Mikasa

Description

• The model is 100% hand built by artisans from scratch using “plank on frame” construction method
• Rosewood, mahogany, teak and other exotic woods are carefully selected to build the model
• Real brass & metal fittings
• Propellers and rudders made from brass
• Hollow hull and hollow superstructure
• Highly-detailed and multi-layered paint to match color of the real ship

Mikasa is a pre-Dreadnought battleship, formerly of the Imperial Japanese Navy, launched in Britain in 1900. She served as the flagship of Admiral Tōgō Heihachirō during the Battle of the Yellow Sea on 10 August 1904, and the Battle of Tsushima on 27 May 1905 during the Russo-Japanese War. Currently, she is preserved as a museum ship at Yokosuka. Mikasa is the last remaining example of a pre-dreadnought battleship anywhere in the world. She was named after Mount Mikasa in Nara, Japan.

Background
Following the 1894–1895 First Sino-Japanese War, and the forced return of the Liaodong Peninsula to China under Russian pressure, Japan began to build up its military strength in preparation for further confrontations. In particular, Japan promulgated a ten-year naval build-up program, with the construction of six battleships and six armored cruisers at its core.

One of these battleships, Mikasa, was ordered from the Vickers shipyard in Barrow-in-Furness, United Kingdom at the end of 1898, for delivery to Japan in 1902. She took three years to complete, at the great cost of £880,000 (8.8 million yen).

That same year Japan also secured diplomatic and strategic support, by concluding the 1902 Anglo-Japanese Alliance with the world’s strongest naval power. The United Kingdom shared Japan’s wish to contain Russian expansionism in the Far East, especially to protect its interests in China and India.

A state of the art battleship
At the time of her delivery, Mikasa was a state of the art vessel of the pre-dreadnought era, achieving an unprecedented combination of firepower and protective strength. She was adapted from the Royal Navy’s latest Majestic class design, with increased displacement (15,140 tonnes against 14,900), improved speed (18 knots against 17), slightly stronger armament (two more 6 inch guns), and much stronger armour: she kept the same armour thicknesses but used high performance Krupp armour, around 50% stronger compared to the Harvey armour used by the Majestic class.