Fuji-class battleship

The Fuji class (富士型戦艦) was a two-ship class of pre-dreadnought battleships built for the Imperial Japanese Navy in the mid-1890s. They were the first battleships in the Japanese Navy and had to be built in the UK because Japan lacked the industrial facilities to build them itself. The ships participated in the Russo-Japanese War of 1904–1905, including the Battle of Port Arthur on the second day of the war. Yashima struck a mine off Port Arthur in May 1904 and capsized while under tow a number of hours later. Fuji fought in the Battles of the Yellow Sea and Tsushima and was lightly damaged in the latter action. The ship was reclassified as a coastal defence ship in 1910 and served as a training ship for the rest of her career. She was hulked in 1922 and finally broken up for scrap in 1948.

Background
In the late 19th century, the strategy of the Imperial Japanese Navy was based on the radical Jeune Ecole naval philosophy, which emphasized torpedo boats and commerce raiding to offset expensive heavily armoured ships, as promoted by French military advisor and naval architect Emile Bertin. However, not all leaders of the Japanese Navy were convinced in the validity of this theory, and concerns were raised over the acquisition of a pair of German-built battleships by the Chinese Beiyang Fleet. As Japan lacked the technology and capability to construct its own battleships, the navy turned to the United Kingdom and placed an order for two of the most modern vessels available in 1894.

Obtaining funding for the battleships was a struggle for the Japanese government. The initial request had been submitted in the budget of Prime Minister Matsukata Masayoshi in 1891, but had been deleted by the Diet of Japan due to political infighting. Matsukata submitted the request again, and when again denied, was forced to dissolve his cabinet. His successor, Prime Minister Itō Hirobumi, attempted to pass the funding measure in 1892, but again failed. This led to an extraordinary personal intervention by Emperor Meiji in a statement dated 10 February 1893, wherein the emperor offered to fund the construction of the two battleships himself, through an annual reduction in the expenses of the Imperial Household, and asked that all government officials likewise agree to a reduction in their salaries by ten percent. The funding measure for the Fuji-class battleships was passed by the Japanese Diet soon thereafter.

Design and description
The design of the Fuji class was a modified version of the Royal Sovereign-class battleships of the Royal Navy. The Fuji class improved on the original Royal Sovereign design in a number of ways; they were about 1 kn faster, they incorporated improved Harvey armour, and their guns were protected by armored hoods (gun turrets) although these were smaller and lighter guns. The two ships of the class were almost identical even though they were designed by two different naval architects, Yashima by Philip Watts and Fuji by G. C. Mackrow. The primary difference was that Yashima had her deadwood cut away aft and was fitted with a balanced rudder. This made her almost a knot faster than her sister and gave her a smaller turning circle at the cost of a weaker stern that required careful attention when drydocked lest it sag.

The Fuji-class ships had an overall length of 412 ft, a beam of 73.25 - 73.75 ft, and a normal draught of 26.25 - 26.5 ft. They displaced 12230 - 12533 LT at normal load. The crew numbered about 650 officers and enlisted men.

Propulsion
The ships were powered by two Humphrys Tennant vertical triple-expansion steam engines, each driving one propeller, using steam generated by ten cylindrical boilers. The engines were rated at 13500 ihp, using forced draught, and designed to reach a top speed of 18.25 kn although they proved to be faster during their sea trials. Yashima reached a top speed of 19.227 kn while Fuji reached 18.5 kn. The ships carried a maximum of 1620 t of coal which allowed them to steam for 4000 nmi at a speed of 10 kn.

Armament
The main battery of the Fuji class consisted of four Elswick Ordnance Company 40-calibre Type 41 twelve-inch guns mounted in pear-shaped twin-gun barbettes fore and aft of the superstructure. These barbettes had armoured hoods to protect the guns and are usually called gun turrets. The mountings were virtually identical to those of those used in the first s; stowed in the turret were 18 shells that allowed a limited amount of firing at any angle before the turret had to be traversed back to its loading position. The guns were loaded at a fixed angle of 1° and fired 850 lb projectiles at a muzzle velocity of 2400 ft/s.

Secondary armament of the Fuji class consisted of ten 40-calibre Type 41 six-inch quick-firing guns, four on the main deck in casemates and six guns on the upper deck protected by gun shields. They fired 100 lb shells at a muzzle velocity of 2300 ft/s. Protection against torpedo boat attacks consisted of fourteen 47 mm three-pounder Hotchkiss guns and ten 47-millimetre 2.5-pounder Hotchkiss guns. The three-pounder gun fired 3.1875 lb projectiles at a muzzle velocity of 1927 ft/s while the 2.5-pounder fired 2.496 lb shells at a muzzle velocity of 1420 ft/s. The ships were also equipped with five 18-inch torpedo tubes, one in the bow above water and four submerged tubes, two on each broadside.

In 1901, both ships exchanged 16 of their 47 mm guns for an equal number of QF 12-pounder 12 cwt guns. They fired 3 in, 12.5 lb projectiles at a muzzle velocity of 2359 ft/s. This raised the number of crewmen to 652 and later to 741.

Armour
The armour scheme of the Fuji-class ships was similar to that used by the Royal Sovereigns except that the Japanese ships used superior Harvey armour with the same thicknesses. The waterline main belt was 8 ft high, 3 ft of which was above the waterline at normal load, and had a maximum thickness of 18 in. It reduced to 16 in then 14 in at the ends past the two barbettes; above it was a 4 in strake of armor that ran between the barbettes. They were 14 inches thick outside the upper armor belt and reduced to 9 in behind the upper belt. Diagonal bulkheads connected the barbettes to the side armor; the forward bulkhead was 14 inches thick while the rear bulkhead was 12 in thick. The armour of the casemates and the barbette hoods had a maximum thickness of six inches while the conning tower was protected by 14 inches of armour. The deck armour was 2.5 in thick and met the sides of the ship at the top of the main armour belt.

Ships
Both ships had reached Japan by February 1898. At the start of the Russo-Japanese War, Fuji and Yashima were assigned to the 1st Division of the 1st Fleet. They participated in the Battle of Port Arthur on 9 February 1904 when Admiral Tōgō Heihachirō led the 1st Fleet in an attack on the Russian ships of the Pacific Squadron anchored just outside of Port Arthur. Tōgō chose to attack the Russian coastal defences with his main armament and engage the Russian ships with his secondary guns. Splitting his fire proved to be a bad idea as the Japanese 8 in and six-inch guns inflicted very little damage on the Russian ships who concentrated all their fire on the Japanese ships with some effect. Yashima was not hit during the battle, but Fuji was hit twice, two men being killed and 10 wounded.

On 10 March, the two ships blindly bombarded the harbour of Port Arthur from Pigeon Bay, on the southwest side of the Liaodong Peninsula, at a range of 9.5 km. They fired 154 twelve-inch shells, but did little damage. When they tried again on 22 March, they were attacked by Russian coast defence guns that had been transferred there and also from several Russian ships in Port Arthur using observers overlooking Pigeon Bay. The Japanese ships disengaged after Fuji was hit by a 12-inch shell.

Fuji and Yashima participated in the action of 13 April when Tōgō successfully lured out two battleships of the Pacific Squadron. When the Russians spotted the five battleships of the 1st Division, they turned back for Port Arthur and the battleship RUSSIAN BATTLESHIP Petropavlovsk struck a minefield laid by the Japanese the previous night. It sank in less than two minutes after one of her magazines exploded. Emboldened by his success, Tōgō resumed long-range bombardment missions, which prompted the Russians to lay more minefields.

On 14 May 1904, the battleships Hatsuse, JAPANESE BATTLESHIP Shikishima, and Yashima, the protected cruiser Kasagi, and the dispatch boat JAPANESE CRUISER Tatsuta put to sea to relieve the Japanese blockading force off Port Arthur. On the following morning, the squadron encountered a Russian minefield. Hatsuse struck one mine that disabled her steering and Yashima struck another when moving to assist Hatsuse. Yashima was towed away from the minefield, but she was still taking on water at an uncontrollable rate and the crew abandoned ship some five hours later. Kasagi took Yashima in tow, but the battleship's list continued to increase and she capsized about three hours later.

During the Battle of the Yellow Sea in August 1904, Fuji was not hit because the Russian ships concentrated their fire on the leading ship of the column, Tōgō's flagship, the battleship JAPANESE BATTLESHIP Mikasa. During the Battle of Tsushima in May 1905, she was hit a dozen times; the most serious of which penetrated the hood of the rear barbette, ignited some exposed propellant charges and killed eight men and wounded nine. After the ammunition fire was put out, the left gun in the barbette resumed firing and apparently fired the coup de grâce that sank the battleship RUSSIAN BATTLESHIP Borodino.

On 23 October 1908, Fuji hosted a dinner for the American Ambassador and the seniormost officers of the Great White Fleet during their circumnavigation of the world. In 1910, her cylindrical boilers were replaced by Miyabara water-tube boilers and her main armament was replaced by Japanese-built guns. Fuji was reclassified as a first-class coast defence ship that same year, and was used for training duties in various capacities until disarmed in 1922. Her hulk continued to be used as a floating barracks and training center at Yokosuka until 1945. Fuji was damaged by American carrier aircraft during their 18 July 1945 attack on Yokosuka and capsized after the end of the war. The ship was scrapped in 1948.