight while strengthening it. Designs pioneered on Yūbari had a major impact on future Japanese warship designs. Completed in 1923, the ship was generally used as the flagship for destroyer squadrons. She spent large portions of her peacetime career in reserve or used as a training ship. The ship participated in the First Shanghai Incident in 1932 and the Second Sino-Japanese War in 1937 before World War II. During the war Yūbari was the flagship of the forces involved in the Battle of Wake Island and was then sent south to support the invasion of Rabaul in early 1942. She played a small role during the Battle of the Coral Sea as the flagship of the forces intended to invade Port Moresby, New Guinea. At the beginning of the Solomon Islands campaign, Yūbari escorted the forces that made the initial landings on the island of Guadalcanal in July. A few days after the Americans attacked the island in August, the ship participated in the Battle of Savo Island where she crippled an American heavy cruiser and a destroyer.

Yūbari spent the rest of the year on escort duties and she played a small role in the Battle of New Georgia in mid-1943 as she bombarded Allied forces a few days after they landed on the island.

Diving & visiting

Incorporating the ship's armor plating into the hull reinforced the longitudinal strength of the hull, allowed Hiraga to eliminate the hull plates formerly installed behind the armor and the girders that traditionally provided the necessary longitudinal strength. This cut the weight of the Yūbari's displacement devoted to the hull to 31.2 percent from the roughly 38 percent of the Sendai class and permitted Hiraga to substantially increase the amount of Yūbari's armor protection. The ship was fitted with 349 tonnes (343 long tons) of armor, almost exactly double the weight in the Sendai-class ships.

Yūbari's armor was designed to protect against American 4-inch (102 mm) shells and the cruiser was equipped with an internal waterline 38-millimeter (1.5 in) New Vickers Non-Cemented (NVNC) armor…

Location

  • Recorded position: 5.6333, 131.7500 (Wikidata P625 coordinate location (CC0); may be approximate)
  • Sea / ocean: Philippine Sea

Wreck positions on this site are for interest only and are not for navigation. Many wrecks are war graves or legally protected: never disturb human remains or remove artefacts, and check local law before diving.

OpenStreetMap

Text adapted from the Wikipedia article Japanese cruiser Yūbari (revision 1380764800), licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Changes: excerpted from the article lead section and section(s) “Protection”; condensed by selecting paragraphs and trimming at sentence boundaries; citations and formatting removed. No text added. This excerpt is available under the same licence.

Wreck facts from Wikidata (CC0).

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Further reading