Japanese aircraft carrier Taiyō
Taiyō at anchor | |
| History | |
|---|---|
| Empire of Japan | |
| Name | Kasuga Maru |
| Namesake | Kasuga Shrine |
| Operator | NYK Line) |
| Builder | Mitsubishi Shipbuilding & Engineering, Nagasaki |
| Laid down | 6 January 1940 |
| Launched | 19 September 1940 |
| Fate | Transferred to the Imperial Japanese Navy, 1941 |
| Namesake | Goshawk |
| Completed | 2 September 1941 |
| Acquired | 1941 |
| Renamed | Taiyō (大鷹) (31 August 1942) |
| Fate | Sunk by the submarine USS Rasher off Cape Bolinao, Luzon, 18 August 1944 18°10′N 120°22′E / 18.167°N 120.367°E |
| General characteristics | |
| Class & type | Taiyō-class escort carrier |
| Displacement |
|
| Length | 180.2 m (591 ft 4 in) (o/a) |
| Beam | 22.5 m (73 ft 10 in) |
| Draft | 7.7–8.0 m (25.4–26.25 ft) |
| Installed power |
|
| Propulsion |
|
| Speed | 21 knots (39 km/h; 24 mph) |
| Range | 6,500 or 8,500 nmi (12,000 or 15,700 km; 7,500 or 9,800 mi) at 18 knots (33 km/h; 21 mph) |
| Complement | 747 |
| Armament |
|
| Aircraft carried | 23 (+ 4 spares) |
The Japanese aircraft carrier Taiyō (大鷹; "Big Eagle") was the lead ship of her class of three escort carriers. She was originally built as Kasuga Maru (春日丸), the last of three Nitta Maru class of passenger-cargo liners built in Japan during the late 1930s for NYK Line. The ship was requisitioned by the Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN) in early 1941 and was converted into an escort carrier. Taiyō was initially used to transport aircraft to distant air bases and for training, but was later used to escort convoys of merchant ships between Japan and Singapore. The ship was torpedoed twice by American submarines with negligible to moderate damage before she was sunk in mid-1944 with heavy loss of life.