was a ship of the Tokugawa Navy, and following the collapse of the shogunate, was operated by Tokugawa loyalists under the

Republic of Ezo The was a short-lived separatist state established in 1869 on the island of Ezo, now Hokkaido, by a part of the former military of the Tokugawa shogunate at the end of the ''Bakumatsu'' period in Japan. It was the first government to attempt t ...

during the

Boshin War The , sometimes known as the Japanese Revolution or Japanese Civil War, was a civil war in Japan fought from 1868 to 1869 between forces of the ruling Tokugawa shogunate and a clique seeking to seize political power in the name of the Imperi ...

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

. An armed iron hulled screw-propelled

schooner A schooner () is a type of sailing vessel defined by its rig: fore-and-aft rigged on all of two or more masts and, in the case of a two-masted schooner, the foremast generally being shorter than the mainmast. A common variant, the topsail schoon ...

, she had a length of 41.8 metres, a breadth of 5.45 metres, a draught of 3.23 metres, and weighed 370 tons. She was armed with four 12-pounder bronze cannons. Built by R&H Green at the

Blackwall Yard Blackwall Yard is a small body of water that used to be a shipyard on the River Thames in Blackwall, engaged in ship building and later ship repairs for over 350 years. The yard closed in 1987. History East India Company Blackwall was a sh ...

as ''HMY Emperor'', she was presented to the Tokugawa administration by

James Bruce, 8th Earl of Elgin James Bruce, 8th Earl of Elgin and 12th Earl of Kincardine, (20 July 181120 November 1863) was a British colonial administrator and diplomat. He served as Governor of Jamaica (1842–1846), Governor General of the Province of Canada (1847–1 ...

as a present for the "Emperor" from

Queen Victoria Victoria (Alexandrina Victoria; 24 May 1819 – 22 January 1901) was Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland from 20 June 1837 until Death and state funeral of Queen Victoria, her death in 1901. Her reign of 63 years and 21 ...

on the 26 August 1858, to commemorate the signing of the Anglo-Japanese Treaty of Amity and Commerce. Intended to serve as a royal yacht, its interior was luxuriously furnished with sculptures and mirrors. During the

, ''Banryū'' participated in the

Naval Battle of Awa The occurred on 28 January 1868 during the Boshin War in Japan, in the area of Awa Bay near Osaka. Involving ships of the Tokugawa shogunate and Satsuma vessels loyal to the imperial court in Kyoto, the battle was the second naval battle in Ja ...

, Japan's first engagement between two modern fleets, on 28 January 1868. Subsequently, she was used to transport Shōgun

Tokugawa Yoshinobu Prince was the 15th and last ''shōgun'' of the Tokugawa shogunate of Japan. He was part of a movement which aimed to reform the aging shogunate, but was ultimately unsuccessful. He resigned of his position as shogun in late 1867, while aiming ...

from Edo to exile in Sumpu following the

Fall of Edo The , also known as and , took place in May and July 1868, when the Japanese capital of Edo (modern Tokyo), controlled by the Tokugawa shogunate, fell to forces favorable to the restoration of Emperor Meiji during the Boshin War. Saigō Takam ...

to imperial forces of 11 April. Under the command of

Bankichi Matsuoka :jp- ''"盤吉と表記されることもあるが正しくは磐吉で、読みはばんきち。"'' was a Japanese naval officer in the Tokugawa Navy during the Boshin War, serving as Captain of the Japanese warship Banryū during the Battle ...

, she was one of the ships seized by

Enomoto Takeaki Viscount was a Japanese samurai and admiral of the Tokugawa navy of Bakumatsu period Japan, who remained faithful to the Tokugawa shogunate and fought against the new Meiji government until the end of the Boshin War. He later served in the Mei ...

and other Tokugawa loyalists in their escape to create the Republic of Ezo in

Hokkaido is Japan's second largest island and comprises the largest and northernmost prefecture, making up its own region. The Tsugaru Strait separates Hokkaidō from Honshu; the two islands are connected by the undersea railway Seikan Tunnel. The la ...

later that year. Matsuoka was dispatched to participate to the

Naval Battle of Miyako Bay The was a naval action on 6 May 1869, in which samurai loyalists of the former Tokugawa shogunate under the flag of the newly formed Republic of Ezo failed to take over the , the flagship of the Imperial forces of the new Meiji government. It wa ...

in March 1869, but had to return to Hachinohe due to the weather. During the Naval Battle of Hakodate Bay in May 1869, she sank one of the Imperial navy's warships, the

steam Steam is a substance containing water in the gas phase, and sometimes also an aerosol of liquid water droplets, or air. This may occur due to evaporation or due to boiling, where heat is applied until water reaches the enthalpy of vaporization ...

corvette A corvette is a small warship. It is traditionally the smallest class of vessel considered to be a proper (or " rated") warship. The warship class above the corvette is that of the frigate, while the class below was historically that of the slo ...

in the first recorded modern warship being sunk in ship to ship combat in Japanese history. Towards the end of the battle, with her ammunition exhausted and suffering from severe damage due to numerous hits, she was beached near

Benten Daiba was a key fortress of the Republic of Ezo in 1868–1869. It was located at the entrance of the bay of Hakodate, in the northern island of Hokkaidō, Japan. Benten Daiba was built by the Japanese architect Takeda Ayasaburō on the site former ...

, and set on fire (although the fire went out before it could consume the vessel). She was salvaged by an Englishman, and after repairs and rebuilding in

Shanghai Shanghai (; , , Standard Mandarin pronunciation: ) is one of the four direct-administered municipalities of the People's Republic of China (PRC). The city is located on the southern estuary of the Yangtze River, with the Huangpu River flow ...

was renamed the SS ''Emperor''. She then returned to Japan in 1873 as for use in transporting colonists and supplies to Hokkaido. She was purchased by the

Imperial Japanese Navy The Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN; Kyūjitai: Shinjitai: ' 'Navy of the Greater Japanese Empire', or ''Nippon Kaigun'', 'Japanese Navy') was the navy of the Empire of Japan from 1868 to 1945, when it was dissolved following Japan's surrender ...

in 1877 as ''Raiden'', serving as a training vessel until January 1888. Afterwards, she was demilitarised, and served as a whaling ship out of

Kochi Kochi (), also known as Cochin ( ) ( the official name until 1996) is a major port city on the Malabar Coast of India bordering the Laccadive Sea, which is a part of the Arabian Sea. It is part of the district of Ernakulam in the state of K ...

, and later as a transport, passing through several owners until she was scrapped in 1897. file:Warship Banryu bombards and sinks Choyo 1869 Naval Battle of Hakodate.png, left, ''Banryū'' destroying the Imperial warship in the 1869 Naval Battle of Hakodate Bay.

References

* Eugène Collache, ''Une aventure au Japon'', in "Le Tour du Monde" No.77, 1874.

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Banryu Ships built by the Blackwall Yard Ships of the Tokugawa Navy Ships of the Republic of Ezo Navy Ships of the Imperial Japanese Navy 1856 ships Shipwrecks of Japan Maritime incidents in May 1869