They were designed to be the best ...
they faced their enemies face to face,
They endured tragedies and enjoyed victories,
They passed into history thanks to the courage of their crews.
They are the ships that deserve to be called ...
... "Navales Legends"!
In this episode:
the battleship Mikasa, the flagship of Admiral Togo Heihachiro legendary.
Usually a mystical connection ...
... between a ship and those who serve in it.
A perfect example is the story ...
... Admiral Togo and his battleship Mikasa Heihachiro.
In the late nineteenth century, Japan launched an ambitious naval program ...
... I aimed at putting into service 111 warships in 10 years.
They should be the best in the world and stay updated
despite the rapid development of naval engineering.
Mikasa was the last of four battleships built with that program.
It was built in England in the Vickers shipyard,
between 1899 and 1902,
with a cost of 15 million yen;
which it was a 6% of the Japanese government budget,
which was 260 million yen.
It was a very expensive project for the country.
Japanese leaders knew that the country's development ...
... it was only possible by adopting advanced foreign technologies.
In the late nineteenth century, Britain was the world's leading naval power.
It is therefore normal that the Japanese Navy serve ...
... British traditions and technologies.
England gave a superb battleship,
with weapons, machinery and hull pointers.
The English were wondering ...
... why they were building for Japan ...
... more modern than his ship.
But they took the experience to build ...
... an even more advanced ship ...
... and significantly cheaper than the battleship Mikasa.
However, when built, the Mikasa ...
... It was the most powerful ship in the world, even more than the British.
The new battleship worth its high price:
It was one of the most advanced ships not only in Japan,
but throughout the world.
Total displacement:
15 979 t;
the largest in the world for a battleship at that time.
Length: over 130 meters
Width: about 23 m
Calado: almost eight meters
Armament
The main armament of Mikasa fit the standards of the time:
Mark IX twin cannons company Armstrong
mounted sponsons.
Caliber: 305 mm
Fourteen medium caliber cannons QF of Elswick Ordnance Company.
Caliber: 152 mm
Ten of them, placed in the standard battery,
on the sides, they are providing a huge advantage in combat.
Secondary armament: twenty guns Elswick Model N
Caliber: 76 mm
Small caliber artillery: twelve guns Hotchkiss
Caliber: 47 mm
Four torpedo tubes submerged
The shield follows the British design.
It is compact and protects vital parts of the ship.
Main Belt: from 102 to 229 mm
upper belt: 152 mm
Main turrets: from 203 to 254 mm
Conning tower: 365 mm
The machinery was also the most advanced of the time.
Propulsion
Vickers and twenty two engines water tube boilers Bellevile.
Power: 16 000 CV
Maximum Speed: 18 knots
Cruising range: about 4000 nautical miles at a speed of 10 knots
Mikasa greatly influenced the subsequent development ...
... Japanese naval gunnery and tactics.
In those times,
it was believed that a large ship ...
... with powerful cannons guarantee an easy victory.
This is the main battery Mikasa.
Each shell weighed 400 kg.
The effective range exceeded 10 km.
This projectile right is high explosive.
The left is a piercing projectile.
In the Russo-Japanese War, our vessels used mostly high explosive.
This is the room No. 4 guns.
Here you can see a cannon of 152 mm
The small window opened at the start of a battle.
Ten sailors were operating the cannon.
These wheels were used to tilt up or down the barrel.
In December 1903,
Togo Heihachiro was appointed commander ...
... of the Combined Fleet of the Imperial Japanese Navy,
which it was created that year.
He formed three squadrons and captained the first,
with the Mikasa as its flagship.
He built his headquarters in the ship and lived in it for two years.
Admiral Togo ate here Heihachiro.
This was the dining room.
The decor was like that when I was a flagship.
Next door is the private cabin of the admiral,
for meetings of the ship's officers.
Admiral Togo Heihachiro head of the table,
surrounded by his officers.
Here they ate and discussed plans.
Togo Heihachiro's career was long and complicated
up to direct this vessel.
He started from the bottom
military ranks in the Japanese Navy.
and quickly he rose participating in naval battles.
Warlike spirit felt with every fiber of his being.
The future admiral studied mathematics at Cambridge,
He attended the Royal Naval Academy in Portsmouth,
and the Royal Naval Institute in Greenwich.
There he saw how the British ...
... They managed to maintain their status as "King of the Seas":
with naval knowledge, centuries of battles,
and advances in shipbuilding.
This is the only part of Mikasa where you can see ...
... the original ship's deck made of teak.
During the battle, a forklift placed here ...
... to raise the projectiles to the upper decks.
This cover is 110 years old, but still in good condition.
Teak is a very hard wood. Does not rot, as you can see.
This is the wheelhouse, with machinery to steer the ship.
With this propulsion system is controlled,
accelerating or decelerating its two axes.
Some instruments are another boat of the same shipyard.
But all are identical to those installed on the Mikasa.
This is the helm of government.
It has inscriptions in English, because it was built in England.
British standards (available guns,
height and size) are very different from the Japanese
So they forced the Japanese to take sailors ...
... beef and milk to be ...
... taller and stronger. However, many of them ...
... they could not eat animal products for their religion.
When the Navy insisted that Tomasen meat and milk ...
... to strengthen, opposed.
They locked themselves in the lower deck and said they would not come out.
They were evacuated and spent four years in prison,
and the entire crew was replaced.
So, breaking with old traditions,
Japan built a new Navy.
With spartan conditions and Japanese discipline,
to build the fighting spirit of the sailors.
This weapon was operated by about 10 men.
Each sailor assigned to the canyon ...
... trained, he ate and even rested here.
Those who were on duty slept in these hammocks.
All this was not in vain.
When starting the Russo-Japanese War,
the Japanese Navy had tremendous power.
The fighting spirit and good luck were decisive factors ...
... during this war for Vice Admiral Togo and ship.
From the beginning, the Mikasa was the main target for the Russian Navy.
Yellow Sea battles of Tsushima ...
In all he suffered a hail of projectiles,
but always he survived with honor.
Many sailors and officers were killed,
but the Mikasa still waving the flag with pride.
A star guided the Commander in Chief Japanese ...
and his ship in battle to victory.
In his first battles, the Mikasa lost staff ...
... by Russian missiles.
Admiral stood on the bridge discovered rather than shelter ...
Why did he do that?
I had no experience in large naval battles.
In addition, from the open bridge he saw the best ships.
Ready for battle, Togo watched and issued orders.
And only he suffered minor injuries in his first battles.
The Battle of the Yellow Sea was a milestone in the Russo-Japanese War ...
The Russian squadron commanded by Rear Adm Vitgeft,
He is trying to move towards Vladivostok.
Like Togo, Vitgeft stayed on the bridge discovered ...
And the first missile struck there was fatal for him.
In the battle of Tsushima, Mikasa suffered too ...
... more impacts than other Japanese ships.
However, Admiral Togo and his officers ...
... They never removed the bridge.
And he survived.
The Battle of Tsushima was a triumph ...
... for the Japanese Navy and commander in chief.
Three months later, on September 5, the Russo-Japanese War ...
... he ended with a peace treaty.
Imperial Japanese Navy was preparing to celebrate the victory ...
... with a large naval parade in Tokyo Bay.
So Admiral Togo and his staff left the ship ...
... and they took all their luck with them:
Mikasa never magazine.
A month after lowering the flag of the commander of Mikasa,
the battleship suffered a disaster: September 11, 1905, a fire started ...
... in the powder magazine he caused an explosion.
the lives of 250 men took, and left more than 300 wounded.
The explosion created a large breach in the hull.
The water began to enter immediately,
and he sank with the keel in the Bay of Sasebo.
The big race of the battleship ended.
He was refloated and repaired,
but it never regained its glory.
In 1925, the battleship moved to a dock as in Yokosuka,
where he was covered with dirt and cement to the waterline:
the legendary ship became a museum ...
... whose inauguration was attended by Admiral Togo, who died in 1934.
Admiral became a national hero ...
... with the biggest awards:
orders, awards, honor and glory.
He was responsible for the education of Hirohito,
the heir to the imperial throne.
After World War II, the Mikasa was in ruins:
all the guns and many instruments were dismantled.
The battleship was proposed to sell as scrap,
but he never did.
Then the American military organized ...
... a dance on the deck of guns.
A young British saw him and wrote to the Japan Times,
"What's wrong with this country? If England has preserved the HMS Victory,
Why can not the Japanese do the same? "
This letter elicited a wide response from the Japanese public,
and it emerged a movement to restore and reopen as a museum Mikasa.
To restore the historic ship,
It had to rebuild many of its elements.
Today, the exhibition aboard the Mikasa ...
... is dedicated to Japan's victory in the Battle of Tsushima ...
... and Admiral Togo Heihachiro.
Back together: the admiral and his flagship.