Japanese battleship Fuji

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Career

Ordered:	FY 1896 to Thames Iron Works, Great Britain
Laid down:	August 1 1894
Launched:	March 31 1896
Commissioned:	August 17 1897
Fate:	Scrapped 1948
Struck:	November 11 1945
General Characteristics
Displacement:	12,533 tons
Length:	412 feet
Beam:	73.3 feet
Draught:	26.6 feet
Propulsion:	Two Shaft Reciprocating Vertical Triple Expansion (VTE) Engines; 2 shafts, 13,500 shp
Fuel:	Coal, 1200 tons
Speed:	18.5 knots (13 knots after 1914 refit)
Complement:	741
Armament:	4-12 inch gun (2x2), 10-6 inch gun (1x14), 16-12 pdr guns, 4-2.5 pdr guns(1x4), 5-torpedo tubes
Armor:	belt 18 inch, deck 2.5 inch, barbette 14 inch, casement 6 inch, conning tower 14 inch

IJN Fuji (富士) was the lead ship of the Fuji-class of early pre-dreadnought battleships of the Imperial Japanese Navy, and one of the six battleships (Shikishima, Yashima, Hatsuse, Fuji, Asahi, and Mikasa) that formed the main Japanese battle line in the Russo-Japanese War of 1904-1905. It was named after Japan's famed Mount Fuji.

[edit] History

Fuji and her sister-ship Yashima were the first two battleships built for Japan. As the Japanese were still incapable of building modern steel warships themselves, the Fuji was ordered from Thames Iron Works, Great Britain in 1894.

The Fuji was delivered in 1897, and helped form the core of the Japanese fleet during the Russo-Japanese War of 1904-1905. She was hit twice during the bombardment of Port Arthur on February 9, 1904, and she again bombarded that port on March 22. On August 10, 1904, she fought at the Battle of the Yellow Sea. In the Battle of Tsushima on May 27, 1905 suffered 11 hits, but in return scored the fatal hit on the Russian battleship Borodino, causing that ship to explode with the loss of all but one of her crew of 830.

After the Russo-Japanese War ended, the Fuji was refitted by having her fighting tops removed and new boilers installed. In 1910, and her British-made guns were replaced by Japanese-made ones, and she was derated to a first-class coast defense ship, and assigned to training duties for gunners and seamen. Far too obsolete for combat service in WWI, she spent the entire war at Kure as a training vessel.

In 1922, the Fuji was disarmed and stricken, but retained as accommodation ship. Her propellers, main turrets, and all guns were removed, large wooden deckhouses were added to the superstructure, and flat drill platforms covered her main deck. She remained a floating barracks and training center at Yokosuka, for over two decades.

From 1944, the old ship was also used as a development center and observation post to test the effectiveness of various camouflage schemes on 1-meter long models of Japanese aircraft carriers. She suffered from American air raids, but remained afloat, and was broken up for scrap in Yokosuka in 1948.