Japanese warship Kaiten
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Japanese warship Kaiten (回天?) was a warship of the troops loyal to the Shogun during the Boshin war in Japan in 1868. She was armed with 13 cannons, had a complement of 153 men, a displacement of 710 tons, an engine of 400 hp generating a speed of 12 knots. Her length was 68.4 meters, width was 10.6 meters. She was originally built by Prussia in the harbour of Gdańsk.
She was the key actor in the Naval Battle of Miyako, in which, after a failed attempt to board and overtake the Kotetsu, she was forced to flee ahead of the Imperial Navy. She was then the flagship of the rebel navy during the Naval Battle of Hakodate.
In the late Meiji Era, Arai Ikunosuke, once the Navy Minister of the Republic of Ezo, wrote an extensive article on the Kaiten in the historical journal "Kyu Bakufu".
