The Kashima class was the kanati Navys first class of Battleship for her time she was considered unremarkable by many other navies of the world and in some aspects she was considered inferior to all other battleships, in particular her main battery firepower consisted of 4 254mm guns, as well as 10 152mm guns encasement mounts and for 76 mm guns.
Ordered: 11 March 1897
Laid down: 31 October 1898
Launched: 12 January 1900
Commissioned: 7 September 1902
Decommissioned: 31 October 1955
Struck: 28 November 1956
Fate: Preserved as Museum Ship
Status: Museum Ship
General characteristics
Displacement: (18,267 t)
Length: 432 ft (132 m)
Beam: 75 ft 6 in (23.01 m)
Draft: 25 ft 9 in (7.85 m)
Installed power:75,000 shp
24 Belleville water tube boilers
2 vertical triple-expansion steam engines
19 knots (35 km/h; 22 mph)
Armament:
4 × twin TYPE 90 25cm/45 (254mm) guns
10 × single TYPE 98 15cm/40 (152mm) guns
4 x single TYPE 99 7cm/40 (76mm) guns
Armament as training ship (1922)
2 × twin TYPE 90 25cm/45 (254mm) guns
6 × single TYPE 98 15cm/40 (152mm) guns
1× twin TYPE 24 12cm/45 (127mm)
4 x single TYPE 25 1cm/62 (12.7mm)
4 × single Vickers TYPE 19 7cm (7.7mm)
After reconstruction: (1936)
4 × twin TYPE 90 25cm/45 (254mm) guns
8 × single TYPE 98 15cm/40 (152mm) guns
2 × twin TYPE 36 2cm/60 (25mm)
8 × single TYPE 36 2cm/60 (25mm)
4 × single Vickers TYPE 19 7cm (7.7mm)
Armour:
Belt: 7 in (178 mm)
Bulkheads: 7–11 in (178–279 mm)
Decks: 1–2 in (25–51 mm)
Barbettes: 4–11 in (102–279 mm)
Casemates: 6 in (152 mm)
Conning tower: 12 in (305 mm)
The Kashima and her sister Fuji spent the first 12 years of their lives doing mainly patrols around Kenati Island home Waters as well as occasionally making trips to Japan and Australia and in 1910 The Kashima helped rescue survivors from the sinking of the ocean liner Yamagumo during the First World War the two ships didn't do very much considering a little both too slow to keep up with the Mane battlefleet so they spent the entirety of the war patrolling around the kanati Islands.
Fuji was commissioned in 1903 like her sister she had a pretty unremarkable career on the lead up to World War 1 however in 1909 it's strange and bizarre incident what exactly happened is still debated over to this very day but on the morning of the 6th of September 1909 the Fuji was on a routine patrol in the streets between the east coast Japan and the west coast of the kantai islands, this Patrol have just ring like any other however there for 7:40 in the morning the Lookout had reported that he have spotted a large and identified shape in the early morning mist, it almost looks like some kind of whale the only problem was though it was far too large to be one, as he was relying this to the captain suddenly the ship Rocked violently the captain and the Lookout both run out of the starboard Bridge Wing to see that a large explosion has gone off quickly the damage control crews got to work, however suddenly a loud whistling was heard the captain told everyone to hit the deck as what appears to be a shell impacted the bow of a ship, luckily however the shell ripped right through and went out the other side the captain quickly ordered to return fire on the mysterious vessel it was the first time and the only time that the Fuji Fired her guns in anger, for 10 nail biting minutes the Fuji and the mysterious vessel traded fire with each other as the mist began to clear the Fuji managed to score a critical hit on the vessel causing a massive explosion, the mysterious unidentified vessel quickly sank to leaving almost no evidence for presents, as the Fuji closed to the sinking point the sailors were suddenly hit by the foul smell of burning flesh to the point where several of them lost the contents of their stomachs right there, the only thing that have survived this thing was a dud shell that hit the conning Tower burying itself into, it the shell itself appears to be roughly 8 to 10 in diameter, upon the Fuji return to Tajima Naval Arsenal the incident was reported to the High command the instant was quickly to be declared top secret the crew of the Fuji were forced to never speak of this again the shell that had damaged the Fuji conning Tower was removed and taken away by the government never to be seen again.
In 1922 the Washington naval treaty was signed and put into effect as a result kantai navy decided that the Fuji would be turned into a training ship so in 1923 she had 12 of her 24 boilers removed reducing has speed from 18 knots to only 12 knots, her aft 254 mm gun turret was removed and plated over on top of where the turrets used to be a single 127mm guns was added, she also had another two of her 152mm guns removed from their casement, she also had 4 12.7 mm guns mounted to her deck to were located behind turret one And another two behind where gun turret number 2 used to be. In 1923 also the Kashima was downgraded from a battleship to a coastal defence battleship due to many more powerful battleships entering service she would spend the rest of Her Life in this role
In 1934 with the Japanese invasion kantai Islands the kashima and the Fuji during the first day of the Invasion engaged in a gallery battle with the Japanese battleships nagato, kirishima and an ise, The Fuji only having two 254mm guns was quickly sunk by the combined fire of the three Japanese battleships
However the kashima managed to put up a much better fight taking multiple 410mm shell hits from the nagato however, the kashima managed to destroy the nagato's main battery director rendering the nagato's fire extremely inaccurate however the ise and the kirishima be much faster battleships managed to catch up to the slow pre Dreadnought and the kirishima managed to score a critical hit on the kashima this hit rip a gaping 25 foot hole in the kashima's side, to avoid the ship sinking in deep water the captain of the ship to be run aground by the end of the day the kashima along with many other kanati navy vessels have been captured by the Imperial Japanese Navy. the kashima was refloated in 1935 and was sent to Tajima Naval Arsenal where she underwent repairs as well as a small modernization how old superstructure was completely removed and replaced with a newer one she was also fitted with a main battery director other than these minor changes she changed very little from how she used to look, she was recommissioned in to the kantai navy on the 16th of October 1936.
after her repair and refit she spent the lead up to World War II doing pretty much nothing being a a coastal defence battleship meant that home jobs are very limited the kashima pretty much all of her time on Patrol around the kanati Islands, in 1938 she was repainted into the type 1 a dark blue camouflage, in 1939 with the Outbreak of World War Two and with Japan beginning to plan it's surprise attack on the United States the kashima was chosen to be a practice target for Japanese Ariel torpedo bombers due to her similar speed two American battleships as well as a similar handling. in 1940 the kashima was used as a test ship for a brand new and experimental radar system.
in late 1943 the kashima along with the battlecruiser Musashi and The battleship nagato were redeployed back to the kanati Island to aid Japanese troops, with the growing unrest amongst the amongst kanati Islands population, riots to begin to become a daily occurrence as well as many groups stating that they wanted to overthrow the puppet government, as the riots and protests got more and more extreme eventually even kanati navy ship crews beginning to actively disobey Japanese orders it eventually resulted in an organised military coup with all the branches of the kanati Islands Were Armed forces actively fighting against the Japanese puppet government the kashima was one of the first ships to join the coup in the process of this her crew managed to catch up the Japanese battleship nagato eventually by January of 1944 kanati Islands was now free of Japan's rule.
after the military coup and the subsequent overthrow of the Japanese puppet state the kashima pretty much spent the rest of the war patrolling around the kanati Islands, however on the 6th of January 1945 the kashima was patrolling of the southern coast of the Kantai Islands when her captain as well as her Bridge crew spotted a large black mass beached on the shore, at first the bridge crew thought it was a beached Japanese submarine however as they Drew closer to the object they could see that it wasn't a submarine, the kashima came to a stop just offshore and a small boat was launched from her as the crew of the small boat landed on my Shore they could see that this thing wasn't even made of metal it was completely covered with seagulls and other scavengers from what little they could see it appeared to be some kind of creature, has the crew got to work examining this creature one of the crew measured it's length it was nearly 150 feet long from nose to tail as well as nearly 30 feet wide while another went around to the other side of the creature to get a better look at its front, as he examined the creatures mouth he saw that the creatures teeth looked like Giant human molarshowever more shocking Discovery was that inside the creatures throat appeared to be some kind of large metal cylindrical object however before it's purpose to be discerned the crew are ordered to return back to the kashima, quickly a photo of the creature was taken before the crew ran back to the boat,the captain of the kashima believe that this may have been very same creature or something similar to it that the Fuji had fought back in 1909, when the kashima returned to Port the next day the incident was reported to the navy high command as well as the creatures location and the photograph that was taken, After this incident the kashima spent the rest of the war patrolling around the kanati Islands, in 1945 with the surrender of Japan the kashima along with many other vessels where used to repatriate troops back to the kanati Islands.
after undertaking reparation missions the kashima was down rated again this time from a coastal defence battleship to a mere training ship she will remain in this role for the next 10 years, finally being decommissioned in 1955 bringing her total service life to 53 years of Active Service, she however wasn't scrapped she was instead donated to the Heguri Maritime Museum in 1956 making her the only other pre-dreadnought battleship left in the world the other one being the Japanese battleship MiKasa.
Ships in class: (laid down-launched-commissioned - fate)
Kashima 1898 1900 1902 - Decommissioned 1955
Fuji 1899 1901 1903 - converted into a training ship in 1922 and then later sunk in 1934