was a composite hulled, steam gunboat, serving in the early

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 ...

. page 115 She was the third vessel to be completed in the four vessel , and was named after

Mount Atago ''Mount Atago is a very common name for peaks all over Japan.'' is a 924m mountain in the northwestern part of Ukyo-ku, in the city of Kyoto, Kyoto Prefecture, Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an islan ...

Kyoto Kyoto (; Japanese: , ''Kyōto'' ), officially , is the capital city of Kyoto Prefecture in Japan. Located in the Kansai region on the island of Honshu, Kyoto forms a part of the Keihanshin metropolitan area along with Osaka and Kobe. , the ci ...

Background

''Atago'' was an iron-ribbed, iron-sheathed, two-masted gunboat with a horizontal double expansion reciprocating

steam engine A steam engine is a heat engine that performs mechanical work using steam as its working fluid. The steam engine uses the force produced by steam pressure to push a piston back and forth inside a cylinder. This pushing force can be trans ...

with two cylindrical boilers driving two screws.Chesneau, ''All the World’s Fighting Ships'', p. 236. She also had two masts for a

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 ...

sail rig. ''Atago'' was

laid down Laying the keel or laying down is the formal recognition of the start of a ship's construction. It is often marked with a ceremony attended by dignitaries from the shipbuilding company and the ultimate owners of the ship. Keel laying is one o ...

at the

Yokosuka Naval Arsenal was one of four principal naval shipyards owned and operated by the Imperial Japanese Navy, and was located at Yokosuka, Kanagawa prefecture on Tokyo Bay, south of Yokohama. History In 1866, the Tokugawa shogunate government established the ...

on 17 July 1886 and launched on 18 June 1887. She was completed on 2 March 1889.Nishida, ''Ships of the Imperial Japanese Navy'' To distinguish her from her

sister ship A sister ship is a ship of the same class or of virtually identical design to another ship. Such vessels share a nearly identical hull and superstructure layout, similar size, and roughly comparable features and equipment. They often share a ...

s, she had a yellow belt painted on her hull.

Operational history

''Atago'' saw combat service in the

First Sino-Japanese War The First Sino-Japanese War (25 July 1894 – 17 April 1895) was a conflict between China and Japan primarily over influence in Korea. After more than six months of unbroken successes by Japanese land and naval forces and the loss of the po ...

of 1894-1895 under the command of Lieutenant Commander Inoue Yoshitomo, patrolling between

Korea Korea ( ko, 한국, or , ) is a peninsular region in East Asia. Since 1945, it has been divided at or near the 38th parallel, with North Korea (Democratic People's Republic of Korea) comprising its northern half and South Korea (Republic o ...

Dairen Dalian () is a major sub-provincial port city in Liaoning province, People's Republic of China, and is Liaoning's second largest city (after the provincial capital Shenyang) and the third-most populous city of Northeast China. Located on the ...

and escorting Japanese transports. During the

Battle of Weihaiwei The Battle of Weihaiwei (Japanese: was a battle of the First Sino-Japanese War. It took place between 20 January and 12 February 1895, in Weihai, Shandong Province, China, between the forces of Japan and Qing China. In early January 1895, the ...

, ''Atago'' covered Japanese landing operations on 18 January 1895 (along with and ) and shelled Chinese forts on 29 January and 7 February. On the night of 5 February, ''Atago'' participated in a night operation with , in which the gunboats made a feint attack on the north entrance to the harbor as a diversion while torpedo boats attacked from the east entrance, sinking the Chinese battleship and damaging the cruiser . After the surrender of China, ''Atago'' and ''Chōkai'' remained at Weihaihei as part of the Japanese occupation force. On 21 March 1898, ''Atago'' was re-designated as a second-class gunboat, and was used for coastal survey and patrol duties. During the

Boxer Rebellion The Boxer Rebellion, also known as the Boxer Uprising, the Boxer Insurrection, or the Yihetuan Movement, was an anti-foreign, anti-colonial, and anti-Christian uprising in China between 1899 and 1901, towards the end of the Qing dynasty, by ...

, ''Atago'' was assigned to patrol off the

Taku Forts The Taku Forts or Dagu Forts, also called the Peiho Forts are forts located by the Hai River (Peiho River) estuary in the Binhai New Area, Tianjin, in northeastern China. They are located southeast of the Tianjin urban center. History The f ...

from June to October 1900 under the command of Commander

Heitarō Takenouchi was a Japanese Rear-Admiral during the Russo-Japanese War. He commanded the '' Nisshin'' throughout the war and was also known for delivering the ''Kasuga'' and ''Nisshin'' from Genoa to Yokosuka. Family Heitarō was born on February 6, 1863, ...

. During the

Russo-Japanese War The Russo-Japanese War ( ja, 日露戦争, Nichiro sensō, Japanese-Russian War; russian: Ру́сско-япóнская войнá, Rússko-yapónskaya voyná) was fought between the Empire of Japan and the Russian Empire during 1904 and 1 ...

of 1904–1905, ''Atago'' was initially assigned to operations on the

Liao River The Liao River () is the principal river in southern Northeast China, and one of the seven main river systems in China. Its name derived from the Liao region, a historical name for southern Manchuria, from which the Liaoning province, Liaodong P ...

along with the cruiser .Corbett, ''Maritime Operations in The Russo-Japanese War 1904-1905''. She later assisted in the

Siege of Port Arthur The siege of Port Arthur ( ja, 旅順攻囲戦, ''Ryojun Kōisen''; russian: link=no, Оборона Порт-Артура, ''Oborona Port-Artura'', August 1, 1904 – January 2, 1905) was the longest and most violent land battle of the Russ ...

, and in early October 1904 captured a Chinese junk with military supplies destined for the port. While on patrol outside Port Arthur on 6 November she ran aground due to fog on rocks southwest of the harbor at position , and sank. She was removed the

navy list A Navy Directory, formerly the Navy List or Naval Register is an official list of naval officers, their ranks and seniority, the ships which they command or to which they are appointed, etc., that is published by the government or naval author ...

on 15 June 1905.

Notes

References

* Corbett, Sir Julian. ''Maritime Operations in The Russo-Japanese War 1904-1905''. (1994) Originally classified, and in two volumes, *Chesneau, Roger and Eugene M. Kolesnik (editors), ''All The World's Fighting Ships 1860-1905'', Conway Maritime Press, 1979 reprinted 2002, * {{DEFAULTSORT:Atago Maya-class gunboats Ships built by Yokosuka Naval Arsenal 1887 ships First Sino-Japanese War naval ships of Japan Russo-Japanese War naval ships of Japan Maritime incidents in 1904 Shipwrecks in the Yellow Sea Shipwrecks of the Russo-Japanese War Naval ships of Japan