turrets. The deck armor was thick and the conning tower was protected by 6 to of armor. Construction and career Kawachi was laid down on Slipway No. 2 at Yokosuka Naval Arsenal on 1 April 1909. Following the Japanese ship-naming conventions, Kawachi was named after Kawachi Province, now a part of Osaka prefecture. She was launched on 15 October 1910 in a ceremony attended by Emperor Meiji and completed on 31 March 1912 at a cost of ¥11,130,000. The following day she was assigned to the First Fleet and became the flagship of Vice Admiral Dewa Shigetō. On 3 October, the ship was present when the battleship had a fire that was started by a sailor in the forward magazine. It was flooded before the fire could get out of control and Kawachi sent over fire-fighting teams to assist Mikasas crew in case they were needed. The ship cruised in the South China Sea in February 1913 and then off the north China coast in April; she became a private ship on 1 December. When World War I began in August 1914, Kawachi was at Yokosuka. Together with her sister ship, , she bombarded German fortifications in October–November 1914 during the final stage of the Battle of Tsingtao. The ship was present in Yokosuka on 8 January 1915 when the victorious Second Squadron returned to Japan after the Battle of Tsingtao. She was assigned to the First Squadron of the First Fleet on 15 August. On 1 December 1916 she began a lengthy refit. Under the command of the newly appointed Captain Masaki Yoshimoto, Kawachi was assigned to the Second Squadron of the First Fleet on 1 December 1917 and became the flagship of Rear Admiral . She briefly cruised off the coast of China in February–March 1918. In May the ship exchanged two of her three-inch casemate guns for three-inch anti-aircraft guns. On the evening of 11 July, Kawachi entered Tokuyama Bay, the following morning torpedo target practice was cancelled due to rough seas and the battleship remained at anchor for the rest of the day. That afternoon a loud explosion was heard at 15:51 in the vicinity of the starboard forward main-gun turret and large quantities of smoke erupted from the turret and between the first and second funnels. Two minutes later, she began to list to starboard and capsized at 15:55, only four minutes after the explosion.