Japanese gunboat Akagi

Akagi at Kure in 1902
History
Empire of Japan
Name:	Akagi
Ordered:	1885
Builder:	Onohama Shipyards
Laid down:	20 July 1886
Launched:	7 August 1888
Commissioned:	20 August 1890
Struck:	1 April 1911
Fate:	sold 1912; scrapped 1953
General characteristics
Class and type:	Maya-class gunboat
Displacement:	622 long tons (632 t)
Length:	51.0 m (167.3 ft)
Beam:	8.2 m (26 ft 11 in)
Draught:	2.95 m (9 ft 8 in)
Propulsion:	reciprocating steam engine 2 shafts, 2 boilers 963 hp (718 kW)
Speed:	10.0 knots (11.5 mph; 18.5 km/h)
Range:	74.4 tons coal
Complement:	111
Armament:	4 × 120 mm (4.7 in) Krupp L/22 breech-loading gun 2 × quadruple 1-inch Nordenfelt guns
Service record
Operations:	Battle of the Yalu River (1894) Boxer Rebellion Siege of Port Arthur

Akagi (赤城^?) was a steel-hulled, steam gunboat, serving in the early Imperial Japanese Navy. She was the fourth and final vessel to be completed in the four-vessel Maya class and was named after Mount Akagi in Gunma Prefecture.

Akagi was the last in a series of 600-ton gunboats, which included the Maya, Chōkai, and Atago, built from 1885-1886 under the supervisor of the French naval architect, Bellard. She was the only vessel in the class to be equipped with a steel-hull instead of an iron or composite hull.

Akagi was designed with a horizontal double expansion reciprocating steam engine with two cylindrical boilers driving two screws. She also had two masts for a schooner sail rig. Initially, she was required with one Krupp 210 mm (8 in) L/22 breech-loading gun, one Krupp 120 mm (4.7 in) L/22 breech-loading gun and two quadruple 1-inch Nordenfelt guns, and was intended primarily for port defense. However, by early 1894, she had been rebuilt with a high short forecastle and four 120-millimeter guns arranged on her centerline, six 47-mm rapid-fire guns (two by the bridge, facing forward, and two mounted in small sponsons on either side of the hull). All guns were protected by gun shields. Well-armed for her size, she was soon rendered obsolete with the introduction of larger protected cruisers into the Imperial Japanese Navy inventory.