Japanese gunboat Banjō

Banjō (磐城, Cliff Castle) was a steam gunboat, serving in the early Imperial Japanese Navy. The ship was named after a mountain in Shizuoka prefecture

Japanese gunboat Banjō in 1889
History
Empire of Japan
Name: Banjō
Ordered: 1877
Builder: Yokosuka Naval Arsenal
Laid down: 1 February 1877
Launched: 16 July 1878
Commissioned: 5 July 1880
Decommissioned: 12 July 1907
Stricken: 23 May 1911
General characteristics
Type: Gunboat
Displacement: 656 long tons (667 t)
Length: 47.7 m (156 ft)
Beam: 7.7 m (25 ft 3 in)
Draught: 3.7 m (12 ft 2 in)
Propulsion:
  • reciprocating steam engine
  • 1 shaft, 4 boilers, 659 hp (491 kW)
Speed: 10.0 knots (11.5 mph; 18.5 km/h)
Range: 107 tons coal
Complement: 112
Armament:
  • 1 × 170 mm (7 in) Krupp breech-loading gun
  • 1 × 120 mm (4.7 in) Krupp breech-loading gun
  • 2 × 12-pdr guns
  • 3 × 25 mm (0.98 in) quadruple Nordenfelt guns

Background

Banjō was a three-masted wooden-hulled gunboat with a double-expansion reciprocating steam engine with four rectangular boilers driving one screw.[1] Her design was based on the basic outlines of the foreign-designed Amagi, but Banjō built in Japan at the Yokosuka Naval Arsenal and was the fourth vessel to be completed at that shipyard. Her first captain was Lieutenant Commander Tsuboi Kōzō.

Operational history

Banjō saw combat service in the First Sino-Japanese War of 1894-1895, patrolling between Korea, Dairen and Weihaiwei in a reserve capacity in the IJN 2nd Fleet.

On 21 March 1898, Banjō was re-designated as a second-class gunboat, and was used for coastal survey and patrol duties as well as a fisheries protection vessel.[2]

During the Russo-Japanese War, Banjō assisted in maintaining the Japanese blockade during the Siege of Port Arthur. She was also present as the Battle of Tsushima in a reserve role.

Banjō was removed from the active list on 12 July 1907 and was struck from the navy list on 25 May 1911.[3] She was demilitarized and sold on 23 April 1912 to the Niigata Prefectural Commercial High School in Niigata, Japan for use as a training vessel. Her eventual fate is unknown.

Notes
  1. Chesneau, All the World’s Fighting Ships, p. 236.
  2. Jentsura, Hansgeorg (1976). Warships of the Imperial Japanese Navy, 1869-1945. Naval Institute Press. ISBN 0-87021-893-X. page 111
  3. Nishida, Ships of the Imperial Japanese Navy

References
  • Chesneau, Roger and Eugene M. Kolesnik (editors), All The World's Fighting Ships 1860-1905, Conway Maritime Press, 1979 reprinted 2002, ISBN 0-85177-133-5
  • Jentsura, Hansgeorg (1976). Warships of the Imperial Japanese Navy, 1869-1945. Naval Institute Press. ISBN 0-87021-893-X.
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