Fuji was an built for Japan at Thames Iron Works, Blackwall, England to a modified Royal Sovereign design. Laid down in 1894 and commissioned in 1897, she fought at the Battle of the Yellow Sea and the Battle of Tsushima during the Russo-Japanese War. Sister ship Yashima was built by Armstrong Whitworth at their Elswick Works. The names were such as might have been chosen if Japan never built another battleship: Fuji referring to the sacred mountain of Japan -- an instantly identifiable symbol of the country to Japanese as to gai-jin around the globe -- while Yashima is an ancient poetic name for Japan.
Salesmen for the shipyards in those days relied on detailed builders' models as sales tools. We are fortunate that one of these has survived for the Fuji class, and is extant today in Britain at the Royal Hospital School, Holbrook, England. In fact, the record of these ships' construction is unusually complete, reflected in the completeness of our Fuji class page. After completion in 1897, Fuji represented Japan at the Spithead Fleet Review marking Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee. Shortly afterwards, she departed for Japan via the Mediterranean and the Suez Canal.
As Japan's first modern battleships, Fuji enjoyed a warm reception on arrival in Japan later in 1897. The following year during her sea trials off Kobe, she played host to a most august personage: the Emperor Meiji himself graced her decks as she pounded out 19¾ knots under forced draft and fired her main guns, to the immense satisfaction of all. After the humiliation of the Tripartite Intervention of 1895, Japan was smarting under the necessity of knuckling under to European powers because her own navy had no armored battleships to match theirs. The Emperor and his councilors were determined to make sure that never happened again. Nor were Fuji and Yashima to be the only battleships flying the Rising Sun ensign. Under the 1896 Ten Year Naval Expansion Programme, Japan was already building or arranging the financing to build four additional pre-dreadnought battleships in Britain; and while the Fuji class had been smallish ships, these were to be full-size battleships of 15-16,000 tons, the equal of anything in Britain's Home or Mediterranean Fleet. Aside from warning off greedy imperialists and defending Japan's trade, the navy's brief was to impress on the Russians the island nation's seriousness about protecing its interests in China and Korea; and, if commanded, fight them with memorable severity.
Plans and Specifications
Specifications for the Fuji class:
Dimensions: 412' OA x 73'9" x 29'. LWL: 390' Displacement: 12,300 tons. Armament: (4) 12"/40 cal, (10) 6"/40, and (4) 2.5-pdr guns; (5) 18" torpedo tubes. Armor: Harvey type throughout. 18" belt; 14" barbettes and bulkheads; 6" turrets and casemates; 4" upper belt; 2½" deck. Fuel capacity: 700 tons of coal std; 1,300 tons maximum. Propulsion: (12) coal-fired cylindrical boilers; (2) 4-cyl vertical triple expansion engines developing 14,000 HP, shafted to twin screw. Fuji only, boilers replaced with 14 Miyabara, 1914. Maximum speed: 18.5 kts (Fuji) and 19.25 kts (Yashima); 19.75 kts (Fuji, forced draft). Crew: 726 (Fuji).
Metric specs:
Dimensions: 126m OA x 22.5m x 8.84m. LWL: 119m. Displacement: 12,300 tons. Armament: (4) 305mm/40 cal, (10) 152 mm/40, and (4) 2.5-pdr guns; (5) 450mm torpedo tubes. Armor: Harvey type throughout. 458 mm belt; 356 mm barbettes and bulkheads; 152 mm turrets and casemates; 102 mm upper belt; 64 mm deck. Fuel capacity: 700 tons of coal std; 1,300 tons maximum. Propulsion: (12) coal-fired cylindrical boilers; (2) 4-cyl vertical triple expansion engines developing 14,000 HP, shafted to twin screw. Maximum speed: 34.28 km/hr (Fuji) and 35.21 km/hr (Yashima). Crew: 741 (Yashima).
Ships' Histories
Getting even with Russia had been uppermost in the Mikado's mind when ordering the battleships of the Japanese fleet, and they had not long been in commission when the anticipated conflict came about. Fed up with the Russians' arrogance and greed, Japan broke the peace with a surprise torpedo attack that prefigured Pearl Harbor both in style and outcome. So it was that Fuji and Yashima became important units in a navy at war. The war sought to regain the fortress of Port Arthur in Manchuria, which had been captured by Japan in its 1895 war with China, but then ceded to Russia by treaty -- a treaty signed under naval blackmail by the Russians and their French ally. Many of the Japanese navy's actions centered around the blockade of Port Arthur, fortified by the Russians as their main naval base, home port to seven battleships. Even with the Russian battleships being bottled up in port, blockade duty could be hazardous. As recounted by Sir Julian Corbett:
When the fleet was reorganized on 28 December 1903 [Yashima] was incorporated into the 1st Squadron, 1st Division together with the other six modern battleships, flying the flag of Rear Admiral Nashiba Tokioki.
[War having begun on Feb. 19, 1904,] on 14th May 1904 Admiral Nashiba put to sea to relieve another Japanese blockading force outside Port Arthur. Nashiba had with him the battleships "Hatsuse" (flag), "Shikishima", and "Yashima", the cruiser "Kasagi", and the despatch-vessel "Tatsuta". On the morning of the 15th he reached Encounter Rock and continued N.W., till he was about 15 miles off Port Arthur. Here Nashiba proceeded to patrol to the E. by N. across the mouth of the port. This course brought him straight into the midst of a minefield laid by the Russian minelayer "Amur".
At 10.50 the "Hatsuse" fouled a mine and she began to heel over with her steering engine compartment flooded and her port main engines useless. Only minutes later the "Yashima" was also struck (and later sank). By 11.30 the "Kasagi" was alongside the "Hatsuse" but the battleship's stern-walk was under water, and she was heeling four degrees. A hawser was passed and the "Kasagi" was just hauling in when the flagship struck another mine. Her funnels fell; her mainmast broke off; her upper deck flew into the air, and in a minute and a half she had gone down with her ram high out of water. The loss of life was appalling. The "Tatsuta" and "Kasagi" managed to save the Admiral and Captain Nakao with 21 other officers and 313 men. 38 officers and 458 men went down with the ship.
While the loss of the Hatsuse was truly catastrophic; that of the Yashima somewhat less so. She was got under tow and nursed back within sight of the Korean coastline. There she foundered only 20 miles from a port where she could have been beached for repairs. Casualties were just under 200 killed and three dozen wounded. Taken together, the day's events could have been devastating to the Japanese cause. The Emperor himself was said to have wept on hearing of the disaster; and well he might, for there was no prospect of building or purchasing new units to replace the two sunken battleships. In order to safeguard morale, the losses were hushed up by the Japanese government until after the war.
The twin tragedy left the Japanese battle fleet with only four battleships, while the Russian Pacific Squadron boasted seven, albeit not all in seagoing condition at any one time. But C-in-C Adm. Togo was nothing if not resourceful, and determined to make do with what he had. The Garibaldi-class armored cruisers Nisshin and Kasuga immediately began training as active units of the battle line. Rallying to the cause, Yashima's sister, Fuji, Japan's first pre-dreadnought, continued as one of the four indomitable battleships that won the Battle of the Yellow Sea in August 1904 and the even more celebrated Battle of Tsushima the following May. At Tsushima the Fuji endured 11 hits, but in her turn scored the fatal hit on the Russian battleship Borodino, which blew up and sank from Fuji's tender ministrations. Of the Russian ship's 830-man company, only one survived. Of the entire 52-ship Russian fleet, only her sister-ship the Alexander III fared worse.
Rapid advances in technology and a multitude of newer ships pouring out of the British and, soon, Japanese dockyards, rendered the Fuji obsolete within a few years after her great victory. However, because of her historic past and symbolic name, she avoided the trip to the breakers that seemed inevitable for all pre-dreadnoughts in the Twenties. Soon after Japan's 1905 victory she was relegated to training duties. In this humble but honorable rôle she was based at Kure through the end of WWI. She was rebuilt with Miyabara boilers and her fighting tops removed (left) in 1907. In 1910 her Armstrong guns were replaced with Japanese-made weapons. In 1922, Fuji was disarmed and stricken under the terms of the Washington Treaty for Naval Disarmament. However, she was retained as an accommodation ship. Her propellers, main turrets, and all guns were removed, large wooden deckhouses were added to the superstructure, and flat drill platforms covered her main deck. Her hulk remained as a floating barracks and training center at Yokosuka well into the Second World War.
From 1944, the old hulk was also used as a development center and observation post to test the effectiveness of various camouflage schemes on 1-meter long models of Japanese aircraft carriers. This was an ironic mission since all of Japan's carriers had been sunk by this time, and no new ones could be completed before the end of the War. She was hit several times in American air raids, but remained afloat. After the War, any sign of Japanese militarism was viewed as a menace by the Occupation authorities; besides which Japan needed all available sources of raw materials to rebuild its shattered infrastructure. Accordingly the old hulk of the Fuji was broken up for scrap at Uraga Dock Company in 1948.
This article quotes from Sir Julian S. Corbett, Maritime Operations in the Russo-Japanese War, p. 81. It also contains material from the Wikipedia article on the Fuji.
Photos and Diagrams
Broadside-on view of Yashima at Sasebo; compare to profile below.
This schematic from the 1896 Brassey's Annual may give a fuller idea of these stubby battleships'layout than the B&W armor diagram from Jane's above. In particular this shows the pear-shaped barbettes, used in the first seven of the Majestic class. These turrets had only one loading position: Straight fore-and-aft. With the advent of all-round loading in 1897, cylindrical barbettes were adopted universally, for obvious reasons. All-round loading considerably improved a turret's rate of fire. Enlarge
And speaking of those turrets, here is a sectional view of the Armstrong 12"/40 calibre installation used in the Fuji class, originally developed for the Royal Sovereigns. The details of the turret interior become crystal clear in our deluxe enlarged view.
Quarter view of Fuji, showing characteristically British details.
Bow view of Yashima, showing essentially identical appearance. She appears to have a variant of the standard kiku mon (Imperial chrysanthemum) bow emblem.
Fuji and Yashima (left) bombard Port Arthur, February 1904.
Words are from Adm. Togo's inspirational speech delivered to the men before the attack.
