The Unyo, built at Amsterdam, was little larger—295 tons only. She was
a brig-rigged and ram-bowed screw steamer, carrying three pivot guns
(Krupp’s), disposed in the centre line, as were the three big guns in
the French Baudin and Formidable till these ships were reconstructed.
The Unyo was wrecked many years ago.
The Moisshin, screw gunboat of 357 tons, is worthy of more attention,
as she was the first ship ever built in Japan since the days of
Adams. She was an enlarged edition of No. 1 Tébo, and exactly like
her in appearance. Between the funnel and foremast a single Long Tom
was carried. She was launched somewhere about the year 1865. Her
construction was not, of course, purely Japanese—she was a craft upon
which the Islanders practised and learnt construction with important
material.
The Setsu, 935 tons, 8 guns, a sailing frigate, and the Chio-bin, a
barque of 650 tons, originally used for trading purposes, also belong
to this early period.
So also does a ship with more history, the Asama, a composite
sailing-ship of 1445 tons and 14 guns. Her exact early history is
shrouded in some mystery, but just previous to her entry into the
Japanese fleet she was the property of a too-confiding pirate, who went
into a Japanese harbour to refit, and had his ship taken possession
of by the Japanese in consequence. The ship still exists as a gunnery
hulk, and carries, or did till recently, eight 7-in. breech-loaders and
four 4½-in. muzzle-loaders.
With these ships, built and building, Japan found herself engaged
in that civil war of which the Mikasa, Asama, and other ships of
to-day are the direct outcome. The officers had had some years of
Western training, chiefly in Holland and Denmark. The accompanying
illustration, from a Japanese photograph, indicates the uniform of the
period. There were in the Navy in those days two schools—the party of
progress and those opposed to change—by no means necessarily identical
with the same political parties. Indeed, of the two, the _Jo-i_ seem to
have chiefly availed themselves of the war-training to be secured from
the foreigners whose expulsion was one of their political tenets. This,
perhaps, was due in part or in great measure to the other factor in the
dispute—the question as to whether the Emperor or the Shogun and his
representatives should be ruler of the country. This became eventually
the sole question.
[Illustration]
[Illustration: THE MOISSHIN.]
[Illustration: [_By a Japanese artist._