Pels Rijcken

Kankō Maru, Japan's first steam warship, 1855.

Gerhard Christiaan Coenraad (Gerrit) Pels Rijcken (10 January 1810, Princenhage – 2 May 1889, Breda) was an officer of the Dutch Navy and a politician. As an officer, Pels Rijcken reached the rank of Vice-Admiral. He was Dutch Navy Minister from 1866 to 1868.

From 1855 to 1857, he was the Principal of the Nagasaki Naval Training Center, where he became very active in teaching principles of a modern Navy (navigation, cannonry, measurements) to Bakufu official such as Katsu Kaishu (勝海舟). He arrived in Japan on the mission during which the Dutch remitted to the Japanese their first steam warship, the ZM SS Soembing, a gift from King William III of the Netherlands, which was renamed Kankō Maru and used for training. He was succeeded in this post by Willem Huyssen van Kattendijke from 1857.

The Nagasaki Naval Training Center, in Nagasaki, near Dejima.

FOREIGN MILITARY MISSIONS TO JAPAN
FRANCE	UNITED KINGDOM	GERMANY	NETHERLANDS	ITALY
French military mission to Japan (1867–68) French military mission to Japan (1872–80) French military mission to Japan (1884–89) French military mission to Japan (1918–19)	Tracey Mission (1867–68) Douglas Mission (1873–75) Sempill Mission (1922–23)	Meckel Mission (1885–90)	Pels Rijcken (1855–57) Kattendijke (1857–59) Schermbeck (1883–86)	Pompeo Grillo (1884–88) Quaratezi (1889–90)