Japanese battleship Yashima

300px Japanese battleship Yashima in 1897
Career (Japan)	50px
Name:	Yashima
Ordered:	1894
Builder:	Armstrong Whitworth, UK
Yard number:	625
Laid down:	1894-12-28
Launched:	1896-02-28
Commissioned:	1897-09-09
In service:	1897
Out of service:	1904-05-15
Struck:	1905-06-15
Fate:	Mined 1904-05-15
General characteristics
Displacement:	12,320 tons
Length:	412 feet (126 m)
Beam:	73.3 feet (22 m)
Draught:	26.6 feet (8 m)
Propulsion:	Two Shaft Reciprocating VTE steam engine; 11 boilers, 13,500 shp (10,070 kW)
Speed:	18.25 knots (33.8 km/h)
Range:	1117 tons coal; 7,000 nautical miles (13,000 km) at 10 knots (19 km/h)
Complement:	741
Armament:	4 × 12-inch (305 mm) guns 10 × 6-inch (152 mm) QF guns 20 x 3 pounder guns 4 x 2.5 pounder guns 5 ×18-inch (457 mm) torpedoes
Armour:	457 mm main belt armor 63 mm deck armor; 152 mm turret, casement 356 mm conning tower

Yashima (八島, Yashima) was the second ship of the Fuji-class of early pre-dreadnought battleships of the Imperial Japanese Navy, and one of the six battleships (Shikishima, Fuji, Hatsuse, Yashima, Asahi, and Mikasa) that formed the main Japanese battle line in the Russo-Japanese War of 1904–1905. The Yashima had a very brief career. The name "Yashima" is from an ancient poetic name for "Japan".

History

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

To help sell their products before the days of computer graphics, manufacturers would commission highly detailed scale models of the proposed ship. The model of Yashima still survives and is currently on display at the RHS (Royal Hospital School) Holbrook in Suffolk, England. The plaque reads 'Japanese Armourclad "Yashima" 19 3/4 knots speed, built by Sir W.G. Armstrong Whitworth & Co Ld. Elswick Shipyard 1897 Newcastle on Tyne. Designed by Sir Philip Watts, KCB, FRS etc.

Yashima arrived at Yokosuka on 1897-11-30, too late for combat in the First Sino-Japanese War, and was designated as a 1st class battleship.

After the start of the Russo-Japanese War, Yashima was assigned to the 1st Squadron, 1st Division of the IJN 1st Fleet, under Rear Admiral Nashiba Tokioki. On 1904-05-14 Admiral Nashiba put to sea with the battleships Hatsuse (flag), Shikishima, and Yashima, cruiser Kasagi, and dispatch-vessel Tatsuta to relieve the Japanese blockading force off Port Arthur. On the morning of 1904-05-15, the squadron proceeded to patrol to east by north across the mouth of the port. This course brought the Japanese fleet into a minefield previously laid by the Russian minelayer Amur. Both Hatsuse and Yashima struck two mines each and were lost in one of the greatest Japanese naval disasters during the Russo-Japanese War.

Few hours after being mined Yashima sank while under tow to Korea for repairs. Her loss was concealed by the Japanese for the duration of the war as not to discourage its public with news of the loss of the irreplaceable battleship and nearly 200 of its crew with it.

250px

Yashima sinking in a Russian minefield; May 15, 1904

References

• Andidora, Ronald (2000). Iron Admirals: Naval Leadership in the Twentieth Century. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press. ISBN 0313312664. 
• Brown, D. K. (1999). Warrior to Dreadnought, Warship Development 1860–1906. Annapolis, Md.: Naval Institute Press. ISBN 1840675292. 
• Evans, David (1979). Kaigun: Strategy, Tactics, and Technology in the Imperial Japanese Navy, 1887–1941. Annapolis, Md.: Naval Institute Press. ISBN 0870211927. 
• Howarth, Stephen (1983). The Fighting Ships of the Rising Sun: The Drama of the Imperial Japanese Navy, 1895–1945. New York: Atheneum. ISBN 0689114028. 
• Jane, Fred T. (1904). The Imperial Japanese Navy. London, Calcutta: Thacker, Spink & Co. OCLC 1261639. 
• Jentsura, Hansgeorg (1976). Warships of the Imperial Japanese Navy, 1869–1945. Annapolis, Md.: Naval Institute Press. ISBN 087021893X. 
• Schencking, J. Charles (2005). Making Waves: Politics, Propaganda, and the Emergence of the Imperial Japanese Navy, 1868–1922. Stanford, Calif.: Stanford University Press. ISBN 0804749779. 

External links

• Materials of the Imperial Japanese Navy
• "LOSS OF YASHIMA ADMITTED.; Japan Announces That Battleship Struck a Mine a Year Ago." The New York Times, June 2, 1905.