Japanese battleship Mutsu

Mutsu around 1922
History
Empire of Japan
Name	Mutsu
Namesake	Mutsu Province
Builder	Yokosuka Naval Arsenal
Laid down	1 June 1918
Launched	31 May 1920
Commissioned	24 October 1921
Stricken	1 September 1943
Fate	Sunk by internal explosion, 8 June 1943
General characteristics (as built)
Class and type	Nagato-class battleship
Displacement	32,720 t (32,200 long tons) (standard)
Length	215.8 m (708 ft) (o/a)
Beam	28.96 m (95 ft)
Draft	9 m (29 ft 6 in)
Installed power	21 × water-tube boilers 80,000 shp (60,000 kW)
Propulsion	4 shafts; 4 × steam turbines
Speed	26.5 knots (49.1 km/h; 30.5 mph)
Range	5,500 nmi (10,200 km; 6,300 mi) at 16 knots (30 km/h; 18 mph)
Complement	1,333 (1921) 1,475 (1942)
Armament	4 × twin 41 cm (16.1 in) guns 20 × single 14 cm (5.5 in) guns 4 × single 76 mm (3 in) AA guns 8 × 533 mm (21 in) torpedo tubes
Armour	Waterline belt: 305–100 mm (12.0–3.9 in) Deck: 69 mm (2.7 in) + 75 mm (3.0 in) Gun turrets: 356–190 mm (14.0–7.5 in) Barbettes: 305 mm (12.0 in) Conning tower: 369 mm (14.5 in)
General characteristics (1943)
Displacement	39,050 tonnes (38,430 long tons) (standard)
Length	224.94 m (738 ft)
Beam	34.6 m (113 ft 6 in)
Draft	9.46 m (31 ft)
Installed power	10 × water-tube boilers 82,578 shp (61,578 kW)
Speed	25.28 knots (46.8 km/h; 29.1 mph)
Range	8,650 nmi (16,020 km; 9,950 mi) at 16 knots (30 km/h; 18 mph)
Complement	1,475
Armament	4 × twin 41 cm guns 18 × single 14 cm guns 4 × twin 12.7 cm DP guns 10 × twin 25 mm AA guns
Armour	Deck: 69 mm (2.7 in) + 100 mm (3.9 in) + 38 mm (1.5 in) Gun turrets: 508–190 mm (20.0–7.5 in) Barbettes: 457 mm (18.0 in)
Aircraft carried	3 × floatplanes
Aviation facilities	1 × catapult

Mutsu (陸奥) was the second and last Nagato-class dreadnought battleship built for the Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN) at the end of World War I. She was named after the province. In 1923 she carried supplies for the survivors of the Great Kantō earthquake. The ship was modernized in 1934–1936 with improvements to her armour and machinery, and a rebuilt superstructure in the pagoda mast style.

Other than participating in the Battle of Midway and the Battle of the Eastern Solomons in 1942, where she did not see any significant combat, Mutsu spent most of the first year of the Pacific War in training. She returned to Japan in early 1943. That June, one of her aft magazines detonated while she was at anchor, sinking the ship with the loss of 1,121 crew and visitors. The IJN investigation into the cause of her loss concluded that it was the work of a disgruntled crew member. The navy dispersed the survivors in an attempt to conceal the sinking in the interest of morale in Japan. Much of the wreck was scrapped after the war, but some artefacts and relics are on display in Japan, and a small portion of the ship remains where she was sunk.