Louis-Émile Bertin

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Louis-Émile Bertin in his later years.

The Bertin-designed French-built Matsushima, flagship of the Japanese Navy up to the Sino-Japanese conflict.

Louis-Émile Bertin was a French naval engineer, one of the foremost of his time, and a proponent of the "Jeune Ecole" of light, powerful warships. He was born in Nancy, France in 1840.

From 1886, Émile Bertin was dispatched to Japan for 4 years, where he help build up the Imperial Japanese Navy, making a decisive contribution to the Japanese success in the 1894 Sino-Japanese war. He also directed the construction of the arsenals of Kure and Sasebo at the Sasebo Navy Yard.

Bertin developed the Sanseikan class of cruisers, 3 units featuring a single but powerful main gun, the 12.6 inch Canet gun. Altogether, Bertin supervised the building of more than twenty units. They helped establish the first true modern naval force of Japan, and allowed Japan to achieve mastery in the building of large units, since some of the ships were imported, and some others were built domestically at the arsenal of Yokosuka:

3 cruisers: the 4,700 tons Matsushima and Itsukushima, made in France, and the Hashidate, built by Japan in Yokosuka.
3 coastal warships of 4,278 tons.
2 small cruisers: the Chiyoda, a small cruiser of 2,439 built in Great Britain, and the Yaeyama, 1800 tons, built in Yoyosuka, Japan.
1 light cruiser: the Chishima, built in France.
1 frigate, the 1600 tons Takao, built in Yokosuka.
16 torpedo boats of 54 tons each, built in France by the Companie du Creusot in 1888, and assembled in Japan.

Following the Japanese victory at the Battle of the Yalu, September 17th 1894, Admiral Yuko Ito (1843-1914), who had been onboard the flagship Matsushima wrote to Bertin:

"The ships fulfilled all our hopes. They were the formidable elements of our fleet; because of their powerful armament and intelligent design, we were able to win a brilliant victory against the Chinese armoured ships". (Yuko Ito^[1])

Émile Bertin received from the Meiji Emperor the Order of the Rising Sun, second class, end of 1890. During the ceremony, the Navy Minister Tsugumichi Saigo (1843-1902) declared:

"Not only did Bertin establish the plans for the construction of coastal ships and first-class cruisers, he also made suggestions for the organization of the fleet, the defense of our coasts, the construction of high-caliber guns, the usage of materials such as steel or coal.; during the four years he has been in Japan, he never stopped working for the technical improvement of the Navy, and the results of his efforts are remarquable" (Tokyo, January 23, 1890^[2])

Upon his return to France, he was promoted to Director of the School of Naval Engineering (Ecole du Génie Maritime). In 1895 he became the Director of Naval Construction (Directeur des Construction Navales).

Émile Bertin invented the twin-oscillographer (to study roll and pitch).

He also wrote several books: