Japanese battleship Shikishima

Shikishima in a 1905 postcard
History
Japan
Name	Shikishima
Namesake	An old poetic name of Japan
Ordered	1897
Builder	Thames Iron Works, Blackwall, London
Laid down	29 March 1897
Launched	1 November 1898
Completed	26 January 1900
Reclassified	1 April 1923 as transport and training ship
Stricken	1923
Fate	Scrapped, January 1948
General characteristics
Class and type	Shikishima-class pre-dreadnought battleship
Displacement	14,850 long tons (15,090 t) (normal)
Length	438 ft (133.5 m)
Beam	76 ft 6 in (23.3 m)
Draught	27 ft 3 in (8.3 m)
Installed power	25 Belleville boilers 14,500 ihp (10,800 kW)
Propulsion	2 shafts, 2 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
Armament	2 × twin 12 in (305 mm) guns 14 × single 6 in (152 mm) guns 20 × single 12-pdr 3 in (76 mm) guns 8 × single 3-pdr (1.9 in (47 mm)) guns 4 × single 2.5-pdr (1.9 in (47 mm)) Hotchkiss guns 4 × 18 in (450 mm) 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)

Shikishima (敷島) was the lead ship of her class of two pre-dreadnought battleships built for the Imperial Japanese Navy by British shipyards in the late 1890s. During the Russo-Japanese War of 1904–1905, the ship fought in the Battles of Port Arthur, the Yellow Sea and Tsushima and was lightly damaged in the latter action, although shells prematurely exploded in her main guns in the latter two engagements. Shikishima remained in home waters during World War I. She was reclassified as a coastal defence ship in 1921 and served as a training ship for the rest of her career. The ship was disarmed and hulked in 1923 and finally broken up for scrap in 1948.