LETTERS Mikasa in the 1980s in Yokosuka, japan
NATIONAL MARITIME HISTORICAL SOCIETY PUBLISHER'S CIRCLE: Peter Aron, Donald McGraw, William H. White OFFICERS & TRUSTEES : Chairman, Walter R. Brown; Vice Chairman, Richardo R. Lopes; Executive Vice President, Burchenal Green; Treasurer, Ronald L. Oswald; Secretary, Marshall Srreiberr; Trustees, Paul F. Balser, Donald M. Birney, Thomas F. Daly, David S. Fowler, Virginia Steele Grubb, Rodney N. Houghton, Steven W Jones, Richard M. Larrabee, Warren Leback, Guy E. C. Maitland, Karen Markoe, Michael McKay, James ]. McNamara, Howard Slotnick, Bradford D. Smith, Philip ]. Webster, William H . White; Chairmen Emeriti, Alan G. Choate, Guy E. C. Maitland, Craig A. C. Reynolds, Howard Slotnick; President Emeritus, Peter Stanford FOUNDER: Karl Kortum (1 917-1996)
(BB7), commissioned in 1901 , measured 374 feet, displaced 12,250 tons, and carried four 13-inch guns. Mikasa was rated at 18 knots, Illinois at 16. Mikasa is currently on display at Yokosuka H arbor, Japan. She is the last surviving pre-Dreadnought battleship.
OVERSEERS: Chairman, RADM David C. Brown; Walter Cronkite, Clive Cussler, Alan D. Hutchison, Jako b Isb randrsen, John Lehman, Warren Marr, II, Brian A. McAllister, John Stobart, William G. Winterer
CHARLEY SEAVEY
Columbia, Missouri Kudos to Mark Lander for clearing up the confusion of the Navy's n ames for battleships and submarines. He also mentions a "pre-1900 ship, ostensibly a battleship, berthed in concrete somewhere in Japan ." The ship is Mikasa, and it is, indeed, encased in concrete all the way up to the boot-top. She sits in Yokosuka, Japan, at the Mikasa Park located next to the Naval Repair Facility. I have enclosed some photos I took when I was the Manager of the Fleet Support Office in Yokosuka in the late 1980s. The ship is well preserved
NMHS Annual Awards Dinner
New York Yacht Club 26 October 2005 $300 per person; $6,000 Sponsors Table (for ten). Call 800-221-6647, ext. 0 for reservations or more information. Limited seating. 6
Admiral Heihachiro Togo (1847-1934) studied naval science in England from 1871to1878 at the Naval Preparatory School in Portsmouth and at the Royal Naval College at Greenwich. and the battle damage at Tsushima is still marked on the steel, givi ng you a real sen se of the actual battle. ROBERT
T. WILSON
Biloxi, Mississippi
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SEA HISTORY 11 2, AUTUMN 2005