Career
Builder:	Holland
Ordered:	1863
Laid down:	August 1863
Launched:	3 November 1865
Commissioned:	10 September 1866
Arrived in Japan:	26 March 1867
Decommissioned:	1869
Fate:	Wrecked in a storm Salvaged in 1990
General Characteristics
Displacement:	2,590 t
Length:	72.2 m LOA
Beam:	13.04 m
Draught:	6.40 m
Propulsion:	Ship-rigged 3-masted sailboat (20,970 sqm of sails) 400 hp auxiliary steam engine
Fuel:	Coal
Speed:	10 knots
Complement:	400
Armament:	18-16cm, 8-30pdr, 5 more cannons later

Kaiyō Maru (Japanese: 開陽丸) was one of Japan's first modern warships, powered by both sails and steam. She was ordered in the Netherlands in 1863 by the Bakufu, the government of the Shogun.

She was brought back to Japan early in 1867 by Enomoto Takeaki, a Japanese Navy student who had been sent to study Naval science in Holland for five years, together with fifteen other students. Enomoto Takeaki was to become vice-admiral of the modernized Bakufu fleet upon his return to Japan, and Kaiyō Maru was to become his flagship.

The Boshin War erupted soon after, near the end of 1867, in which pro-Imperial forces fought the Bakufu forces between 1867 and 1869. In September 1868, Enomoto Takeaki decided to continue combat in northern Japan together with the Daimyos faithful to the Bakufu regime, and sailed out of Shinagawa in Tokyo towards the north, with Kaiyō Maru and seven other modern ships. The ship was also carrying on board a handful of French military advisors, and their leader Jules Brunet. The rebels ended up in Hokkaido, where they established an independent and ephemeral Ezo Republic.

Kaiyō Maru eventually became the main ship of the fleet in Hokkaido. Many hopes were put in her to achieve naval superiority against a weaker and nascent Imperial Japanese Navy, but she eventually was wrecked in Esashi, Hokkaido, during a storm on 15 November 1868.

Her demise is said to have demoralized Enomoto Takeaki, who had brought her from the other side of the world, and clearly reduced the chances of the rebel forces to succeed.

Kaiyō Maru was discovered on the seafloor in 1975, and she was salvaged and reconstructed in 1990. She is now visible at the docks in Esashi and has become a tourist attraction.

External links

The salvaged Kaiyō Maru in Esashi