IJN Frigate Fujiyama (1864)

Japanese Frigate (launched 1864. Service 1868-1889)

The Fujiyama (Fujisan), named after Japan’s superstar mountain, was a steam frigate of the Shogunate Navy and later, of the Imperial Japanese Navy. Until 1887 (Meiji year 20), her official name in the IJN was Fujisan-kan. She missed the Shimonoseki War, retained in the US but was quite active in the Boshin war, taking part in many battles, bombardments and operations. However in 1871 she became a training ship and in 1878 she had her engines removed and rigging changed to a three masts barque. She remained a TS until decommissioned in 1889, after a long career under three flags.

Origin

On October 14, 1862 (August 21 or Bunkyu 2 local year), the Edo Shogunate ordered two sloops and one gunboat from the United States to bolster its forces. Fujisan Maru was the first of these “sloops”, completed in June 1864. However, due to the outbreak of the Shimonoseki War, U.S. President Lincoln halted the delivery of the ship while construction of other warships on order was halted. Fujisan Maru ultimately arrived in Japan on January 23, 1866 (December 7, Keio 1) after the war. She took bo part in the hostilities, and was presented to the new government by the Tokugawa shogunate in 1868 (Keio 4) along with the Choyo Maru, Shōkaku Maru, and Kanko Maru. These acquisitions marked the founding of the Imperial Japanese Navy. However her guns would not remain silent for ever.

Colorized by Irootoko JR at Yokohama Naval Academy in the 1880s

She had the occasion to shine in the Boshin War, and with other ships, captured Kanrin Maru. From 1871 (Meiji 4), she became the first training ship of the newly created Naval Academy as a two-masted barque wooden “sloop”. The term was not accurate as in size she was more of a frigate (which is also the way she is classed oin most publications). Her main engine, had been described in literature as well as “direct action engine” with 40-inch bore and a 28.5-inch stroke for the cylinders. These two engines drove each a propeller shaft and were fed by two cylindrical boilers. However they appeared to experience many issues and were eventually removed in October 1876.

Design

Hull and construction details

Fujiyama in c1880 in Yokosuka, original cleaned up.

Fuji Yama had a displacement of 1,000 long tons it seems for an overall lenght of 224 ft (68.28 m) or “210 shaku 3 sun” (approx. 63.73 m) in Japanese measures. The beam was of 33 ft (10.06 m) or 32 shaku 4 sun (approx. 9.82 m) in Japanese measures, and the draft of 11 ft 6 in (3.51 m) forward and 15 feet (4.55 m) aft, mean or fully loaded or in Japanese measures, 11 shaku (approx. 3.33 m) forward, 12 shaku (approx. 3.34 m) aft. Her crew at delivery in January 1868 was listed to be 231 officers and men but in april 1868 it was now of 27 officers and 175 sailors, then 134 in the 1870s. By December 1885 it was of 142 men, with a maximum of 160 including cadets as a TS.

Her hull was shaped as a barque, with a clipper stem and stern (rounded poop) with a single, large rudder. She had four boats on deck and five under davits, including the treaditional captain’s yawl installed in transverse davits just above the offcer’s quarters. She was rigged as a barque and stayed so including into the 1880s, with composite three-part metal masts and four levels of sails, plus an active spanker on the aft mast, extra ones on the main and foremast. The funnel was low, and retired in 1876 so she was a sail-only TS in the 1880s. Structures were limited to a small helmspost on the sterncastle aft, and wings. Decoration was sober, black for the upper hull with a fine white line close to the freeboard, another separating the dark red primer of the underwater hull. The prow was decorated with a chrysantemum and kanji characters for mount Fuji and the officers’s gallery was also sover with a few windows painted black and limited decorum.

Armour

FujiYama was a wooden frigate, and so she was unarmoured, apart the usual wood sandwich using exotic wood like teak for the outer hull along the battery deck, backed by oak and pine. Oak and pine was also used for the hull underwater, pine being used for the outer planking and oak for the structure and decks support, all bracketed with metal futtings. She was an easy prey for any ironclad or armoured frigate or corvette that showed in the Boshin war.

Powerplant

Fuji Yama had two cylindrical boilers feeding two direct-acting engines with one cylinder each with a 40-inch bore and a 28.5-inch stroke for a totak output of 180 hp or 350 IHP, or an estimated 360 hp. Sources diverges about her having a single or two shafts. Japanese figures are generally two shafts, spinning two bronze screw propellers, likely two-bladed each. At completion she was had two masts as a sloop, but after the engine removal she was rigged again as a 3 masts ship rig (barque). Under steam she was capable of 13 knots, and under rig, post-1878, she was capable of 8 knots (15 km/h). Initially she carried approximately 240.42 tons of coal for her machinery and had a significant fuel consumption which made her a bad steamer.

Armament

In 1868 she appeared to have 12 smoothbore muzzle-loading cannons. The detail given is one 6.3 in muzzle loader (160 mm) on deck, with free traverse, and two 5.9 in (150 mm) as well as ten smaller guns, five per broadside.

Career of the Fujiyama

Launch of Fujiyama for the Shogunate in NYC 1864 (Lib. Congress).

FujiYama was ordered by the Shogunate in 1862, which was not an issue even if the continental USA were in a civil war. She was launched n 1864 at Westervelt & Son shipyard, However Pdt. Lincoln blocked the delivery of the ship close to completion due to the outbreak of the Shimonoseki War. She was Completed in 1865 but had to wait until 1866. She departed NYC and arrived at Yokohama on January 23, 1866 (Keio 1, December 7), accepted by the Shogunate. On the eve of the Second Chōshū Expedition on May 29, 1866, Fujisan, commanded by Hida Hamagorō, teamed up with IJN Shōkaku, Nagasaki Maru No. 2, Oe Maru, and Asahi Maru for a raid on Ujina, Aki Province.

On June 2, Fujisan sailed and on the 7th she dropped anchor at Itsukushima for taking part in the Battle of Oshimaguchi. On June 8, Fujisan and Shōkaku bombarded Suo-Oshima.
On June 9, Fujisan bombarded Kuga. When receiving news that Shokaku joined forces as the Army called off its landing on Oshima, Fujisan sailed to Tsuwaji Island. There, she exchanged information with Oe Maru for the latest updates, and returned to Maejima. A day later she returned to Tsuwaji Island. On June 11 together with the Oe Maru, she towed a troopsship to Agesho, where Matsuyama soldiers landed. Herself landed a naval party but did not participated in the battle. The Matsuyama forces returned to their ships and landed again on June 12 after a bombardment by Fujisan and Oe Maru, and retired for the evening.

On June 15, Fujisan attacked the Choshu force ships Heitora Maru, Otoushi Maru, and two warships at Agesho, forcing them to flee. On June 16, she bombarded Tsuwaji Island. On June 17, she received order to support from the Army at Kuga, making another bombardment alongside Shōkaku. However things turned badly for the shogunate, and on June 19, the Army retreated with Fujisan and three other ships taking men on board.

Fujisan took also part of the Battle of Kokuraguchi. Command was passed to the senior officer Mochizuki Taizō and she sailed off Kutsuo on June 23. After Shōkaku’s arrival she sailed for Kokura, arriving on June 28. On July 3, the Choshu attack started. Fujisan and Shōkaku bombarded Hikoshima and Osato, but she was hit by a cannon shell, resulting in casualties. On July 27, the Hikoshima Battery again fired on Fujisan, Kaiten, and Hiryu Maru with the ships duelling for a time. The Choshu ship Heitora Maru appeared, engaged Fujisan. When Shogun Tokugawa Iemochi died of illness, Senior Councilor Ogasawara Nagayuki abandoned the front line. Fujisan, carrying Ogasawara and his suite, set sail for Nagasaki on August 1.

In October-November 1867, Fujisan was under orders of Army Magistrate General Ishikawa and Army Magistrate-General Fujisawa Tsuneyoshi, posted at Kamisaka. When the war between the former shogunate and Satsuma-Choshu alliance, Fujisan was in Osaka Bay, blockading the port of Hyōgo. On April 11, 1868, the Shogunate presented the Fujisan to the new government and on April 28, she was officially nationalized by the new IJN and transferred. On September 18 with Musashi and Hiryu Maru she captured Kanrin Maru in Shimizu. The Franco-Prussian War broke out in July 1870 and to maintain neutrality, three small flotillas were created on July 28 (August 24). Indeed the French had nearby colonial possessions in Asia. Kasuga Maru, Fujisan, and Settsu wre one of these flotillas, sent to Hyogo under command of Akatsuka Genroku.

On March 7, 1871 Fujisan was converted as a training ship for the Naval Academy. In the summer, she was part of a flotilla with Nisshin, Azuma, Kenko, Dai-ni Tei-mao, Ryujo, and Dai-ichi Tei-mao. On July 9 they were hit by a typhoon. Fujisan had her aft mast toppling over, resulting one killed, three injured. On November 15 she was redesignated a “4th-rank ship” and written as a “steamship with 150 horsepower or more, crew 120 or more”. On April 23, 1872 she was decommissioned. On February 2, 1873 she was transferred from the Shusenryo to the Admiralty, but returned to the Shusenryo on March 13. On October 25 she became officially a training ship for the Admiralty. On November 20, 1874 she was reclassified as a 3rd-rate ship and on October 28, 1875 as the IJN was divided between the eastern and western regions, she was sent to the former, under Rear Admiral Nakamuda Kuranosuke as commander, alongside IJN Ryujo, Azuma, Houshou, Unyo, Settsu, Takao Maru, and Osaka Maru.

In October 1876 her engine was removed, completed in 1878 wit a new rigging. On February 19, 1877 as TS she operated with IJN Asama and Raiden, temporarily placed on guard duty as standing ships as tension rose. The Seinan War saw her sent to guard Yokohama, and she was still there on January 1, 1878, but was sent to Yokosuka for maintenance and remained there in July. On November 14, she departed for a training cruise with cadets and toured okyo Bay, back to Yokosuka on December 15. From January 23 to August 28, 1879 she was refitted at Yokosuka, and departed on April 22 for Shinagawa for sea trials, then back to Yokosuka. She left on May 22 for Uraga but two days later she was towed back to Yokohama. On June 8 she departed for Tateyama Bay, then Ajiro and back to Yokohama on the 19th. On August 20, she was towed by Yokosuka Maru to Nagaura, then Shinagawa and in October 11 back to Yokosuka. She left on November 22 for Shinagawa and back, and made another cruise in December.

On January 20, 1880 Fujisan was under the Tokai Naval District, redesignated as a “moored training ship”. She left Yokosuka on May 12 for exercises, towed to Kanada Bay, then Tateyama Bay, Koshiba in May, Shinagawa. She was in another of sich towed trips in June 3, off Sarushima Island, and entering Yokosuka Port on June 4. She departed on November 15 for Shinagawa and returned in December to Yokosuka. By February 3, 1881 while anchored at Sugita, she was ordered to sail to Yokohama, towed by Yokosuka Maru. She arrived on February 4 under the Tokai Naval District, redesignated as a permanent ship from March. On April 18 she departed Yokohama for Kisarazu and back in May. She sailed to Futtsu and Tateyama Bay, then back to Yokohama, Shinagawa and back for a refit at Yokosuka from May 27 to June 7. By December 5, 1882 she had a crew of 312 men with 700 cadets. By December 1885 she was a permanent training ship until her decommission by May 1889, assigned to the Kure Naval District, later transferred to the Kure Torpedo Corps for tests. By September 10, she was reclassed as “utility ship” until sold for BU on August 19, 1896. Her last captain had been Colonel Sada Nomura from January 24, 1889 – May 15, 1889.

Read More/Src

Books

Jentschura, Hansgeorg; Jung, Dieter & Mickel, Peter (1977). Warships of the Imperial Japanese Navy, 1869–1945. NIP
Watts, A. J. (1979). “Japan”. Conway’s All the World’s Fighting Ships 1860–1905. Conway Maritime Press.

Links

ijnh.seahistory.org
photo of the launch at NYC, showing her original rig
ja.wikipedia.org
en.wikipedia.org