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
Stricken	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	25 Belleville boilers 15,000 ihp (11,000 kW)
Propulsion	2 shafts, 2 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 × twin 12 in (305 mm) guns 14 × single 6 in (152 mm) QF guns 20 × single 12-pdr (3 in (76 mm)) guns 6 × single 3-pdr (1.9 in (47 mm)) guns 6 × single 2.5-pdr (1.9 in (47 mm)) Hotchkiss guns 4 × 18 in (450 mm) 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, Morning Sun) 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 1904–1905 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.