Shikishima

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After the Sino-Japanese War, Japan sought to rapidly build up its battlefleet by ordering new battleships from overseas. Shikishima was one of two ships built in the United Kingdom, and were basically improved 'Majestic' type battleships designed by Mackrow. Other than the third funnel, Shikishima could have passed for a British vessel. Fast, powerfully armed, and well protected, they were fine vessels. Shikishima served in the Russo-Japanese War, being damaged in the bombardment of Port Arthor, fighting at the Battle of the Yellow Sea, and taking 10 hits at the battle of Tsushima.

Little altered from her original appearance, other then the removal of the platforms on the masts, Shikishima served in Japanese Home Waters during WWI. Refitted in 1919, she was rated as a 'first class coast defense ship' in 1921. Her career as a fighting ship ended that same year, and she was relegated to seaman's training duties. Disarmed, she was used as a training school for submarine crews after 1923. She was then designated as a transport, and then officially stricken from the Navy List, but remained in service at Sasebo as a damage control hulk, accommodation ship, and training center. She was still afloat after WWII, somehow spared from US air attacks, but had not moved under her own power for nearly two decades. She was broken up for scrap in 1948.

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