Japanese cruiser Takasago

Takasago was a protected cruiser of the Imperial Japanese Navy, designed and built by Armstrong Whitworth at Elswick. She was an improved version of the Argentine cruiser Veinticinco de Mayo, drawn by Philip Watts, and her sister ship was the Chilean cruiser Chacabuco. Armstrong laid her down in April 1896 as hull number 660 as a private venture and sold her to Japan in July 1896; she was launched on 18 May 1897 and completed on 6 April 1898. She had a steel hull divided into 109 waterproof compartments, Harvey armour and a reinforced ram bow, and a triple expansion steam engine driving two screws. She took part in the blockade of Port Arthur and the Battle of the Yellow Sea in the Russo-Japanese War. On the night of 13 December 1904 she struck a naval mine south of Port Arthur and sank with the loss of 273 officers and crew, the last major Japanese warship lost in that war.