Japanese battleship Mikasa

Mikasa in Yokosuka, Japan, 2021
Class overview
Operators Imperial Japanese Navy
Preceded byAsahi
Succeeded byKatori class
Built1899–1900
In commission1902–1923
Completed1
Preserved1
History
Japan
NameMikasa
NamesakeMount Mikasa
Ordered26 September 1898
BuilderVickers, Sons & Maxim, Barrow-in-Furness
Laid down24 January 1899
Launched8 November 1900
Commissioned1 March 1902
Stricken20 September 1923
StatusPreserved as a memorial ship
General characteristics (as built)
TypePre-dreadnought battleship
Displacement15,140 long tons (15,380 t) (normal)
Length432 ft (131.7 m)
Beam76 ft (23.2 m)
Draught27 ft (8.2 m)
Installed power
Propulsion2 shafts, 2 vertical triple-expansion steam engines
Speed18 knots (33 km/h; 21 mph)
Range9,000 nmi (17,000 km; 10,000 mi) at 10 knots (19 km/h; 12 mph)
Complement836
Armament
Armour

Mikasa (三笠) is a pre-dreadnought battleship built for the Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN) in the late 1890s, and is the only ship of her class. Named after Mount Mikasa in Nara, Japan, the ship served as the flagship of Vice 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 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 has been partially restored, and is now a museum ship located at Mikasa Park in Yokosuka. Mikasa is the last remaining example of a pre-dreadnought battleship anywhere in the world and also the last example of a British-built battleship still existing.[a][1]


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  1. ^ Hammick, Murray (25 November 2018). "The one remaining British-built battleship left". The Military Times. Archived from the original on 26 January 2022. Retrieved 25 January 2021.