Dreadnoughts to be built in England not for Japan but for Brazil according to the Australian newspaper The Riverine Herald dated Monday 6 July 1908

Minas Geraes-class©Warshipsresearch.blogspot.com

An item referred to the American newspaper New York Herald reporting that Japan secretly ordered the building of 30 warships in England including three dreadnoughts but which were in fact for Japan. Brazilian authorities denied this however, they called it a sheer invention.

Note

1. British shipyards built several battleships for the Imperial Japanese navy. On the date of the news item 6 July 1908 were none under construction. The Katori was to the last one to be built by a British shipyard, namely by Vickers, Barrow-in-Furness, she was completed on 20 May 1906. Her sister ship Kashima built by Armstrong, Elswick, was completed 3 days later. But Brazil did ordered battleships in England at that time. Vickers and Armstrong Whitworth were building the Minas Geraes (laid down 17 April 1907) and Sao Paulo (laid down on 30 April 1907) with a third one the Rio de Janeiro laid down by Armstrong on 16 March 1910. In 1908 there were also rumors spread by newspapers that the USA or Germany were the potential buyers.