Japanese armed sloop Kaimon 1886-1887 |
|
| Career | |
|---|---|
| Name: | Kaimon |
| Ordered: | 1877 Fiscal Year |
| Builder: | Yokosuka Naval Arsenal, Japan |
| Laid down: | 1 September 1877 |
| Launched: | 28 August 1882 |
| Commissioned: | 13 March 1884 |
| Struck: | 21 May 1905 |
| Fate: | Mined off Port Arthur 5 July 1904 |
| General characteristics | |
| Displacement: | 1,358 long tons (1,380 t) |
| Length: | 64.68 m (212 ft 2 in) |
| Beam: | 10.9 m (35 ft 9 in) |
| Draft: | 5.2 m (17 ft 1 in) |
| Propulsion: | Horizontally-mounted reciprocating engine, 1,267 hp (945 kW) 4 boilers 1 shaft |
| Sail plan: | bark-rigged sloop |
| Speed: | 12 knots (14 mph; 22 km/h) |
| Range: | 256 tons coal |
| Complement: | 210 |
| Armament: | • 1 × 170 mm (6.7 in) Krupp breech-loading guns • 6 × 120 mm (4.7 in) guns • 1 × 80 mm (3.1 in) gun • 4 × 25 mm (1 in) quadruple Nordenfelt guns • 1 × 11.5 mm (0.45 in) quadruple Nordenfelt guns |
Kaimon (海門) was a sail-and-steam corvette of the early Imperial Japanese Navy. The name Kaimon literally translates to "seagate", but the ship was actually named for Mount Kaimon (written with different kanji) in Kagoshima prefecture.
Kaimon was a three-masted bark-rigged sloop with a coal-fired double expansion reciprocating steam engine with four boilers driving a single screw. It was laid down at the Yokosuka Naval Arsenal on 1 September 1877, launched on 28 August 1882 and commissioned on 13 March 1884. Its construction required over six years, due to numerous technical issues and problems with funding. During its launching ceremony, a flock of white doves (as messengers for the war god Hachiman) was released, setting a precedent for all future launchings of Japanese warships.
With heightened tensions between Japan and the Korean Joseon dynasty after the assassination of several members of the Japanese embassy in Seoul during the Imo Incident, Kaimon was assigned to patrols off the Korean coast in the summer of 1882 in a show of force.
Kaimon saw combat service in the First Sino-Japanese War, at the landings of Japanese forces at Chemulpo in Korea, and subsequently at the Battle of Yalu River (1894). On 21 March 1898, Kaimon was re-designated as a third-class gunboat, and was used for coastal survey and patrol duties.
During the Russo-Japanese War, Kaimon was assigned to patrol duties between the Korean Peninsula and Tsushima Strait. It struck a naval mine and sunk on 5 July 1904, off Port Arthur , with the loss of its captain and 22 crewmen. It was struck from the navy list on 21 May 1905.