Palau – 2008 – 10 Dollars – Yamato Biggest Battleship (PROOF)

Description

Year: 2008
Face value: 10 Dollars
Metal: Silver .999
Weight: 2 OZ
Diameter: 42×42 mm
Quality: Proof
Mintage: 1’000 pcs.

The Japanese battleship Yamato was built for its mission in the Pacific war and was in war service as from 1941. A superlative naval architecture: Length 263 m, width 38.7 m, load draft 11 m, displacement approx. 70.000 tons, crew 2780 men. With its 12 steam generators and 4 turbines the vessel reached an engine power of 165.000 horsepower for a journey up to 28 knots (51.8 km/h). Its steel jacket was 41 cm on the waterline and the constructional elements were between 20 and 60 cm!

The main arms of the battleship existed of 9 cannons with 46 cm calibres. This is the biggest artillery which has ever been built on a battleship. Its maximum range of 44 km lay beyond the visual ascertainability through earth curvature. This is why the Yamato carried the exceptionally large number of seven ship planes whose function was to take over the lead shooting of the artillery.

On April 7, 1945 the Yamato was attacked by about 400 US fighter planes on its way to defend the island Okinawa against the invasion of the US-fleet. After 13 torpedo and 8 heavy bomb hits the ammunition magazines exploded which tore the ship apart. It sank very quickly. There were only 269 survivors.

Since then the Yamato wreckage lies in 340 m depth at the bottom of the East China Sea about 275 km south west of Japan.