The Last British Battleship?

[Music] for over 150 years Britain was the world's foremost naval power the Royal Navy be striding the globe we invented the modern battleship and the aircraft carrier have maintained a fleet unrivaled by any other power until the end of World War two but you wouldn't think so judging by our preserved warships today not one battleship aircraft carrier or battle cruiser has been preserved for the nation or have been scrapped by successive penny-pinching governments so the title of this video may be confusing some of you but here's the uncomfortable truth the only British battleship in existence today is not in the UK but on the other side of the world in Japan this is the story of the last pre-dreadnought battleship built in England for the new Imperial Japanese Navy and ultimately saved from the scrapyard by an english-born American businessman to be preserved as a monument today to Japan's greatest naval victory in the late 19th century Japan emerged as a great power and it required a strong Navy it turned to the best in the world the Royal Navy copying its uniforms and traditions and schooling its officers at Royal Navy academies it also bought ships one of which was the Mikasa ordered from the Vickers yard at barrow-in-furness in England in 1898 she was a modified version of the formidable class battleship of the Royal Navy 432 feet long weighing 15,000 140 tons the Mikasa had a complement of 830 officers and men the main guns were for Elswick ordnance company 40 caliber 12-inch guns mounted in twin turrets fore and aft secondary armament was 14 40 caliber 6-inch quick firing guns in casemates protection against torpedo boat attack was 20 quick firing 12 pounder guns completed in 1902 the Mikasa visited Devonport before sailing to Yokohama in Japan in 1904 she was the flagship of the famous Japanese Admiral Togo during the rut Japanese war and was involved in several early fleet actions but it was to be her role at the Battle of Tsushima that was to win her everlasting Fame she was in the thick of the action in the decisive May 1905 battle that saw Japan destroy Russia's Baltic Fleet the first time an Asian nation at one such a victory unfortunately six days after the war ended the Mikasa was sunk at her moorings following a magazine fire that killed 251 of her crew in 1906 she was raised and reconstructed her guns upgraded going on to serve in World War one and the Japanese intervention in Siberia during the Russian Civil War but in 1923 she was decommissioned following the Washington Naval Treaty of the previous year that limited the size of the Japanese Navy but it was agreed that she would become a memorial ship preserved in concrete at Yokosuka by August 1945 and the end of the war the Mikasa was in a bad way in Occupied Japan the Soviet representative demanded that the Mikasa be dismantled but the commander of u.s. naval forces gave your Cosco City permission to save the vessel the condition was that they stripper of turrets bridge guns funnels and masts these items were supposed to be stored but unfortunately was sold off and the Mikasa was converted into a dance hall and an aquarium by the mid-1950s the businesses had gone bust and the Mikasa was rapidly deteriorating into scrap iron but then in 1955 a british-born American businessman started the process of saving the ship Jon Rubin of Philadelphia had been born in barrow-in-furness in England where the ship had been built and he wrote to the Japan Times sparking a restoration campaign with the support of such luminaries as Fleet Admiral Chester Nimitz and Japanese public the ship was restored and open to the public in 1961 today the Mikasa is a monument to a great Japanese naval victory but also in a roundabout way a tribute to British shipbuilding excellence in the vanished world of the British battleship I hope that you found this video interesting if you have please do subscribe and also share many thanks [Music]

Channel: Mark Felton Productions

Views: 1,330,338

Rating: 4.9050927 out of 5

Keywords: The Last British Battleship?, Mark Felton Productions, Mikasa, Imperial Japanese Navy, Royal Navy, Battleship, Dreadnought, Battle of Tsushima

Id: KyzKKCLJIJA

Length: 5min 7sec (307 seconds)

Published: Tue Nov 13 2018

Reddit Comments

[u/Galdrack]

"Successive penny pinching governments" hmm doesn't sound biased on the matter at all...

I mean yes it's a shame they couldn't be preserved and it'd be great to have them but the nation really wasn't in the shape to afford keeping them around after the war. Not to mention the idea of having museum ships wasn't realised at the time and wouldn't be for several decades so keeping them around didn't seem like a priority afterall the Victory wasn't fully restored till 2005 and is a very unique case.

Interesting video though.

[u/Coopdodouble_G]

Philly for the win!

[u/rasmusdf]

Which ship is that? (Don't have time to watch the video right now)