was an ironclad warship

Ironclad warship

An ironclad was a steam-propelled warship in the early part of the second half of the 19th century, protected by iron or steel armor plates. The ironclad was developed as a result of the vulnerability of wooden warships to explosive or incendiary shells. The first ironclad battleship, La Gloire,...

 of the early Imperial Japanese Navy

Imperial Japanese Navy

The Imperial Japanese Navy was the navy of the Empire of Japan from 1869 until 1947, when it was dissolved following Japan's constitutional renunciation of the use of force as a means of settling international disputes...

. She was built by the Samuda Brothers

Samuda Brothers

Samuda Brothers was an engineering and ship building firm at Cubitt Town on the Isle of Dogs in London, founded by Jacob and Joseph d'Aguilar Samuda. The site is now occupied by Samuda Estate....

 at Cubitt Town

Cubitt Town

Cubitt Town is an area on the Isle of Dogs in Tower Hamlets in London, England. It is on the east of the Isle, facing Greenwich across the River Thames. To the west is Millwall, to the northwest Canary Wharf and to the north, across the Blue Bridge, Blackwall...

, London

London

London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...

, England

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

, and commissioned in January 1878. She was the first armored warship to be built for the Imperial Japanese Navy in England

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

 (the previous one, the Ryūjō

Japanese battleship Ryujo (1864)

The or Jo Sho Maru, was a steam ironclad warship of the Imperial Japanese Navy, designed by Thomas Blake Glover and built in Scotland for the private navy of the fief of Kumamoto, where it was called the Jo Sho Maru. It was delivered to the new Imperial Japanese Navy on 8 May 1870, and sailed...

, had been built in Scotland

Scotland

Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...

). Tōgō Heihachirō

Togo Heihachiro

Fleet Admiral Marquis was a Fleet Admiral in the Imperial Japanese Navy and one of Japan's greatest naval heroes. He was termed by Western journalists as "the Nelson of the East".-Early life:...

, later a prominent Japanese admiral, supervised its construction. It should not be confused with the later (1914-era) dreadnought

Dreadnought

The dreadnought was the predominant type of 20th-century battleship. The first of the kind, the Royal Navy's had such an impact when launched in 1906 that similar battleships built after her were referred to as "dreadnoughts", and earlier battleships became known as pre-dreadnoughts...

 battleship Fusō

Japanese battleship Fuso

The Japanese battleship Fusō , was a part of the Imperial Japanese Navy, the lead ship of the Fusō-class. She was laid down by the Kure Kaigun Koshō on 11 March 1912, launched on 28 March 1914 and completed on 18 November 1915...

. The name Fusō

Fuso

Fuso or Fusō may refer to:* Fusō is the Japanese pronunciation of the word Fusang , an ancient naming for Japan.* Japanese ironclad warship Fusō, a cruiser of the Imperial Japanese Navy that fought in the Battle of Yalu River...

was taken for an ancient name of Japan in Chinese legend.

Background

Fusō was ordered in 1875, as part of Japan's first steps towards building a modern navy. As Japan lacked the expertise and the industrial infrastructure

Infrastructure

Infrastructure is basic physical and organizational structures needed for the operation of a society or enterprise, or the services and facilities necessary for an economy to function...

 to construct such a vessel, the order was placed to a shipyard in England

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

, and a number of promising young Japanese junior officer

Junior officer

The term junior officer is sometimes used to make clear that an officer in a military or paramilitary unit is not in overall command. The term senior officer is reserved for the officer in overall command....

s were sent to England to supervise the construction, and to receive training in operations and engineering.

The design of Fusō was based on a scaled-down version of HMS Iron Duke

HMS Iron Duke (1870)

The first HMS Iron Duke was an iron Audacious-class central battery ironclad.She was originally to have been called HMS Duke but she was nicknamed Iron Duke during construction as she was armoured unlike many other vessels under construction. The phrase was already in circulation as it was a...

, an Audacious-class

Audacious class battleship

The Audacious class battleships were designed by Sir Edward Reed at the request of the Board of Admiralty to serve as second-class battleships on distant foreign stations.-Background and design:...

 central battery ironclad, familiar to the Japanese as the flagship

Flagship

A flagship is a vessel used by the commanding officer of a group of naval ships, reflecting the custom of its commander, characteristically a flag officer, flying a distinguishing flag...

 of the Royal Navy

Royal Navy

The Royal Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the British Armed Forces. Founded in the 16th century, it is the oldest service branch and is known as the Senior Service...

 China Station

China Station

The China Station was a historical formation of the British Royal Navy. It was formally the units and establishments responsible to the Commander-in-Chief, China....

 from 1871-1875. As early coal

Coal

Coal is a combustible black or brownish-black sedimentary rock usually occurring in rock strata in layers or veins called coal beds or coal seams. The harder forms, such as anthracite coal, can be regarded as metamorphic rock because of later exposure to elevated temperature and pressure...

 fired steam engines were unreliable, Fusō was built with two fully functional sailing masts for auxiliary propulsion.

Operational history

Fusō arrived in Yokohama

Yokohama

is the capital city of Kanagawa Prefecture and the second largest city in Japan by population after Tokyo and most populous municipality of Japan. It lies on Tokyo Bay, south of Tokyo, in the Kantō region of the main island of Honshu...

 from 1878-06-11 via the Suez Canal

Suez Canal

The Suez Canal , also known by the nickname "The Highway to India", is an artificial sea-level waterway in Egypt, connecting the Mediterranean Sea and the Red Sea. Opened in November 1869 after 10 years of construction work, it allows water transportation between Europe and Asia without navigation...

 and the Indian Ocean

Indian Ocean

The Indian Ocean is the third largest of the world's oceanic divisions, covering approximately 20% of the water on the Earth's surface. It is bounded on the north by the Indian Subcontinent and Arabian Peninsula ; on the west by eastern Africa; on the east by Indochina, the Sunda Islands, and...

 and was classed as a second-class warship due to her small size. Fusō hosted Emperor Meiji

Emperor Meiji

The or was the 122nd emperor of Japan according to the traditional order of succession, reigning from 3 February 1867 until his death...

 for one of the first naval review

Naval Review

A Naval Review is an event, where the whole of the US Navy is paraded to be reviewed by the president or the Secretary of the Navy. It often includes delegates from other national navies. It is more regular and frequent than its British equivalent, the Fleet Review, and often occurs on a Navy...

s of the Imperial Japanese Navy on 1878-07-11 in Tokyo Bay

Tokyo Bay

is a bay in the southern Kantō region of Japan. Its old name was .-Geography:Tokyo Bay is surrounded by the Bōsō Peninsula to the east and the Miura Peninsula to the west. In a narrow sense, Tokyo Bay is the area north of the straight line formed by the on the Miura Peninsula on one end and on...

. Emperor Meiji later made use of Fusō on a visit to Kyoto

Kyoto

is a city in the central part of the island of Honshū, Japan. It has a population close to 1.5 million. Formerly the imperial capital of Japan, it is now the capital of Kyoto Prefecture, as well as a major part of the Osaka-Kobe-Kyoto metropolitan area.-History:...

 in July 1880, and on a tour of Hokkaidō

Hokkaido

, formerly known as Ezo, Yezo, Yeso, or Yesso, is Japan's second largest island; it is also the largest and northernmost of Japan's 47 prefectural-level subdivisions. The Tsugaru Strait separates Hokkaido from Honshu, although the two islands are connected by the underwater railway Seikan Tunnel...

 in August 1881.

Fusō collided with the new cruiser Takachiho

Japanese cruiser Takachiho

was the second protected cruiser built for the Imperial Japanese Navy by the Armstrong Whitworth shipyard in Great Britain. The name Takechiho comes from a 1574 meter tall mountain in the volcanic Kirishima range between Kagoshima and Miyazaki prefectures in Japan...

 on 1889-12-18, but suffered little damage.

Originally scheduled for retirement in 1891, Fusō went into dry dock

Dry dock

A drydock is a narrow basin or vessel that can be flooded to allow a load to be floated in, then drained to allow that load to come to rest on a dry platform...

 at Yokosuka Naval Arsenal

Yokosuka Naval Arsenal

was one of four principal naval shipyards owned and operated by the Imperial Japanese Navy, and was located at Yokosuka city, Kanagawa prefecture on Tokyo Bay, south of Yokohama...

 from November 1891-July 1894 for repairs and upgrades.

With the start of the First Sino-Japanese War

First Sino-Japanese War

The First Sino-Japanese War was fought between Qing Dynasty China and Meiji Japan, primarily over control of Korea...

, Fusō saw front-line combat at the Battle of the Yalu River of 1894-09-17 (during which it took 8 direct hits, with 2 crewmen killed and 12 wounded), and at the Battle of Weihaiwei

Battle of Weihaiwei

The Battle of Weihaiwei was a 23 day siege with a major land and naval component during the First Sino-Japanese War. It took place between 20 January and 12 February 1895 in Weihai, Shandong Province, China) between the forces of Meiji Japan and Qing China...

.

On 1897-10-29, Fusō collided with the cruiser Matsushima

Japanese cruiser Matsushima

was the second vessel of the protected cruisers of the Imperial Japanese Navy. Like its sister ships, its name comes from one of the three most famous scenic spots in Japan, in this case, the Matsushima archipelago near Sendai in Miyagi prefecture....

 in rough weather off the coast of Iyo

Iyo Province

was an old province of Japan in the area that is today Ehime Prefecture on Shikoku. Iyo bordered on Awa, Sanuki, and Tosa Provinces. It was sometimes called ....

 (Shikoku

Shikoku

is the smallest and least populous of the four main islands of Japan, located south of Honshū and east of the island of Kyūshū. Its ancient names include Iyo-no-futana-shima , Iyo-shima , and Futana-shima...

) and sank. Captain Uryū Sotokichi

Uryu Sotokichi

Baron was an early admiral of the Imperial Japanese Navy, active in the Russo-Japanese War, most notably at the Battle of Chemulpo Bay and the Battle of Tsushima...

 was confined to the brig for three months over the incident. Refloated the following year, Fusō was repaired at Kure Naval Arsenal

Kure Naval Arsenal

was one of four principal naval shipyards owned and operated by the Imperial Japanese Navy. -History:The Kure Naval District was established at Kure, Hiroshima in 1889, as the second of the naval districts responsible for the defense of the Japanese home islands along with the establishment of the...

 and re-classed as a second-class battleship

Battleship

A battleship is a large armored warship with a main battery consisting of heavy caliber guns. Battleships were larger, better armed and armored than cruisers and destroyers. As the largest armed ships in a fleet, battleships were used to attain command of the sea and represented the apex of a...

 on 1898-03-21, and refitted with new Krupp

Krupp

The Krupp family , a prominent 400-year-old German dynasty from Essen, have become famous for their steel production and for their manufacture of ammunition and armaments. The family business, known as Friedrich Krupp AG Hoesch-Krupp, was the largest company in Europe at the beginning of the 20th...

 cannons; repairs continued through April 1900.

Fusō again saw combat service during the Russo-Japanese War

Russo-Japanese War

The Russo-Japanese War was "the first great war of the 20th century." It grew out of rival imperial ambitions of the Russian Empire and Japanese Empire over Manchuria and Korea...

 of 1904-1905, where it was assigned to the blockade of Port Arthur

Lüshunkou

Lüshunkou is a district in the municipality of Dalian, Liaoning province, China. Also called Lüshun City or Lüshun Port, it was formerly known as both Port Arthur and Ryojun....

, and patrol of the sea lane

Sea lane

A sea lane or shipping lane is a regularly used route for ocean-going and Great Lakes vessels. In the time of sailing ships they were not only determined by the distribution of land masses but also the prevailing winds, whose discovery was crucial for the success of long voyages...

s around the Strait of Tsushima and the coast of Korea

Korea

Korea ) is an East Asian geographic region that is currently divided into two separate sovereign states — North Korea and South Korea. Located on the Korean Peninsula, Korea is bordered by the People's Republic of China to the northwest, Russia to the northeast, and is separated from Japan to the...

. It served as flagship of Rear Admiral Sukeuji Hosoya, Seventh Division, Third Squadron, and was held in reserve independent of the Combined Fleet

Combined Fleet

The was the main ocean-going component of the Imperial Japanese Navy. The Combined Fleet was not a standing force, but a temporary force formed for the duration of a conflict or major naval maneuvers from various units normally under separate commands in peacetime....

 until the crucial Battle of Tsushima

Battle of Tsushima

The Battle of Tsushima , commonly known as the “Sea of Japan Naval Battle” in Japan and the “Battle of Tsushima Strait”, was the major naval battle fought between Russia and Japan during the Russo-Japanese War...

.

Already extremely obsolete, Fusō was re-classed as a second-class Coastal defence ship

Coastal defence ship

Coastal defence ships were warships built for the purpose of coastal defence, mostly during the period from 1860 to 1920. They were small, often cruiser-sized warships that sacrificed speed and range for armour and armament...

immediately after the Russo-Japanese War, on 1905-12-11, and officially retired on 1908-04-01. It was broken up for scrap in Yokohama in 1910.