the following morning, the squadron encountered a minefield laid by the Russian minelayer Amur. Hatsuse struck one mine that disabled her steering at 10:50 and Yashima struck another when moving to assist Hatsuse. At 12:33, the latter drifted onto another mine that detonated one of her magazines, killing 496 of her crew and sinking the ship. Yashimas flooding could not be controlled and she foundered about eight hours later, after her crew had abandoned ship. Shikishima was not hit during the Battle of the Yellow Sea in August, although a shell exploded prematurely in one of her 12-inch guns, disabling it. During the Battle of Tsushima in May 1905, she was second in the line of battle of the First Division, following Tōgō's flagship and was one of the main targets of the Russian battleships. Shikishima was hit nine times during the battle; the most serious of which penetrated beneath a six-inch gun, killing or wounding the entire gun crew. She also had another 12-inch shell prematurely detonate in one of her forward guns, wrecking it completely. In turn, Mikasa and Shikishima concentrated their fire on the battleship which eventually sank after two large-calibre shells blew large holes in her bow at the waterline. These caused massive flooding that sank her, the first modern battleship sunk entirely by gunfire. Shikishima fired a total of 74 twelve-inch, 1,395 six-inch and 1,272 twelve-pounder shells during the battle. She also fired a torpedo at the badly damaged armed merchant cruiser Ural that sank the Russian ship. Later career During World War I, Shikishima was based at Sasebo during 1914–1915 and was then assigned to the Second and Fifth Squadrons, in that order, for the rest of the war. After the Washington Naval Treaty was signed, she was reclassified as a first-class coast defence ship on 1 September 1921, and was used to train submarine crews until the ship was reclassified as a transport on 1 April 1923. Shikishima continued to be used as a training hulk for the Sasebo Naval Barracks until she was scrapped in January 1948 at the Sasebo Naval Arsenal. Notes Footnotes References External links Global Security site Shikishima-class battleships Ships built in Leamouth 1898 ships Naval ships of Japan Russo-Japanese War battleships of Japan zh:敷島型戰艦