trials from . She carried up to of coal and could steam for at a speed of . The main armament for all of the "Six-Six Fleet" armored cruisers was four eight-inch guns in twin-gun turrets fore and aft of the superstructure. The secondary armament consisted of 14 Elswick Ordnance Company "Pattern Z" quick-firing (QF), guns. Only four of these guns were not mounted in armored casemates on the main and upper decks and their mounts on the upper deck were protected by gun shields. Asama was also equipped with a dozen QF 12-pounder 12-cwt guns and eight QF 2.5-pounder Yamauchi guns as close-range defense against torpedo boats. The ship was equipped with five torpedo tubes, one above water in the bow and four submerged tubes, two on each broadside. All of the "Six-Six Fleet" armored cruisers used the same armor scheme with some minor differences, of which the most important was that the two Asama-class ships used less tough Harvey armor. The waterline belt ran the full length of the ship and its thickness varied from amidships to at the bow and stern. It had a height of , of which was normally underwater. The upper strake of belt armor was thick and extended from the upper edge of the waterline belt to the main deck. It extended from the forward to the rear barbette. The Asama class had oblique 127 mm armored bulkheads that closed off the ends of the central armored citadel. The barbettes, gun turrets and the front of the casemates were all 152-millimeters thick while the sides and rear of the casemates were protected by of armor. The deck was 51-millimeters thick and the armor protecting the conning tower was in thickness. Construction and career The contract for Asama, named after Mount Asama, was signed on 6 July 1897 with Armstrong Whitworth. The ship had already been laid down at their shipyard in Elswick on 20 October 1896 as a speculative venture. She was launched on 21 March 1898 and completed on 18 March 1899. Asama left for Japan the next day and arrived in Yokosuka on 17 May. On 30 April 1900, the ship was used by Emperor Meiji during a fleet review off at Kobe. In July 1902, Asama was the flagship of Rear-Admiral G. Ijuin as part of the delegation dispatched to the United Kingdom for the Coronation Review for King Edward