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. Description Shikishima and her sister ship were designed in England as improved versions of the Royal Navy's s. At this time, Japan lacked the technology and capability to construct its own battleships and they had to be built abroad. Shikishima was long overall and had a beam of . She had a full-load draught of and normally displaced and had a crew of 741 officers and enlisted men. The ship was powered by two Humphrys Tennant vertical triple-expansion steam engines using steam generated by 25 Belleville boilers. The engines were rated at , using forced draught, and were designed to reach a top speed of . Shikishima, however, reached a top speed of from on her sea trials. She carried enough coals to give her a range of at a speed of . The ship's main battery consisted of four guns mounted in two twin gun turrets, one forward and one aft. The secondary battery consisted of fourteen quick-firing guns, mounted in casemates on the sides of the hull and in the superstructure. A number of smaller guns were carried for defence against torpedo boats. These included 20 QF 12-pounder 12 cwt guns, six 3-pounder guns and six 47-millimetre 2.5-pounder Hotchkiss guns. She was also armed with four submerged 18-inch (450 mm) torpedo tubes. Shikishimas waterline armour belt consisted of Harvey armour and was thick. The armour of her gun turrets had a maximum thickness of and her deck ranged from in thickness. Operational career Shikishima, a poetical name for Japan, was one of four battleships ordered from overseas shipyards as part of the 10-year Naval Expansion Programme paid for from the £30,000,000 indemnity paid by China after losing the Sino-Japanese War of 1894–1895. The ship was laid