Japanese cruiser Izumo

Izumo was the lead ship of the Izumo class of armoured cruisers built for the Imperial Japanese Navy. Because Japan lacked the industrial capacity to build such warships, the ship was built in Britain: Armstrong Whitworth signed the contract on 24 September 1897, laid her down at its Elswick shipyard on 14 May 1899 and launched her on 19 September, and she was completed on 25 September 1900. Two four-cylinder triple-expansion steam engines and 24 Belleville boilers drove her at a designed speed of 20.75 knots. She often served as a flagship, fought at the Battle off Ulsan and the Battle of Tsushima in the Russo-Japanese War, and was sent to protect Japanese interests during the Mexican Revolution in 1913. She spent most of the 1920s as a training ship for naval cadets, became flagship of Japanese forces in China in 1932, and was sunk by American carrier aircraft at Kure in July 1945. Her wreck was refloated and scrapped in 1947.