Fuji - class battleship The was a two - ship class of pre - dreadnought battleship s built for the Imperial Japanese Navy in the mid - 1890s . They were the first battleships in the Japanese Navy and had to be built in the UK because Japan lacked the industrial facilities to build them itself . The ships participated in the Russo - Japanese War of 1904 – 1905 , including the Battle of Port Arthur on the second day of the war . " Yashima " struck a mine off Port Arthur in May 1904 and capsized while under tow a number of hours later . " Fuji " fought in the Battles of the Yellow Sea and Tsushima and was lightly damaged in the latter action . The ship was reclassified as a coastal defence ship in 1910 and served as a training ship for the rest of her career . She was hulked in 1922 and finally broken up for scrap in 1948 . Background . In the late 19th century , the strategy of the Imperial Japanese Navy was based on the radical Jeune Ecole naval philosophy , which emphasized torpedo boat s and commerce raiding to offset expensive heavily armoured ships , as promoted by French military advisor and naval architect Emile Bertin . However , not all leaders of the Japanese Navy were convinced in the validity of this theory , and concerns were raised over the acquisition of a pair of German - built battleships by the Chinese Beiyang Fleet . As Japan lacked the technology and capability to construct its own battleships , the navy turned to the United Kingdom and placed an order for two of the most modern vessels available in 1894 . Obtaining funding for the battleships was a struggle for the Japanese government . The initial request had been submitted in the budget of Prime Minister Matsukata Masayoshi in 1891 , but had been deleted by the Diet of Japan due to political infighting . Matsukata submitted the request again , and when again denied , was forced to dissolve his cabinet . His successor , Prime Minister Itō Hirobumi , attempted to pass the funding measure in 1892 , but again failed . This led to an extraordinary personal intervention by Emperor Meiji in a statement dated 10 February 1893 , wherein the emperor offered to fund the construction of the two battleships himself , through an annual reduction in the expenses of the Imperial Household , and asked that all government officials likewise agree to a reduction in their salaries by ten percent . The funding measure for the " Fuji " - class battleships was passed by the Japanese Diet soon thereafter . Design and description . The design of the " Fuji " class was a modified version of the " Royal Sovereign " - class battleship s of the Royal Navy . The " Fuji " class improved on the original " Royal Sovereign " design in a number of ways ; they were about faster , they incorporated improved Harvey armour , and their guns were protected by armored hoods ( gun turret s ) although these were smaller and lighter guns . The two ships of the class were almost identical even though they were designed by two different naval architect s , " Yashima " by Philip Watts and " Fuji " by G . C . Mackrow . The primary difference was that " Yashima " had her deadwood cut away aft and was fitted with a balanced rudder . This made her almost a knot faster than her sister and gave her a smaller turning circle at the cost of a weaker stern that required careful attention when drydocked lest it sag . The " Fuji " - class ships had an overall length of , a beam of , and a normal draught of . They displaced at normal load . The crew numbered about 650 officers and enlisted men . Propulsion . The ships were powered by two Humphrys Tennant vertical triple - expansion steam engines , each driving one propeller , using steam generated by ten cylindrical boilers . The engines were rated at , using forced draught , and designed to reach a top speed of although they proved to be faster during their sea trials . " Yashima " reached a top speed of while " Fuji " reached . The ships carried a maximum of of coal which allowed them to steam for at a speed of . Armament . The main battery of the " Fuji " class consisted of four Elswick Ordnance Company 40 - calibre Type 41 twelve - inch guns mounted in pear - shaped twin - gun barbette s fore and aft of the superstructure . These barbettes had armoured hoods to protect the guns and are usually called gun turrets . The mountings were virtually identical to those of those used in the first s ; stowed in the turret were 18 shells that allowed a limited amount of firing at any angle before the turret had to be traversed back to its loading position . The guns were loaded at a fixed angle of 1° and fired projectiles at a muzzle velocity of . Secondary armament of the " Fuji " class consisted of ten 40 - calibre Type 41 six - inch quick - firing guns , four on the main deck in casemate s and six guns on the upper deck protected by gun shield s . They fired shells at a muzzle velocity of . Protection against torpedo boat attacks consisted of fourteen three - pounder Hotchkiss guns and ten 47 - millimetre 2 . 5 - pounder Hotchkiss gun s . The three - pounder gun fired projectiles at a muzzle velocity of while the 2 . 5 - pounder fired shells at a muzzle velocity of . The ships were also equipped with five 18 - inch torpedo tube s , one in the bow above water and four submerged tubes , two on each broadside . In 1901 , both ships exchanged 16 of their 47 mm guns for an equal number of QF 12 - pounder 12 cwt guns . They fired , projectiles at a muzzle velocity of . This raised the number of crewmen to 652 and later to 741 . Armour . The armour scheme of the " Fuji " - class ships was similar to that used by the " Royal Sovereign " s except that the Japanese ships used superior Harvey armour with the same thicknesses . The waterline main belt was high , of which was above the waterline at normal load , and had a maximum thickness of . It reduced to then at the ends past the two barbette s ; above it was a strake of armor that ran between the barbettes . They were 14 inches thick outside the upper armor belt and reduced to behind the upper belt . Diagonal bulkheads connected the barbettes to the side armor ; the forward bulkhead was 14 inches thick while the rear bulkhead was thick . The armour of the casemates and the barbette hoods had a maximum thickness of six inches while the conning tower was protected by 14 inches of armour . The deck armour was thick and met the sides of the ship at the top of the main armour belt . Ships . Both ships had reached Japan by February 1898 . At the start of the Russo - Japanese War , " Fuji " and " Yashima " were assigned to the 1st Division of the 1st Fleet . They participated in the Battle of Port Arthur on 9 February 1904 when Admiral Tōgō Heihachirō led the 1st Fleet in an attack on the Russian ships of the Pacific Squadron anchored just outside of Port Arthur . Tōgō chose to attack the Russian coastal defences with his main armament and engage the Russian ships with his secondary guns . Splitting his fire proved to be a bad idea as the Japanese and six - inch guns inflicted very little damage on the Russian ships who concentrated all their fire on the Japanese ships with some effect . " Yashima " was not hit during the battle , but " Fuji " was hit twice , two men being killed and 10 wounded . On 10 March , the two ships blindly bombarded the harbour of Port Arthur from Pigeon Bay , on the southwest side of the Liaodong Peninsula , at a range of . They fired 154 twelve - inch shells , but did little damage . When they tried again on 22 March , they were attacked by Russian coast defence guns that had been transferred there and also from several Russian ships in Port Arthur using observers overlooking Pigeon Bay . The Japanese ships disengaged after " Fuji " was hit by a 12 - inch shell . " Fuji " and " Yashima " participated in the action of 13 April when Tōgō successfully lured out two battleships of the Pacific Squadron . When the Russians spotted the five battleships of the 1st Division , they turned back for Port Arthur and the battleship struck a minefield laid by the Japanese the previous night . It sank in less than two minutes after one of her magazine s exploded . Emboldened by his success , Tōgō resumed long - range bombardment missions , which prompted the Russians to lay more minefields . On 14 May 1904 , the battleships " Hatsuse " , , and " Yashima " , the protected cruiser " Kasagi " , and the dispatch boat put to sea to relieve the Japanese blockading force off Port Arthur . On the following morning , the squadron encountered a Russian minefield . " Hatsuse " struck one mine that disabled her steering and " Yashima " struck another when moving to assist " Hatsuse " . " Yashima " was towed away from the minefield , but she was still taking on water at an uncontrollable rate and the crew abandoned ship some five hours later . " Kasagi " took " Yashima " in tow , but the battleship ' s list continued to increase and she capsized about three hours later . During the Battle of the Yellow Sea in August 1904 , " Fuji " was not hit because the Russian ships concentrated their fire on the leading ship of the column , Tōgō ' s flagship , the battleship . During the Battle of Tsushima in May 1905 , she was hit a dozen times ; the most serious of which penetrated the hood of the rear barbette , ignited some exposed propellant charges and killed eight men and wounded nine . After the ammunition fire was put out , the left gun in the barbette resumed firing and apparently fired the " coup de grâce " that sank the battleship . On 23 October 1908 , " Fuji " hosted a dinner for the American Ambassador and the seniormost officers of the Great White Fleet during their circumnavigation of the world . In 1910 , her cylindrical boilers were replaced by Miyabara water - tube boilers and her main armament was replaced by Japanese - built guns . " Fuji " was reclassified as a first - class coast defence ship that same year , and was used for training duties in various capacities until disarmed in 1922 . Her hulk continued to be used as a floating barracks and training center at Yokosuka until 1945 . " Fuji " was damaged by American carrier aircraft during their 18 July 1945 attack on Yokosuka and capsized after the end of the war . The ship was scrapped in 1948 .