Amagi in 1897 |
|
| Career | |
|---|---|
| Name: | Amagi |
| Ordered: | 1875 Fiscal Year |
| Builder: | Yokosuka Naval Arsenal, Japan |
| Laid down: | 9 September 1875 |
| Launched: | 13 March 1877 |
| Commissioned: | 4 April 1878 |
| Struck: | 14 June 1905 |
| Fate: | Scrapped 24 November 1908 |
| General characteristics | |
| Displacement: | 926 long tons (941 t) |
| Length: | 62.17 m (204 ft 0 in) |
| Beam: | 10.89 m (35 ft 9 in) |
| Draft: | 4.63 m (15 ft 2 in) |
| Propulsion: | horizontally-mounted reciprocating steam engine , 720 hp (540 kW) 2 boilers, 1 shaft |
| Sail plan: | bark-rigged sloop |
| Speed: | 11.5 knots (13.2 mph; 21.3 km/h) |
| Range: | 150 tons coal |
| Complement: | 159 |
| Armament: | • 1 × 170 mm (6.7 in) Krupp breech-loading gun • 1 × 120 mm (4.7 in) gun • 1 × 120 mm (4.7 in) mortar • 3 × 12-pounder breech-loading guns • 3 × 80 mm (3.1 in) Nordenfelt guns |
Amagi (天城 ) was a screw sloop in the early Imperial Japanese Navy, and was the third vessel built by the Yokosuka Naval Arsenal after its acquisition by the Meiji government. When built, Amagi was the largest warship yet produced domestically in Japan. Amagi was named after the Mount Amagi, in Shizuoka Prefecture, Japan.
Amagi was designed as a wooden-hulled three-masted bark-rigged sloop with a coal-fired triple expansion reciprocating steam engine driving a single screw. Made mostly of pine wood, the wooden beams and metal fittings came from the mountains of central Izu Peninsula, which also provided the ship with its name.
With heightened tensions with Joseon dynasty Korea after the assassination of several members of the Japanese embassy in the Imo Incident, Amagi was assigned to patrols off the Korean coast as a show of force in the summer of 1882.
In 1884, Amagi was the first Japanese warship to ascend the Yangzi River in China, making a port call at the treaty port at Wuhan.
Amagi saw combat service in the First Sino-Japanese War, at the Battle of Lushunkou, Battle of Weihaiwei and the Battle of Yalu River (1894). After the war, Amagi was re-designated as a second-class gunboat, and was used for coastal patrol duties. At that time, it underwent refit in Kobe. During the Russo-Japanese War, Amagi was based as a guard ship at Yokohama port, however, before the end of the war it was declared obsolete and was struck from the navy list on 14 June 1905. It was scrapped in 1908.