Shikishima-class battleship

Shikishima in 1905
Class overview
Operators:	Imperial Japanese Navy
Preceded by:	Fuji class
Succeeded by:	Asahi
Built:	1898–1901
In commission:	1900–1922
Completed:	2
Lost:	1
Scrapped:	1
General characteristics
Type:	Pre-dreadnought battleship
Displacement:	14,850–15,000 long tons (15,088–15,241 t) (normal)
Length:	438 ft (133.5 m)
Beam:	75.5–76.75 ft (23.0–23.4 m)
Draught:	27–27.25 ft (8.2–8.3 m)
Installed power:	14,500 shp (10,800 kW) 25 Belleville boilers
Propulsion:	2 shafts, 2 vertical triple-expansion steam engines
Speed:	18 knots (33 km/h; 21 mph)
Range:	5,000 nmi (9,300 km; 5,800 mi) at 10 knots (19 km/h; 12 mph)
Complement:	741 849 as flagship
Armament:	2 × 2 – 12 in (305 mm) guns 14 × 1 – 6 in (152 mm) QF guns 20 × 1 – 12-pounder guns 8 × 1 – 3-pounder guns 4 × 1 – 2.5-pounder Hotchkiss guns 4 × 18-inch torpedo tubes
Armour:	Harvey armour Belt: 4–9 in (102–229 mm) Deck: 2.5–4 in (64–102 mm) Gun turrets: 10 in (254 mm) Conning tower: 3–14 in (76–356 mm) Bulkheads: 6–14 in (152–356 mm)

The Shikishima class (敷島型戦艦, Shikishima-gata senkan^?) was a two-ship class of pre-dreadnought battleships built for the Imperial Japanese Navy in the late 1890s. As Japan lacked the industrial capacity to build such warships herself, they were designed and built in the UK. The ships participated in the Russo-Japanese War of 1904–1905, including the Battle of Port Arthur on the second day of the war. Hatsuse sank after striking two mines off Port Arthur in May 1904. Shikishima fought in the Battles of the Yellow Sea and Tsushima and was lightly damaged in the latter action, although shells prematurely exploded in the barrels of her main guns in each battle. The ship was reclassified as a coast defence ship in 1921 and served as a training ship for the rest of her career. She was disarmed and hulked in 1923 and finally broken up for scrap in 1948.

Combat experience in the First Sino-Japanese War convinced the Imperial Japanese Navy of weaknesses in the Jeune Ecole naval philosophy, and Japan embarked on a program to modernize and expand its fleet. As with the earlier Fuji-class battleships, Japan lacked the technology and capability to construct its own battleships, and turned again to the United Kingdom. They were ordered as part of the Ten Year Naval Expansion Programme and paid for from the £30,000,000 indemnity paid by China after losing the Sino-Japanese War of 1894–1895.

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