Mikasa (三笠) is a pre-Dreadnought battleship, formerly of the Imperial Japanese Navy, launched in 1900. It served as the flagship of Admiral Togo Heihachiro during the Battle of Tsushima in 1905, during the Russo-Japanese War. Currently it is preserved as a museum ship at Yokosuka.

Following the 1894–1895 Sino-Japanese conflict, and the forced return of the Liaotung peninsula to China under Russian pressure, Japan began to build up its military strength in preparation for further confrontations. In particular, Japan promulgated a ten-year naval build-up program, with the construction of six battleships and six armored cruisers at its core.

One of these battleships, Mikasa, was ordered from the Vickers shipyard in Barrow-in-Furness,United Kingdom at the end of 1898, for delivery to Japan in 1902. She took three years to complete, at the great cost of £880,000 (8.8 million yen).

That same year Japan also secured diplomatic and strategic support, by concluding the 1902 Anglo-Japanese Alliance with the world's first naval power. The UK shared Japan's wish to contain Russian expansionism in the far east, especially to protect its Chinese interests.

At the time of her delivery, Mikasa was a state-of-the-art pre-dreadnought battleship, achieving an unprecedented combination of firepower and protective strength. She was adapted from the Royal Navy's latest Majestic class design, with increased displacement (15,140 tonnes against 14,900), improved speed (18 knots against 17), slightly stronger armament (two more 6-inch guns), and much stronger armour: she kept the same armour thicknesses but used high performance Krupp armour, around 50% stronger compared to the Harvey armour used by the Majestic class.

Her main guns, grouped in armoured turrets in a central position, allowed for the rest of the ship to be evenly protected with the heavy Krupp protective steel plates. Thanks to this design, Mikasa was able to withstand a large number of direct hits: she received around 20 hits during the battle of the Yellow Sea on 10 August 1904, and around 30 hits during the battle of Tsushima, with only limited damage. The firepower and the longer range of the guns of Mikasa were also fully exploited by highly trained and effective Japanese gunners.

At Tsushima, Mikasa led the combined Japanese fleet into what has been called "the most decisive naval battle in history". The Russian fleet was almost completely anihilated: out of 38 Russian ships, 21 were sunk, 7 captured, 6 disarmed, 4,545 Russian servicemen died and 6,106 were taken prisoner. On the other hand, the Japanese only lost 116 men and 3 torpedo boats.

The performance of the Japanese fleet was observed and analysed by Western powers, and played an important role in the definition of the next generation of battleships (the Dreadnoughts), since the conflict "confirmed the greater efficiency of heavy guns and the importance of long-range gunfire." ("The Battleship Dreadnought" Conway Marine).

Also, the defeat of the Russian fleet and the signature of the Treaty of Portsmouth (signed September 5), intensified unrest in Russia. In 1905 there were naval mutinies at Sevastopol, Vladivostok and Kronstadt, peaking in June, with the mutiny aboard the Battleship Potemkin. The Russian Revolution of 1905 culminated in October, when the Tsar was compelled to renounce his absolutist powers, and sign the October Manifesto.

Finally, the Japanese victory confirmed Japan's emergence as the pre-eminent power in east Asia, and a force to be reckoned with on the international scene.

Today Mikasa is the last remaining battleship of the pre-dreadnought era.

Ironically, after the peace treaty with Russia was signed on September 5, 1905, Mikasa suffered a fire while in harbour in south Japan, at Sasebo. A magazine exploded and she sank in 11 meters of water. She was later salvaged to continue service, but she soon became obsolete following the development of newer types of vessels, especially the Dreadnoughts.

She ran aground during the Japanese intervention in the Russian Civil War in 1921. She was subsequently holed and flooded during the Great Kanto Earthquake of September 1923.

Mikasa was decommissioned following the Washington Naval Treaty of 1921. In 1925 she was put on display in Yokosuka, Japan, as a memorial ship.

During World War II she was bombed during the various raids by the USAAF. Following Japan's defeat, the American occupation forces confiscated Mikasa and dismantled her guns, leaving her in very poor state. By 1948 however, she was reverted to the mayor of Yokosuka. A preservation movement resumed in 1958, to which the US participated through financial support and the direct involvement of Admiral Chester Nimitz. The restoration was completed on May 27, 1961, at a cost of 180 million yen.

Mikasa has been designated as one of the "Three Great Historical Warships of the World", together with Victory in Portsmouth, UK, and Constitution in Boston, USA.

[Source: Wikipedia]

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