Kanrin Maru
 Kanrin Maru, Japan's first steam warship, 1855. | ||
| Career | RN Ensign | |
|---|---|---|
| Builder: | Holland | |
| Ordered: | 1853 | |
| Acquired by Japan: | 1855 | |
| Decommissioned: | 1871 | |
| Fate: | Wrecked | |
| General Characteristics | ||
| Displacement: | 300 t | |
| Length: | 50 m LOA | |
| Beam: | 7.3 m | |
| Draught: | ||
| Propulsion: | 3-masted sail 100 hp steam engine |
|
| Fuel: | Coal | |
| Speed: | 6 knots (10 km/h) | |
| Complement: | ||
| Armament: | 12 cannons | |
Kanrin Maru (Japanese: 咸臨丸) was Japan's first sail and steam warship. She was ordered to Holland, the only country which Japan had diplomatic relations at that time, by the Shogun's government, the Bakufu, in 1853. She was delivered in 1855, barely one year after the forcible opening of Japan to trade by Commodore Perry. The ship was used at the newly established Naval School of Nagasaki in order to build-up knowledge of Western warship technology.
The Kanrin Maru was a screw-driven steam warship, a new technological advance in warship design which had barely been introduced in the West ten years earlier with the HMS Rattler (1843). She allowed Japan to get first experience of some of the newest advances in ship design.
First Japanese embassy to the US
Five years later, the Bakufu sent the Kanrin Maru on a mission to the United States, clearly wanting to make a point to the world that Japan now mastered western navigation techniques and western ship technologies. On 19 January 1860, the Kanrin Maru, sailed by Katsu Kaishu (as ship captain), John Manjiro and Fukuzawa Yukichi, left Uraga for San Francisco, to become the first Japanese ship to cross the Pacific Ocean. She was accompanied by an United States Navy ship, the USS Powhatan. From San Francisco, the delegation continued the trip to Washington via Panama on U.S. vessels.
The official objective of the mission was to send the first ever Japanese embassy to the US, and to ratify the new treaty of Friendship, Commerce, and Navigation between the United States and Japan. The mission also tried, in vain, to obtain a revision of the "unequal" clauses of the treaties signed during Commodore Perry's negociation in 1854.
Boshin war
By the end of 1867, the Bakufu was attacked by pro-imperial forces, initiated the Boshin War which led to the Meiji Restoration. Towards the end of the conflict, after several defeats by the Bakufu, the Kanrin Maru was one of the eight modern ships led by Enomoto Takeaki towards the northern part of Japan in September 1868, in his final attempt to wage a counter-attack against pro-imperial forces.
The fleet encountered a typhoon on its way northward, and the Kanrin-Maru, having suffered damaged, was forced to rally Shimizu harbour, where she was captured by Imperial forces.
Enomoto Takeaki finally made a redition in May 1869, and after the end of the conflict, the Kanrin Maru was used by the new Imperial government for the development of the northern island of Hokkaido.
She was lost there in a typhoon in 1871, on the way between Hakodate and Esashi.
Kanrin Maru today
In 1990, a replica twice the size of the original Kanrin Maru was ordered for manufacture in Holland, according to the original plans. The ship is now visible in the theme park of Housetenboz in Kyuushu, in southern Japan.