Floating museums. Ships that changed crew for the exhibition

Part one.
Sail.

The Solar Boat is an exceptionally well-preserved full-size rowing vessel sealed in a cache at the foot of the Cheops Pyramid some 4,500 years ago (about 2500 BC).
In May 1955, while cleaning the area near the pyramid, 2 hermetically sealed triangular pits were discovered. 40 limestone slabs were placed on top of them. After the northernmost slabs, on which the cartouche of Pharaoh Djedefre, the son of Cheops, was depicted, were lifted, a large wooden boat, disassembled into 1224 parts, was found in the pit.

The assembly process lasted 10 years, only wooden stakes and edges were used, no nails or metal devices. The assembled boat was placed in a special hangar - the Museum of the Solar Boat, not far from its burial place.

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"Olympia" (Greek: Ολυμπιάς) is a modern reconstruction of the ancient Greek trireme. The ship belongs to the Hellenic Navy. Olympia is on display in dry dock as a museum ship.

The ship was built in 1985-1987 at a shipyard in Piraeus with funds from the Greek Navy and British philanthropist banker Frank Welsh.
Sea trials of the trireme were carried out in 1987, 1990, 1992 and 1994. The most informative from a scientific point of view were the tests in 1987, during which the ship's performance characteristics were established. A team of rowers, consisting of 170 volunteers, managed to accelerate the ship to nine knots (17 km/h).

In 1993, Olympia was transported to Great Britain to participate in celebrations marking the 2,500th anniversary of democracy. In 2004, she delivered the Olympic flame to Piraeus.
Since then, Olympia has been located in dry dock in the Athens suburb of Faler.
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Vasa (also Vasa, Swedish Vasa) is a Swedish warship launched in the summer of 1628. The ship received its name in honor of the Vasa dynasty of Swedish kings reigning at that time. Being one of the largest and most expensive warships of the Swedish fleet, the Vasa was supposed to become its flagship, but due to design errors the ship capsized and sank on its maiden voyage on August 10, 1628.

In 1961, the ship was raised, mothballed and is now exhibited in a specially built for it museum.Vaza is the only surviving sailing ship from the early 17th century in the world.

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San Juan Bautista (Spanish: San Juan Bautista)
Ishinomaki (Japan)
Galleon 1613
The first Japanese ship of the European type, reconstruction continues.

The ship crossed the Pacific Ocean in 1614. She was on a Spanish galleon, known in Japan as the Nanban-sen. The ship was built for the Japanese delegation to the court of the Pope, as well as for the Spanish monk Luis Sotelo.
The ship was reconstructed in 1993 in Japan by DomeDate.
The exact drawings have not been preserved, but the archives indicated the main parameters of the vessel, and some images of the vessel have also been preserved. The ship is now part of the Ishinomaki theme park.

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Ship Amsterdam of the Dutch East India Company, modern reconstruction.
The ship was built by enthusiasts in the 90s of the last century.
Firstly, it is made of different materials (oak is replaced by tropical wood), secondly, the quarterdeck and captain's cabin are made more comfortable than they were in the 18th century, but because of this the comfort of the lower decks has suffered. , that from the captain's cabin you can now get to the women's toilet.

The ship sometimes hosts performances by a youth theater, whose actors, in Dutch =(sing old sea songs, play musical mini-plays about the joys and hardships of the life of sailors on the ships of the East India Company.

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HMS Victory - Her Majesty Ship Victory.

He took part in many naval battles, including the Battle of Trafalgar, during which Nelson was mortally wounded on board.

After 1812, she did not take part in hostilities, and since January 12, 1922, she has been permanently moored in the oldest naval dock in Portsmouth.

Currently, the ship has been restored to the condition it was in during the Battle of Trafalgar and has been turned into a museum, which is one of the main attractions of Portsmouth.

USS Constitution

The second (after the English battleship Victoria, converted into a museum) of the oldest sailing ships in the world. Still active in the US Navy.

Known as "Old Ironsides" This nickname was given to the ship after it was damaged during the Anglo-American War of 1812-1814. it was noted that the cannonballs of the British ship HMS Guerriere bounced off its sides, which were made of virgin oak (English: Quercus virginiana)

Launched October 21, 1797. On July 23, 1798, he made his first trip, in 1798-1800 he participated in the “Quasi-War” of the USA and France, the Tripoli War, and the Anglo-American War of 1812-1814. In 1830, the ship, 31 years old which was quite respectable for that time, was almost scrapped. However, the poem “Old Ironsides” dedicated to the ship, published at the same time, was a great success among citizens who insisted on preserving the frigate. Instead of being scrapped, the ship underwent the first of its many restoration repairs. During the American Civil War, Constitution served as a training ship, her armament was reduced to 16 guns and she was reclassified as a second-rate ship. In 1878, Constitution took part in the World Exhibition in Paris.

In 1900, Congress approved a project to preserve the Constitution as a museum ship, but no funding was provided from the state budget. In 1905, it was proposed to take the ship out to sea and use it as a target for artillery fire, but a rising wave of protest led to the fact that in 1906 $100,000 was allocated from the budget for the maintenance and ongoing repairs of the ship, and in 1907 it was opened for visiting.

The last time Constitution underwent renovations was in 1995. In 1997, in honor of the 200th anniversary of its construction, the frigate went to sea under sail. Before this, the ship had not gone to sea for approximately 116 years.

Currently located in the harbor of Boston, Massachusetts, it offers tours.
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Trincomalee
Hartpool (UK)
Frigate 1817
Frigate, later a training ship of the British Navy from 1817 to 1897.
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Ship - museum "Prins Willem"
Holland Den Helder
Unfortunately, the museum ship (a copy of the original ship "Prince William"), built in 1984, burned down.
He was the small town's biggest attraction.
Probably due to a short circuit, the fire quickly engulfed the ship and firefighters did not have time to put it out.

The original "Prince William" (built in 1650) was just as unlucky and after only 12 years of sailing, she managed to sink near Madacagscar, taking 250 people with her.
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The Cutty Sark is one of the most famous and the only surviving tea clipper ship. It was built in 1869.
Currently in dry dock in Greenwich (UK).

and is currently undergoing restoration.
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Warrior
Portsmouth (UK)
Battleship 1860
The world's first all-metal battleship.
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Fram (Norwegian Fram, “Forward”) is the famous ship on which three Norwegian expeditions to the North and South Poles were carried out from 1893 to 1912. The ship's name means Forward in Norwegian. It was specially built as an expedition ship.
From the construction itself it is state property.
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Suomen Joutsen (Finnish: Suomen Joutsen)
Turku (Finland)
Three-masted barque 1902
Sailboat built in Nantes

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Pomern (German: Pommern)
Mariahamina, Åland Islands (Finland)
Four-masted barque 1903
One of the last merchant sailing ships
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Passat (German: Passat)
Lubeck (Germany)
Four-masted barque 1911
One of the last merchant sailing ships, later a training sailing ship

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Pages: 1

Brought together information about the museum ships visited in the cities of the US Pacific Coast. Only WWII and Cold War era warships are considered.

These museums are usually open from 10 am to 5 pm; they stop opening one hour before closing. Tickets cost from 12 to 20 dollars, and a small booklet about the ship is usually given with the ticket.

There is only one battleship on the West Coast - the Iowa, the lead ship of the last series of battleships in world history.

"Iowa" is moored in San Pedro - a seaside suburb of Los Angeles, from the center it takes first half an hour to travel on the Silver Metro line, which is buses rushing along the highways, to the Harbor Terminal, from there by bus 205 for almost an hour through the numerous suburbs of LA to the waterfront of San-Pedro. Pedro.

Admission costs $18. On board, follow the yellow arrows - this is the only route around the ship.

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The presidential chambers recreate the atmosphere of the end of 1943, when the battleship carried President Roosevelt to conferences in Casablanca and Tehran.

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I remember the armored conning tower from the Second World War, with narrow loopholes and a periscope.

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There are two aircraft carriers.

In the San Francisco area - Hornet, an Essex-class aircraft carrier that took part in the sinking of the battleship Yamato.

Standing at the pier in the charter town of Alameda on the other side of the bay from San Francisco, go through Oakland, from the city center a quarter of an hour on the 31 bus to Alameda. Admission costs $20.

The only interesting things on board are the items from the American lunar program - the Hornet lifted the crews of the first Apollo lunar missions from the ocean. There is a lonely plane on the flight deck.

Much more interesting is a visit to the Midway, the largest museum-worthy warship in the world. The lead ship of a new class of aircraft carriers, created taking into account the experience of World War II, which entered service in September 1945, is installed on the embankment in the center of San Diego.

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A regular ticket costs $20, but can be purchased through Internet for $18.

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Since Midway is the most visited museum ship in the United States, there are always a lot of people on board.

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You can wander around it all day, going around the numerous deck rooms.

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There are 29 airplanes and helicopters installed on the flight deck and hangar, and you can climb into some of the helicopters.

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In many rooms, scenes from the life of this “floating city” are recreated using wax figures and video recordings.

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Only groups with a guide are allowed inside the “island” superstructure; they just wait until there are enough people and then go.

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The surface ships end with the destroyer USS Turner Joy moored off the quay of the US Pacific Coast Kronstadt, Bremerton. It's an hour away by regular ferry from Seattle.

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The last of the "Forrest Sherman" series went down in history as a participant in the Tonkin Incident, which began the large-scale involvement of the United States in the Vietnam War.

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Tickets cost $12.

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It is interesting because most likely you will be the only visitors on the ship.

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There are diesel-electric submarines installed in the cities of the Pacific coast, 2 of which are Soviet.

At Pier 45 of the San Francisco Fisherman's Wharf sits the Pampanito, a World War II Balao-class cruising sub. Tickets cost $12.

// antinormanist.livejournal.com

The exhibition at the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry in Portland includes the post-war Barbell-class submarine Blueback. She is the only one of the museum ships on display that you cannot see on your own - they are allowed only with a guided tour, once a day at 9:30.

// antinormanist.livejournal.com

Dolphin, the last diesel-electric submarine of the US Navy, is moored at the San Diego Maritime Museum pier. A single ticket to the Maritime Museum costs $16.

// antinormanist.livejournal.com

After the Soviet submarines on the Dolphin, you are amazed at the vastness and comfort of the interior.

On September 2, 1945, the Act of Surrender of Japan in World War II was signed aboard the American battleship Missouri. This ship later became a museum, like some other ships that left their mark on history.

Battleship Missouri, Pearl Harbor, USA

In Hawaii, in a quiet harbor on the territory of the US naval base in the Pacific Ocean, the battleship Missouri is permanently moored, which is associated with the last day of the bloodiest war in the history of mankind. By the day of its completion, September 2, 1945, the Missouri was an almost new, ultra-modern battleship, launched in 1944. After the Second World War was legally ended aboard the Missouri, the ship served the US Army for many decades. The last salvo of the battleship's guns was fired in 1991 in the Persian Gulf. And since 1993, the Missouri continues to serve as a museum, a visit to which is the pride of every US Army sailor.

Cruiser Belfast, London, UK

This British Town-class light cruiser, named after the capital of Northern Ireland, also fought bravely against the enemy during World War II. Now "Belfast" occupies a place of honor in the center of London near the Tower Bridge on the Thames. Interestingly, the cruiser and its crew were awarded in 2010 the Certificate of the Supreme Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation for their courage and heroism during the war. It was also announced that the Russian Armed Forces would participate in the restoration of the Belfast museum ship.

Icebreaker "Angara", Irkutsk Reservoir, Russia

Angara is the oldest icebreaker in Russia; it was launched in 1900. Its purpose was to lay a path for the Baikal ferry, which could not overcome the seventy-centimeter ice on Lake Baikal. The icebreaker served until 1975, until the day when it was decided to cut it into scrap metal. But this was fortunately prevented by the fact that the ship ran aground. And in 1987, a decision was made to carry out large-scale restoration and turn the icebreaker into a museum. "Angara" became a museum ship in 1990 and still preserves the glorious pages of the history of the oldest icebreaker.

Sailboat "Vasa", Djurgården Island, Sweden

"Vaza" is the only sailing ship of the 17th century that has survived to this day. The ship was the most expensive and grandiose sailing ship of that time, and was to become the most heavily armed flagship of the Swedish fleet. The ship was launched in 1628, but due to design errors, it sank on its first voyage. In this case, about fifty people died - half of the people on board. It turned out that the Vaza had too high a center of gravity and too narrow a transverse dimension, which made the ship unstable. The ship was raised to the surface only in the last century, in 1961, and in 1990 a museum was opened on board, which became one of the most popular in Sweden.

Cruiser "Aurora", St. Petersburg, Russia

There is probably not a person in the post-Soviet space who has not heard of the legendary cruiser. Moreover, in the USSR poems and songs were written about it; the cruiser Aurora was the hero of feature and even animated films. Meanwhile, this symbol of the Great October Revolution has a rich and heroic history associated not only with 1917. It was launched in 1900 and participated in the Battle of Tsushima as part of the Second Pacific Squadron and then in the fighting of the First World War. The glorious history of the cruiser is reflected in the museum exhibits on board. In 2013, the Minister of Defense announced that the cruiser would be repaired and brought back into working order. This would be the best gift for the glorious Aurora.

On the Founding Day of the Russian Navy, we are proud to talk about the most iconic ships in Russian history, berthed as museums, always ready to welcome tourists and history buffs.

Undoubtedly the most recognizable museum ship on our list. An object of cult of Soviet history, from the gun of which the signal was given for the storming of the Winter Palace and the beginning of a turning point not only in Russian, but also in world history. The cruiser, which took part in the Russo-Japanese War and the defense of Leningrad during the Great Patriotic War, became permanently berthed, where it remains today awaiting major repairs.

As a girl, the yacht "Admiral Zavoiko", which fled to China from the madness of the civil war, was converted into a patrol ship after becoming engaged to the navy of the Soviet Union. In this role, the “Red Pennant” managed to become one of the first ships of the Pacific squadron, caught a lot of mines during the Second World War, and then became a museum in Vladivostok’s Golden Horn Bay.

"Mikhail Kutuzov"

The cruiser, named after the heroic commander of the Patriotic War of 1812, by whose will, as is known, “Moscow was given to the Frenchman,” did not gain military glory in peacetime (although “Mikhail Kutuzov” was “lucky” to help the Egyptian and Syrian armies after the end of the Six-Day War), but turned out to be a neighbor of Novorossiysk during the famous disaster. Several dozen sailors sent to help the sinking ship did not return home. After service, the cruiser was decommissioned and in 2000 turned into a museum at the pier in Novorossiysk.

One of the exhibits of the St. Petersburg Central Naval Museum and simply the grandfather of modern nuclear submarines is about a representative of the family of the world's first combat submarines, developed by Stepan Dzhevetsky. A full-fledged participant in the Russo-Japanese War, it was too small to stand at the pier, which made it possible to turn the ship into part of a museum exhibition.

D-2 "Narodovolets"

The glorious grandson of the Drzewiecki submarine, who operated during the Great Patriotic War in the northern latitudes, sending German transport ships to the bottom, narrowly avoiding death several times. For military services after serving in the army, the Narodovolets, launched back in the twenties, was not cut into scrap metal, but was turned into a memorial museum in Shkipersky Protok, which St. Petersburg.

K-21

Another submarine on our list, which was noted during the most terrible war in the history of mankind by torpedoing (though it missed) the famous and formidable German battleship Tirpitz. The rest of the time, the submarine successfully guarded the Northern sea convoys, for which it was awarded the Order of the Red Banner, and after decommissioning its role as a museum in Severomorsk.

"Krasin"

Not as ancient as the Angara, not as famous as the Lenin, but having earned itself a piece of military glory, the icebreaker Krasin became permanently moored in St. Petersburg, which serves as another museum ship. The civilian icebreaker built in 1916 (which, by the way, had to be bought back from the British who kidnapped it) was called up for military service in World War II, where it successfully provided navigation for the Northern Convoy PQ-15.

Today there are many monument ships in the world, and each of them has its own “memory”. So the Japanese have a monument ship, which is most closely associated with the name of a specific admiral and a specific battle. This is an early 20th century battleship, the flagship of the Japanese fleet, and today it is a museum ship. This ship was named after a mountain in Nara Prefecture. It was ordered in 1898 and was built in England at the Vickers shipyard. It was launched in 1900, and it entered operational service in 1902. Probably everyone has already understood that we will be talking about the battleship Mikasa, the flagship of Admiral Togo in the historical Battle of Tsushima.

Battleships Mikasa and Shikishima. Painting by the Penza artist marine painter A. Zaikin.

Let's start with the purpose for which this ship was created. When Japan defeated agrarian and backward China in 1895, it became an event for the world community. However, this victory did not bring much satisfaction to the Japanese, and here's why. Russia did not allow China to be finished off. After all, it was precisely because of pressure from the Russian Empire that Japan was never able to annex Manchuria and give up the captured Lushun (Port Arthur). Therefore, it was decided that they would have to fight with Russia, and for this they needed a fleet of ships superior to the Russian ones. Therefore, already in 1895, the Japanese adopted a ten-year shipbuilding program and began building warships one after another. Of course, they chose Britain for this, and the battleship Mikasa was built there. It was designed by engineer D. Makrow. S. The British are great rationalists, so he didn’t come up with anything particularly new, but decided to take as a basis the project of the battleship “Canopus”, the descendant of which was “Mikasa”. The ship was laid down on the Vickers slipway in the city of Barrow. There are no exact data on the cost of the ship, but it can be assumed that it was at least one million pounds sterling or four million dollars. As a result, the battleship Mikasa turned out to be a classic representative of the British school of combat shipbuilding, but with a national, so to speak, bias.

The hull was assembled from high-grade shipbuilding steel and had a transverse hull frame system. The layout is single-deck, with a slight collapse of the bow frames, but the collapse along the midsection and aft was noticeably pronounced. The hull was divided into many compartments and had many waterproof bulkheads, which increased its protection from torpedoes. The features of the battleship included the presence of a double side and a double bottom. The side armor reached the level of the armored deck.

In the best traditions of the “after Lissa” era, the battleship had a ram in the bow and had a noticeable sheerness, that is, it had a deflection of the upper deck. To stabilize the ship during rolling, side keels were installed on the bottom. By this time, English shipbuilders had developed the Hartman Rahtien composition to coat the underwater part of the hull, which prevented it from becoming overgrown with shells and increased the speed.

The ship's total displacement was more than 16,000 tons, and its maximum length was 132 meters with an average hull width of 24 meters and a draft of eight meters. The Mikasa differed from all other English-built battleships by the noticeably shorter distance between the barbettes of its 305 mm guns. As a result, the design of the upper part of the ship, that is, its superstructures, became more compact, but because of this design decision, the placement of 152-mm medium-caliber guns in separate casemates was impossible; or rather, only four of them were placed on the upper deck, for four guns .

"Mikasa": artillery and armor layout diagram.

The first armor belt, about 2.5 m wide, ran along the waterline, rising above it by about 70 cm. Its maximum thickness reached 229 mm, but in the area of ​​the underwater part it gradually decreased to 127 mm, and at the ends it was 127-102 mm. In the area of ​​the citadel there was a second belt of 152 mm armor, reaching the battery deck, and above it there was a third, also 152 mm, with gun ports cut into it, protecting a battery of 10 six-inch guns, between which armored bulkheads were arranged , separating one weapon from another. So the Japanese ended up with a ship that had 14 152-mm cannons on board, distributed in such a way that there were 7 guns on each side. This was two more guns than the newest Russian battleships of the Borodino type, which had 12 guns in two-gun rotating turrets. This solution was quite, and even more modern than the traditional British placement of guns in casemates, but in the event of damage to the turret (even if it was just warped on the rollers due to a burst or shell impact), two guns would fail at once, but Japanese ship had to “shoot them off” one by one! The ship's "anti-mine caliber" consisted of 20 76-mm guns located in the bow, stern and in the central battery located above the armored deck.

Barbettes, not turrets, were the main caliber (in this, English ships also differed from Russian ones) and the ship's conning tower was protected by 356 mm armor. The upper deck traverses had rational angles, so the designers installed 152 mm thick armor plates here and this significantly lightened the ship. All gun mounts on the sides were covered with 152 mm armor plates, that is, in the area of ​​the ship’s citadel, almost the entire side up to the main deck was armored. The upper deck was armored with 25 mm armor. The lower deck (inside the gun citadel itself) was armored with 51 mm sheets (while its slopes towards the side had a thickness of 76 mm). The thickness of the carapace deck armor was 76 mm. For the cabin, armor developed by the Krupp company with a thickness of 356 mm was used, but the aft cabin was less protected. There armor was only 76 mm. Moreover, it was the Mikasa that became the first Japanese ship to use Krupp armor for its armor. Before this, the British used Harvey armor, but the German armor turned out to be 16-20% better. The importance of increasing the quality of armor while reducing its weight is indicated by such an indicator as the weight of the armor on the ship. On the Mikas, its weight reached 4091 tons, that is, in fact, 30% of its displacement.

When designing the ship, a twin-screw design was chosen. The “heart” of “Mikasa” was three three-cylinder “triple expansion” steam engines from Vickers, the steam for which was produced by 25 water-tube boilers of the Belleville system, withstanding a maximum steam pressure of 21 kg/cm². The draft in the boilers was provided by two chimneys with a diameter of more than four meters each! The total power of the ship's power plant was 16,000 l/s, which gave it the opportunity to reach a maximum speed of 18 knots. At the same time, its cruising range at an economic speed of 10 knots was 4,600 miles.

Coal reserves were stored in two huge bunkers located along the perimeter of both sides, parallel to the boiler rooms. Usually they were loaded with 700 tons of coal, but the ship could take more - 1.5 thousand tons. In general, the ship's seaworthiness was quite high, but it had an unpleasant tendency to bury itself in waves, which led to a drop in speed. The relatively low position of medium-caliber artillery made it difficult to use in fresh weather.

The ship was provided with radio communications - devices of the Italian company Marconi with a range of 180 nautical miles. The ship's crew consisted of 830 people.

The ship received its baptism of fire at the walls of Port Arthur on January 26, 1904, when the Japanese squadron launched a surprise attack on Russian ships stationed in the outer roadstead, and then on February 9, the Mikasa, at the head of a squadron of eight battleships, approached Port Arthur and entered into a battle with the Russian fleet, which was supported by fire from coastal batteries. Already at 11.16, the Mikasa was hit by a 254-mm shell, followed by another hit. The greatest danger in this battle for Japanese ships was the accurate fire of coastal batteries, so Admiral Togo hastened to withdraw his ships from the battle. Then "Mikasa" took part in a battle with Russian ships during their attempt to break out from Port Arthur to Vladivostok, as a result of which it was decided to increase the ammunition on board the ship.

During the battle in the Tsushima Strait, the Mikasa received about 40 hits, most of which were from 305-mm shells. In this case, the third casemate 152-mm gun suffered the most. First, a 305-mm shell hit the roof of his casemate, the explosion of which killed about nine people and simply miraculously did not detonate the ammunition located right there. Two hours later, a 152-mm shell also hit the same place (!). But by luck, the explosion was avoided this time too. Then several guns were damaged by shell hits, and the armor plates of the hull began to diverge in several places. Shells exploded in the bores of the main caliber guns, which led to the guns failing. However, despite all its damage, the ship was able to remain in service, maintained its speed and controllability, and fought until the last moment. According to Japanese sources, the battleship lost 18 people in this battle, and 105 crew members were wounded.

But on the night of September 11-12, while staying at the base in Sasebo, part of the ammunition in the stern detonated on the ship for unknown reasons and the battleship quickly sank at a depth of 11 meters, that is, fortunately, not very deep. 256 sailors were killed on the ship, and another 343 people were injured, many of which were also fatal. A huge hole appeared in the hull, which was later repaired, so that after 11 months the ship returned to service, but the consequences of this explosion were finally eliminated only two years later. During the First World War, the ship carried out patrol duty off the coast of Japan, took part in the intervention against Soviet Russia and was even able to stand in the roadstead of Vladivostok Bay. In September 1921, he hit rocks near Askold Island near Vladivostok and again received serious damage, after which he was expelled from the fleet in 1923.

In 1926, the Mikasa was turned into a museum ship: they dug a huge pit for this purpose in the port of Yokosuka, brought a battleship into it and... covered it with earth right up to the waterline. During the Second World War, the Americans, not seeing from above what kind of ship was below, dropped several bombs on it. Then it was deprived of its memorial status and in 1948 it was turned into a dance hall, for which its towers and superstructure were removed and a long hangar was built in their place. Thus, a new House of Culture “Mikasa” appeared in Yokosuka, named after a mountain from the province of Nara, that is, its military past was completely erased.

Rumor has it that the Soviet Union at this time several times demanded the complete destruction of the former flagship of Admiral Togo. But then the Mikasa suddenly had a powerful defender and not just one of the locals, but Chester William Nimitz, Admiral of the US Fleet and Commander-in-Chief of the Pacific Fleet and Adjacent Territories during the war, who accepted the surrender of Japan as a representative of the American side.

He proposed restoring the Mikasa as a monument, and since it was not cheap, he donated a decommissioned American tank landing ship to the museum restoration fund, which the Japanese sold for scrap and thus collected a third of the required amount.

Repair of the old ship began in 1959, and already at the beginning of 1961, the Mikasa, of which by this time only the hull remained, was actually rebuilt. True, many of the lost elements had to be replaced with dummies, but still it was better than nothing. It was opened to the public on May 27, 1961, and this day was clearly not chosen by chance! 76-year-old Admiral Nimitz was unable to attend the ceremony, but the US delegation, of course, did.

So, thanks to the confluence of all these random circumstances, the battleship "Mikasa" has survived to this day and can be visited and inspected. Experts believe that it is not the ideal of reconstruction, but, nevertheless, today it is the only surviving battleship built at the turn of the century. However, from a distance he looks as if he was standing at the quay wall, ready to go. This monument ship is very popular in Japan. And almost any souvenir shop will offer you a prefabricated model of it made of paper or plastic.