Japanese cruiser Chishima

The nihongo|IJN "Chishima"|千島 通報艦|Chishima tsūhōkan was a 3rd class protected cruiser of the Imperial Japanese Navy. The name "Chishima" (lit. "Thousand Islands") is the Japanese name for the Kurile Islands.

Background

The "Chishima" was designed by French military advisor Emile Bertin, and built in the Chantiers de la Loire shipyards in France. It was part of the 1882 post-First Sino-Japanese War expansion program of the Imperial Japanese Navy. In keeping with the Jeune Ecole philosophy of naval warfare advocated by Bertin, the "Chishima" was small and lightly armed, so much so that sometimes the "Chishima" has been referred to as a destroyer or corvette or torpedo boat instead of a cruiser.

The commissioning of the "Chishima" was delayed by over a year, as the ship could achieve only 19 knots, instead of the promised convert|22|kn|km/h|0; the French government agreed to pay the Japanese government some financial compensation for the issue.

ervice record

The shakedown cruise of the "Chishima" was made on its voyage to Japan, with a crew of 79 French and eleven Japanese sailors, via Alexandria, the Suez Canal and Singapore. The ship suffered from numerous problems on this voyage, including boiler failure, leaks, and ruptured steam lines, before finally arriving at Nagasaki.

However, the "Chishima" was lost only one week after its formal commissioning into the Japanese navy, in a night collision on 30 November 1892 with the British P&O merchant vessel "Ravenna", off Matsuyama, Ehime prefecture, in poor weather. Her captain and all 90 sailors onboard drowned. This incident led to the establishment of the Japanese "Maritime Anti-Collision Regulations".

Afterwards, in a maritime tribunal held by the British consulate in Yokohama, P&O was found to be negligent, and the Japanese government was awarded 10,000 pounds sterling in compensation, which corresponded roughly to the purchase cost of the ship, but provided for no compensation to the families of the lost officers and crew. Furthermore, all legal costs were to be borne by the Japanese government, and the British captain was neither fined nor imprisoned for his responsibility in the incident. The settlement was regarded as highly unfair by the Japanese public, and was one issue cited in the drive for revision of the unequal treaties between Japan and the western nations.

One of the cannons of the "Chishima" is preserved in a memorial at the Aoyama Cemetery in Tokyo, and a memorial to the Chishima disaster with calligraphy by Togo Heihachiro is at the Buddhist temple of Jofuku-ji in Matsuyama.

References

* Evans, David. "Kaigun: Strategy, Tactics, and Technology in the Imperial Japanese Navy, 1887-1941". US Naval Institute Press (1979). ISBN 0870211927
* Howarth, Stephen. "The Fighting Ships of the Rising Sun: The Drama of the Imperial Japanese Navy, 1895-1945". Atheneum; (1983) ISBN 0689114028
* Jane, Fred T. "The Imperial Japanese Navy". Thacker, Spink & Co (1904) ASIN: B00085LCZ4
* Jentsura, Hansgeorg. "Warships of the Imperial Japanese Navy, 1869-1945". Naval Institute Press (1976). ISBN 087021893X
* Schencking, J. Charles. "Making Waves: Politics, Propaganda, And The Emergence Of The Imperial Japanese Navy, 1868-1922". Stanford University Press (2005). ISBN 0804749779