Japanese battleship Asahi

Asahi at anchor about 1906
Class overview
Operators:	Imperial Japanese Navy
Preceded by:	Shikishima class
Succeeded by:	Mikasa
Built:	1897–1900
In commission:	1900–1942
Completed:	1
Lost:	1
History
Name:	Asahi
Namesake:	A stanza of waka
Ordered:	1897 Naval Programme
Builder:	John Brown & Company, Clydebank
Laid down:	1 August 1898
Launched:	13 March 1899
Commissioned:	28 April 1900
Reclassified:	As 1st-class coastal defence ship, September 1921 as submarine depot ship, 1 April 1923 as repair ship, 16 August 1937
Struck:	15 June 1942
Fate:	Torpedoed and sunk by USS Salmon, 25/26 May 1942
General characteristics (as built)
Type:	Pre-dreadnought battleship
Displacement:	15,200 long tons (15,400 t) (normal)
Length:	425 ft 3 in (129.6 m)
Beam:	75 ft (22.9 m)
Draught:	27 ft 3 in (8.3 m)
Installed power:	15,000 shp (11,000 kW) 25 Belleville boilers
Propulsion:	2 shafts, 2 vertical triple-expansion steam engines
Speed:	18 knots (33 km/h; 21 mph)
Range:	9,000 nmi (17,000 km; 10,000 mi) at 10 knots (19 km/h; 12 mph)
Complement:	773
Armament:	2 × 2 – 12 in (305 mm) guns 14 × 1 – 6 in (152 mm) QF guns 20 × 1 – 12-pounder guns 6 × 1 – 3-pounder guns 6 × 1 – 2.5-pounder Hotchkiss guns 4 × 18-inch torpedo tubes
Armour:	Harvey armour Belt: 4–9 in (102–229 mm) Deck: 2.5–4 in (64–102 mm) Gun turrets: 6 in (152 mm) Barbettes: 10–14 in (254–356 mm) Conning tower: 14 in (356 mm) Casemates: 2–6 in (51–152 mm)

Asahi (朝日, Asahi^?) was a pre-dreadnought battleship built for the Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN) in the late 1890s. As Japan lacked the industrial capacity to build such warships itself, the ship was designed and built in the United Kingdom. Shortly after her arrival in Japan, she became flagship of the Standing Fleet, the IJN's primary combat fleet. She participated in every major naval battle of the Russo-Japanese War of 1904–05 and was lightly damaged during the Battle of the Yellow Sea and the Battle of Tsushima. Asahi saw no combat during World War I, although the ship participated in the Siberian Intervention in 1918.

Reclassified as a coastal defence ship in 1921, Asahi was disarmed two years later to meet the terms of the Washington Naval Treaty, after which she served as a training and submarine depot ship. She was modified into a submarine salvage and rescue ship before being placed in reserve in 1928. Asahi was recommissioned in late 1937, after the start of the Second Sino-Japanese War, and used to transport Japanese troops. In 1938, she was converted into a repair ship and based first at Japanese-occupied Shanghai, China, and then Cam Ranh Bay, French Indochina, from late 1938 to 1941. The ship was transferred to occupied Singapore in early 1942 to repair a damaged light cruiser and ordered to return home in May. She was sunk en route by the American submarine USS Salmon, although most of her crew survived.