To learn how to work this naval militia, Japan imported instructors of various kinds from the Western world. In response to applications, the present Admiral Tracy was sent out by the British Government, and with him a small host of other Westerners. With their natural aptitude, the Japanese rapidly acquired the rudiments of sea service, while on shore the beginnings of a shipbuilding yard were made at Yokosuka. The British naval uniform was adopted with some slight differences. Officers were sent to Europe—chiefly to Holland—to study the principles of naval warfare, and at once a desire to possess ironclads arose.
Out of this came the purchase of Japan’s first ironclad, the Adsuma.
The dimensions, etc., of the Adsuma were as follows:—
| Displacement | 1387 tons. |
| Material of hull | Iron. |
| Length | 157 ft. |
| Beam | 30 ft. |
| Draught (maximum) | 13¼ ft. |
| Armament | One 9-in. 12½ M.L. Armstrong. |
| Four 6½-in. Parrot M.L. rifled. | |
| Horse-power (nominal) | 700. |
| Screws | Two. |
| Speed | 9 knots. |
FUJI YAMA.
The armour was 4½ to 4¾ ins. thick, and distributed on a complete water-line belt and over both of the raised batteries. Though a very famous vessel as the Stonewall Jackson, her war services under that name were not extensive. She was built in France, and at the end of 1864, when ready for sea, carried one large 13-in. 300-pounder (smooth bore) in the bow, and the two 70-pounders (rifled) in the main battery. No ship like her had ever been constructed before, and the Confederates, to whom she then belonged, spread alarming reports as to her power. Putting to sea, she reached Corunna in February, 1865, and was there blockaded by the unarmoured Federal ships Niagara and Sacramento. The former was a famous vessel in her way, of 5013 tons, 345 ft. long, 12-knot speed, and armed with twelve 11-in. smooth bores, throwing a 135-lb. shell each. These guns were not able to fire shot apparently, and the Sacramento was a weaker vessel. The Stonewall Jackson challenged these two to a duel à la Kearsarge and Alabama, but Craven, the Federal commodore, declined—wisely enough, for he could not have done anything against the ironclad with his few heavy pieces, while the ironclad would certainly have disabled and then rammed him.[3] Consequently, the Stonewall Jackson did not smell powder on that occasion, and the war ended very soon afterwards.
In 1866 a mysterious Japanese deputation came to America. Its object was long unknown, but the curiosity it excited was sufficient to cause telegraphic reports of its movements, and surmises as to its intentions, to appear in the London Times every now and again. Finally came the news that “the Japanese deputation have come to buy ironclads”—a statement at first treated as a joke.