"Akitsushima" was re-classified as a 2nd class Coastal Defense Vessel on 28 August 1912. In 1913, as a gesture of good will, the officers and crew of "Akitsushima" presided over the funeral of Russian admiral Stepan Makarov in the military cemetery of Port Arthur. The admiral’s remains and those of five of his officers were recovered by a salvage team from the wreck of the battleship which had been sunk by a naval mine during the Russo-Japanese War at the entrance to Port Arthur.