- Japanese warship Kanrin Maru
"Kanrin Maru" .
"Kanrin Maru" was accompanied by a United States Navy ship, the USS|Powhatan|1850|2.
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 some of the unequal clauses of the treaties signed during Commodore Perry's negotiation in 1854.
Boshin war
By the end of 1867, the
Bakufu was attacked by pro-imperial forces, initiating theBoshin War which led to theMeiji Restoration . Towards the end of the conflict, in September1868 , after several defeats by the Bakufu, "Kanrin Maru" was one of the eight modern ships led byEnomoto Takeaki towards the northern part of Japan, in his final attempt to wage a counter-attack against pro-imperial forces.The fleet encountered a typhoon on its way northward, and "Kanrin Maru", having suffered damage, 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, "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
ship replica twice the size of the original was ordered for manufacture in theNetherlands , according to the original plans. The ship was visible in the theme park ofHuis Ten Bosch inKyūshū , in southern Japan. It is now used as a sightseeing ship to theNaruto whirlpool from Minami Awaji harbour.References
* "Steam, Steel and Shellfire. The steam warship 1815-1905" Conway's History of the ship ISBN 0-7858-1413-2
* "The origins of Japanese Trade Supremacy. Development and technology in Asia from 1540 to the Pacific War" Christopher Howe, The University of Chicago Press, ISBN 0-226-35485-7
* "End of the Bakufu and the Restoration at Hakodate" (Japanese 函館の幕末・維新) ISBN 4-12-001699-4External links
* [http://www.city.yokosuka.kanagawa.jp/minato/amenity_ships/kanrinmaru.html The Kanrin Maru rebuilt]
* [http://www.town.nandan.hyogo.jp/english/resort/kankou/uzushio.htm Naruto whirpool with the Kanrin Maru]
Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.