Japanese battleship Mikasa

Mikasa in Yokosuka, Japan, 2010
Class overview
Operators:	Imperial Japanese Navy
Preceded by:	Asahi
Succeeded by:	Katori class
Built:	1899–1902
In commission:	1902–1923
Completed:	1
Preserved:	1
History
Name:	Mikasa
Namesake:	Mount Mikasa
Ordered:	26 September 1898
Builder:	Vickers, Barrow-in-Furness
Laid down:	24 January 1899
Launched:	8 November 1900
Commissioned:	1 March 1902
Struck:	20 September 1923
Status:	Preserved as a memorial ship
General characteristics (as built)
Type:	Pre-dreadnought battleship
Displacement:	15,140 long tons (15,380 t) (normal)
Length:	432 ft (131.7 m)
Beam:	76 ft (23.2 m)
Draught:	27 ft (8.2 m)
Installed power:	15,000 shp (11,000 kW) 25 Belleville boilers
Propulsion:	2 shafts, 2 vertical triple-expansion steam engines
Speed:	18 knots (33 km/h; 21 mph)
Range:	9,000 nmi (17,000 km; 10,000 mi) at 10 knots (19 km/h; 12 mph)
Complement:	836
Armament:	2 × twin 12 in (305 mm) guns 14 × single 6 in (152 mm) QF guns 20 × single 12-pounder guns 6 × single 3-pounder guns 6 × single 2.5-pounder Hotchkiss guns 4 × 18-inch torpedo tubes
Armour:	Krupp cemented armour Belt: 4–9 in (102–229 mm) Deck: 2–3 in (51–76 mm) Gun turrets: 8–10 in (203–254 mm) Barbettes: 8–14 in (203–356 mm) Conning tower: 4–14 in (102–356 mm) Casemates: 2–6 in (51–152 mm)

Mikasa (三笠^?) is a pre-dreadnought battleship built for the Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN) in the late 1890s, and was the only ship of her class. Named after Mount Mikasa in Nara, Japan, the ship served as the flagship of Admiral Tōgō Heihachirō throughout the Russo-Japanese War of 1904–1905, including the Battle of Port Arthur on the second day of the war and the Battles of the Yellow Sea and Tsushima. Days after the end of the Russo-Japanese War, Mikasa's magazine accidentally exploded and sank the ship. She was salvaged and her repairs took over two years to complete. Afterwards, the ship served as a coast-defence ship during World War I and supported Japanese forces during the Siberian Intervention in the Russian Civil War.

After 1922, Mikasa was decommissioned in accordance with the Washington Naval Treaty and preserved as a museum ship at Yokosuka. She was badly neglected during the post-World War II Occupation of Japan and required extensive refurbishing in the late 1950s. She is now fully restored as a museum ship and can be visited at Mikasa Park in Yokosuka.