Here's our ship, as she appears today:
One of her former foes, the Russian cruiser Aurora, still survives, and in better condition than our mystery ship.
But she was not, as suggested:
The USS Illinois,
nor the USS Olympia.
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Or the HMAS Cerberus,
nor was it the USS Oregon.
Not the USS Texas,
Or "The Concrete Battleship," Fort Drum in the Phillipines.
JTG got it in one. The HIJMS Mikasa. Built by Vickers at Barrow-in-Furness, and similar in design to the British Majestic class, she was Admiral Togo's flagship at Tsushima, and is considered one of the three most significant historic warships still in existence, along with the HMS Victory and USS Constitution.
The last of the pre-Dreadnoughts still in existence, albeit not afloat. She's been land-bound for a long time. The picture of her in the post is reputed to be, as was noted by several commenters, of her during the time between her being badly damaged by US Naval aviation during WWII and then disarmed under the provisions of the surrender, and prior to the beginning of her restoration, as noted by Robert, via an effort involving Admiral Chester Nimitz, as Olaf noted. Restored by a man who had done his level best to sink the entire Imperial Japanese Navy during WWII. Apparently the restoration effort is on-going, and she has lots of non-original parts, some scavenged from similar Vickers-built ships such as the Chilean Almirante Latorre which were scrapped in Japan.
A good selection of pictures of the Mikasa are available here at Midway Sailor.
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