Japanese warship Kaiten
As Kaiten in January 1868
|
|
| History | |
|---|---|
.svg){kind=small} Prussia
|
|
| Name: | Danzig |
| Ordered: | 15 March 1850 |
| Laid down: | 1850 |
| Completed: | June 1853 |
| Commissioned: | 12 July 1851 |
| Decommissioned: | 30 September 1860 |
| Struck: | 1 September 1862 |
| Fate: | Sold, 1864? |
 Tokugawa Shogunate
|
|
| Acquired: | 1864 |
| Renamed: | Kaiten Maru (回天丸?) |
| Republic of Ezo | |
| Acquired: | 1869 |
| Fate: | Destroyed by fire, 20 June 1869 |
| General characteristics | |
| Type: | Paddle frigate |
| Displacement: | 1,920 t (1,890 long tons) |
| Length: | 75.66 m (248 ft 3 in) |
| Beam: | 16.5 m (54 ft 2 in) |
| Installed power: | 400 ihp (300 kW) |
| Propulsion: | Marine steam engine |
| Sail plan: | Full rigged ship |
| Speed: | 11.6 knots (21.5 km/h; 13.3 mph) |
| Complement: | 153 |
| Armament: | 10 68-pounder bombards |
SMS Danzig was the first steam-powered warship in the Prussian Navy. She is most notable for her role in the Battle of Tres Forcas in 1856. She was later decommissioned from the Prussian Navy and served in the navy of the Japanese Tokugawa Shogunate as the Kaiten (Japanese: 回天?) from 1864 until 1869, and then briefly with the breakaway Ezo Republic until her destruction later the same year.
Danzig's design was conceived by the British engineer John Scott Russell and it was originally planned to build her in the United Kingdom. However, Prince Adalbert of Prussia (1811–1873) decided to build the vessel in Danzig instead to stimulate the local economy. The keel was laid at JW Klawitter's works there on 24 August 1850, with the copper mined near Berlin, the wood for the hull coming from the outskirts of Danzig and the iron imported from England. She entered service in June 1853.
Danzig's first voyage was on 12 July 1853 to pick up her armament of ten 68-pounder guns from Deptford. The guns had to be picked up directly, since they could not be exported due to the demands of the Crimean War). She had a crew of 220 officers and men.
Because of the 1853 conflict between the Ottoman and Russian empires, the vessel was then sent to Constantinople in September of that year, together with other Prussian units, to protect Prussian interests. From April to June 1854, the ship was in Piraeus to protect Otto of Greece (a member of the House of Wittelsbach), because he was threatened by a revolution. After this, the ship sailed to Syros to pick up a load of marble for Berlin Museums.
...
Wikipedia