Japanese ironclad Kōtetsu
Kōtetsu, Japan's first ironclad warship, as CSS Stonewall c. 1865.
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| History | |
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| Builder: | Lucien Arman, Bordeaux, France |
| Laid down: | 1863 |
| Launched: | June 21, 1864 |
| Acquired: | February 3, 1869 by Japan |
| Commissioned: | October 25, 1864 |
| Decommissioned: | January 28, 1888 |
| Fate: | Scrapped |
| Notes: | Fuel: Coal, 95 tons |
| General characteristics | |
| Class and type: | Ironclad Ram Warship |
| Displacement: | 1,358 t |
| Length: | 193.5 ft (59.0 m) oa |
| Beam: | 31.5 ft (9.6 m) |
| Draught: | 14 ft 3 in (4.34 m) |
| Propulsion: | 1,200 hp (890 kW) double reciprocating engine |
| Speed: | 10.5 kn (19.4 km/h) |
| Complement: | 135 |
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Kōtetsu (甲鉄?, literally "Ironclad"), later renamed Azuma (東?, "East"), was the first ironclad warship of the Imperial Japanese Navy. Built in Bordeaux, France in 1864 for the Confederate States Navy as CSS Stonewall, and acquired from the United States in February 1869, she was an ironclad ram warship. She had a decisive role in the Naval Battle of Hakodate Bay in May 1869, which marked the end of the Boshin War, and the complete establishment of the Meiji Restoration.
Her sister ship Cheops was sold to the Prussian Navy, becoming the Prinz Adalbert.
Originally named Sphynx, the ship was built for the Confederate States Navy during the American Civil War.
In June 1863 John Slidell, the Confederate commissioner to France, asked Emperor Napoleon III in a private audience if it would be possible for the Confederate government to build ironclad warships in France. Arming ships of war for a recognized belligerent like the Confederate States would have been illegal under French law, but Slidell and Confederate agent James D. Bulloch were confident that the French emperor would be able to circumvent his own laws more easily than could the British government. Napoleon III agreed to the building of ironclads in France on the condition that their destination remain a secret. The following month Bulloch entered a contract with Lucien Arman, an important French shipbuilder and a personal confidant of Napoleon III, to build a pair of ironclad rams capable of breaking the Union blockade. To avoid suspicion, the ships' guns were manufactured separately in England and they were named Cheops and Sphynx to encourage rumors that they were intended for the Egyptian navy.
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Wikipedia