Japanese battleship Hatsuse

Hatsuse was a Shikishima-class pre-dreadnought battleship built for the Imperial Japanese Navy, an improved version of the British Majestic class. Japan ordered her from Britain under a ten-year naval expansion programme paid for from the indemnity that China owed after the First Sino-Japanese War. Armstrong Whitworth laid her down at its Elswick yard on 10 January 1898, launched her on 27 June 1899 and completed her on 18 January 1901, and before sailing for Japan she represented the Meiji Emperor at Queen Victoria's funeral. She displaced about 14,300 long tons at normal load, had two triple-expansion steam engines and four 12-inch guns, and reached 19.1 knots on her sea trials. In the Russo-Japanese War she was flagship of the 1st Division at the Battle of Port Arthur. On 15 May 1904 she struck two mines in a Russian minefield, the second detonating a magazine, and she sank with the loss of over half her crew.