Japanese corvette Musashi

Musashi circa 1897
History
Empire of Japan
Name	Musashi
Ordered	1883 Fiscal Year
Builder	Yokosuka Naval Arsenal, Japan
Laid down	1 October 1884
Launched	30 March 1886
Commissioned	9 February 1887
Stricken	1 April 1928
Fate	Scrapped 1935
General characteristics
Class and type	Katsuragi-class corvette
Displacement	1,476 long tons (1,500 t)
Length	62.78 m (206 ft 0 in)
Beam	10.7 m (35 ft 1 in)
Draft	4.6 m (15 ft 1 in)
Installed power	1,622 ihp (1,210 kW)
Propulsion	1 × horizontally mounted reciprocating steam engine 6 boilers, 2 × screws
Sail plan	Barque-rigged sloop
Speed	13 knots (15 mph; 24 km/h)
Capacity	132 t (146 short tons) coal
Complement	231
Armament	2 × 170 mm (6.7 in) Krupp breech-loading guns 5 × 120 mm (4.7 in) Krupp breech-loading guns 1 × 80 mm (3.1 in) Krupp QF gun 4 × quadruple 1-inch Nordenfelt guns 2 × 380 mm (15 in) torpedo tubes

Musashi (武蔵) was the third and final vessel in the

Katsuragi was designed as an iron-ribbed, wooden-hulled, three-masted barque-rigged sloop-of-war with a coal-fired double-expansion reciprocating steam engine with six cylindrical boilers driving a double screw.^[1] Her basic design was based on experience gained in building Kaimon and Tenryū sloops, but was already somewhat obsolescent in comparison to contemporary European warships when completed.

Musashi was laid down at

On 21 March 1898, Musashi was re-designated a third-class gunboat,^[2] and was used for coastal survey and patrol duties. On 1 May 1902, she was driven onto a sandbar at the mouth of Nemuro Bay because of strong winds, and required three months of repairs after she was refloated. The cruiser Yaeyama was also grounded in Nemuro Bay by the same storm.

During the

References

• Chesneau, Roger and Eugene M. Kolesnik (editors), All The World's Fighting Ships 1860-1905, Conway Maritime Press, 1979 reprinted 2002,
  ISBN 0-85177-133-5
• Jentsura, Hansgeorg (1976). Warships of the Imperial Japanese Navy, 1869-1945. Naval Institute Press.
  ISBN 0-87021-893-X
  .