page_title: Russian cruiser Bayan (1900)
section_title: Japanese service
hierarchical_section_title: Russian cruiser Bayan (1900) / Construction and career / Japanese service
caption_attribution_description: English: Imperial Japanese cruiser Aso at Yokosuka, 1924. Русский: Японский минный заградитель Асо в Йокосуке, 1924 год.
context_page_description: The cruiser Bayan was the name ship of the four Bayan-class armoured cruisers built for the Imperial Russian Navy in the first decade of the 20th century. The ship had to be built in France because there was no available capacity in Russia. Bayan was assigned to the First Pacific Squadron after completion and based at Port Arthur from the end of 1903. She suffered minor damage during the Battle of Port Arthur at the beginning of the Russo-Japanese War of 1904–05 and supported destroyers as they patrolled outside the harbour. After bombarding Japanese positions in July 1904, the ship struck a mine and was out of action for the next several months. Bayan was sunk during the Siege of Port Arthur and was then salvaged by the Japanese after the war.
  Renamed Aso by the Imperial Japanese Navy she served as a training ship after extensive repairs. The ship was converted into a minelayer in 1917 and was decommissioned in 1930 to serve as a target ship. She was eventually sunk as a target in 1932.
context_section_description: After the war, Bayan's wreck was refloated on 24 June and towed to Dairen. There she was given temporary repairs and commissioned as Aso (named after a volcano in Kumamoto Prefecture) on 22 August. The next day she was towed to Maizuru, Japan for permanent repairs that lasted until July 1908. During this time, her boilers were replaced by Miyabara water-tube boilers and the majority of her armament was replaced with Japanese weapons.  Aso was armed with two original 8-inch 45 caliber guns,  Eight 6-inch 45 caliber Armstrong GG guns and sixteen 3-inch 40 caliber Armstrong N guns.
  On 7 September 1908, Aso,  together with the ex-Russian protected cruiser Soya, was assigned to the Training Squadron. On 14 March 1909 they began a training cruise that took their naval cadets to the West Coast of the United States and Canada and Hawaii before they returned to Yokosuka on 7 August. The next year the two ships made a cruise to Australia and Southeast Asia that last from 1 February to 3 July 1910. They were briefly relieved of their assignment to the Training Squadron on 25 September before rejoining it on 1 April 1911. The next training cruise lasted from 25 November 1911 to 28 March 1912 and took the cadets to the same destinations as the 1910 cruise. On 20 April 1912, Aso was transferred away from the Training Squadron and she was refitted in March 1913. During this refit, her eight-inch guns were replaced by a pair of six-inch guns 50 caliber guns and her torpedo tubes were removed. Aso and Soya were reassigned to the Training Squadron on 1 December 1914 and they made their last training cruise from 20 April to 23 August 1915, during which they visited Rabaul, New Guinea, and Fremantle, Australia.
  In 1917, Aso was converted into a minelayer, with a capacity of 420 mines, although she was not formally reclassified as such until 1 April 1920. Aso was stricken from the navy list on 1 April 1930 and renamed Hai Kan No. 4. She was sunk on 4 August 1932 by two submarine torpedoes after serving as a target for the heavy cruisers Myōkō and Nachi.
caption: Aso at Yokosuka, 1924
exif: {}