[1] Nevertheless, all three were selected to form part of Admiral Nebogatov's Third Pacific Squadron which was subsequently sent out to reinforce Rozhestvensky on his journey to the Far East after political agitation following his departure.

At the resulting Battle of Tsushima (27–28 May 1905), the three ships survived the first phase of the engagement on the evening of 27 May largely due to the Japanese concentrating their efforts on Rozhestvensky's modern battleships (concentrated in the First and Second Divisions of the Russian squadron) and their subsequent almost-total destruction left the Russian fleet in tatters.

The morning of 28 May found the Russian survivors surrounded by an apparently undamaged Japanese force, and Nebogatov surrendered.

[3] Mishima was part of the Japanese Second Fleet in World War I, participating in the Battle of Tsingtao against the small number of Imperial German Navy ships left behind by Admiral von Spee's East Asia Squadron.

After the end of the war, Mishima supported the Japanese Siberian Intervention against the Bolshevik Red Army in eastern Russia by covering the landings of Japanese forces, and by acting as an icebreaker to keep the sea lanes between Japan and Vladivostok open.