A Happy New Year! (Akemashite Omedetou Gozaimasu)

Mikasa , 1st, Jan., 2014

A happy new year! 

The memorial ship Mikasa is open.

Positions of 47mm 2.5pdr quick firing guns on aft bridge deck at Battle of Tsushima.

According to one photograph of the Mikasa*1, it is probable that positions of 47mm 2.5pdr quick firing guns on aft bridge deck were ;

[Plan of aft bridge. showing positions of 47mm 2.5pdr QF guns on Feb., 2nd, 1905. ]

I can not reprint the photo, so I will show them with a sketch.

[Part of the photo. looking forward ]

*1 : Library of Yamato museum material# PG049770 (taken on Feb., 2nd, 1905).
      or
      The magazine "世界の艦船 ( SHIPS OF THE WORLD) , April, 1969, No.140"

COALING HATCH on boat deck

[Upper deck, midship , port, under boat deck. ]

(1) Coaling hatch on boat deck

(2) Upper deck , midship. The plate on the deck seems to be a protection from bags of coal falling through the coaling hatch(1) .

Drawing (1) and (2) are from "PLANS OF SHIPS OF THE IMPERIAL JAPANESE NAVY - HISTORY OF SHIPBUILDING IN SHOWA ERA"(published in 1975) . It was only one of commerce in fine size in Japan. Unfortunately, the drawing is not clear. But recently EAGLEMOSS distributed clear drawings.

So I can see almost characters on the drawings now. 

About ventilators(2)

Hello Mr.DariusP,
Sorry, I'm late.

Yes, your red line is correct.

But returning to vents... From all the drawings at JACAR I think that closes to to the reality are drawings of this vent (what vent is it BTW?):

The drawing shows damage of the rear port vent of the engine room, after the Battle of Tsushima.
JACAR ref.  C05110130600 - 100th image also shows damage of rear starboard vent.

Mikasa's rear starboard vent of engine room, after the Battle of Tsushima.

In one of Russian publications there are some photos of Mikasa at Sasebo undergoing repairs after Tsushima. Those photos are high resolution close-ups and are probably one of the best sources of information about Mikasa's in 1905 that I have seen so far: download/file.php?id=60072&mode=viewDo you, by any chance, know where they got those photos from?

I don't know real source of the Russian book, but these photos can be seen in several magazines or books published in Japan. For example, the top photo of the Russian book is in magazine "世界の艦船 写真集 日本軍艦史 1.明治編 増刊( SHIPS OF THE WORLD, photograph collection, History of Japanese warships of the Meiji era )  extra number July, 1976, No.229" and some other books, and other photos are in "海軍艦艇史1 戦艦・巡洋艦 ( JAPANESE NAVAL VESSELS ILLUSTRATED, 1869-1945)" published in 1980,  or "写真日本海軍全艦艇史 Fukui Shizuo Collection" (ISBN 4584170541)  published in 1994.

The magazine "SHIPS OF THE WORLD", extra number July, 1976, No.229

 JAPANESE NAVAL VESSELS ILLUSTRATED, 1869-1945, Vol.1 Battleships & Battle Cruisers.

As to "Fukui Shizuo Collection" (ISBN 4584170541), please refer to link below;

http://www.amazon.co.jp/写真日本海軍全艦艇史-福井静夫/dp/4584170541/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1370053149&sr=8-1&keywords=4584170541

Yamato Museum (http://www.yamato-museum.com/en/) possesses now a good many original photos of them except the top photo in the Russian book.

Strange investigation about HIJMS Mikasa

In Japan, several persons have claimed strange opinions about the Russo‐Japanese War and HIJMS Mikasa. But these do not seem to have made headway in Japan.

  As to model of the Mikasa, more than 3 years ago, one Japanese introduced a model of the Mikasa. It was given out that the model was the most accurate scale model of the Mikasa of 1905, and its price was more than 1,000,000 Yen.

  However, it was merely assembled Hasegawa's kit with partly new, and mostly wrong remodeling based on "his own investigation."

  Many errors in his claims were pointed out. After that, he changed his claims, saying "I have been already aware of them", and now, he seems to have introduced a new kit of the Mikasa, based on "his own new investigation", reviling at other makers' kits and models of the Mikasa.

  I can not judge whether his new kit is accurate or not, because he never shows clear images of the kit nor its completed sample. -- even now (July,2016)  --

 As a result, I cannot go along with his ideas.

About ventilators

Hello Mr.DariusP,

Hello Mr. Yasaka, I hope that your holidays were enjoyable

Thank you!  I enjoyed the holidays with my friends. (^o^)

And the more I look the more uncertain I have become... I can't read Japanese but drawings 2 and 3 appear to be of the same (or identical) ventilator's right and left sides but is drawing 1 also of the same vent? Even if scaled up, dimensions of the first drawing still do not conform to those of 2 and 3!

The drawing 1,2, and 3 are of the identical ventilator.
The captions in Japanese are ;

Fig. 14.  Warship Mikasa's port-forward ventilator of Engine room, which was damaged at the Battle of Yellow Sea, 10th, August.

 1.  Looking forward (in word-for-word translation, "Looking from aft part")
 2.  Looking to port. ( "Looking from starboard")
 3.  Looking to starboard.  ( "Looking from port")

***
So, we have to check not only these drawings, but other photos, official drawings (if they exist), etc. 

About ventilators of Mikasa

Mr. DariusP wrote;

It is amazing that those are drawings of the same vent, damaged in the same battle! My initial vote would go to drawing no.2 (JACAR, Ref. C05110130600) since it's a technical drawing and records damage in some detail. Second one is more of a sketch than a drawing, records much less damage and could have been done from memory without looking at the actual vent.

Thank you Mr. DariusP. I think that your opinions are reasonable. But, in several cases, such drawings contain errors.  For example, one sketch of vent of fore boiler room seems to be diverted to sketch of vent of middle boiler room, although actually they have different shapes. 

sketch of vent of fore boiler room. this shape is almost correct.

( JACAR Ref: C05110130600, 102nd image)

sketch of vent of middle boiler room. this shape is similar to above, but incorrect.

( JACAR Ref: C09050839400, 9th image)

From photo of Museum Mikasa in around 1926. The vent of fore boiler room is bended, but the vent of middle boiler room is straight.  Note: This image is flipped horizontal for comparison with the sketches.

So, there is a possibility that the drawing no.2 is made from a copy of drawing of aft vent of the engine room, which might differ from fore one.

Mr. DariusP wrote;

On an accurate plan view of Mikasa one should be able to measure this sideways shift of the vent's cowl and resolve the question.

Yes, I will continue search the plan. I'm sorry, but my response may be late. My 4-days-straight holidays are over.