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JHO SHO MARU

Shipbuildervessel built by Alexander HALL & Co. (Footdee, Aberdeen)

Date27 March 1869

Object NameCORVETTE

MediumWOOD

ClassificationsShip

Dimensionslength 210' x breadth 38' x depth 23'
Gross tonnage 1459 ton

Object numberABDSHIP001149

Keywords

Aberdeen Built Ships

About MeYard: Alexander Hall & Co.
Yard Number: 261
Subsequent Names: RYŪJŌ (龍驤, Prancing Dragon) (1870)

Fate: Scrapped 1908.

Propulsion: Steam
Description: Ship rigged, screw steam ship, 3 decks, 3 masts, round stern, carvel built, no galleries, no figurehead.
[Gross tonnage, being register tonnage, if a sailing ship, 1459.46 tons. If a steamer, deduct allowance for propelling power as per other side, 467.03 tons. Registered tonnage if a steamer, 992.43 tons.]
(Source: Aberdeen Shipping Register (Aberdeen City Archives))

Owners:
1869: Thomas Blake Glover
1870: Higo Clan
1870-1908: Imperial Japanese Navy

General History:
26/05/1869:
The JHO-SHO-MARU.—Two 100-pounder steel muzzleloading guns and two 6-pounder breech-loading guns, manufactured by Messrs J. Vavaseur & Co., of the London Ordnance Works, Southwark, were successfully proved on Thursday at the proof butt, Royal Arsenal, Woolwich, with the ordinary proof charges—Major-General C. H. Burnaby, Royal Artillery, being present on the part of the firm. These guns are intended to form part of the armament which will he supplied to the Japanese corvette JHO-SHO-MARU, now building at Aberdeen
(Aberdeen Journal)

02/06/1869:
DEATH OF MR JAMES HALL.
With the sudden death of Mr James Hall, senior partner of the firm of Alexander Hall & Sons, shipbuilders, the town has suffered a loss greater than any it has sustained for many years. The melancholy event took place under the following circumstances: between two and three o'clock on Saturday morning, fire broke out in the saw-mill of Messrs George Milne & Company, on the Inches, and the Messrs Hall, as usual on such occasions, were among the first to be apprised of the occurrence. Mr James, on getting the alarm, which he did from the watchman on board the JHU-SHU-MARU, [sic] the large steam corvette recently launched by his firm for the Japanese Government, proceeded with the greater alacrity to the spot as that vessel was lying only twenty yards from the saw-mill where the fire was reported. Meanwhile the bell on board the vessel above named was rung, and every moment increased Mr Hall’s anxiety for her safety, especially as, when arriving at the Draw Bridge, at the Dock Gates, he found he bridge open, and was thus detained some time before he could get across. Notwithstanding this detention, he arrived at the fire while it was still in a smouldering state, and only two or three people were collected. No sooner had he begun to give some orders, and while in the act of directing the water hose with his own hands, than the fames burst through the floor at his feet, and, without word or sign he dropped down and instantly expired. We understand the medical adviser attributes the death to a choking of blood at the heart, produced by the excitement
(Aberdeen Journal)

04/12/1869:
[at] Table Bay, Oct. 19. —JHO SHO MARU, James, Aberdeen.
(Edinburgh Evening Courier)

Taken into the Imperial Japanese Navy in 1870 as RYŪJŌ. Refitted in 1886, used as a gunnery training ship from 1894 and removed from the fleet list in 1898
(Anthony John Watts and Brian G. Gordon (1971), "The Imperial Japanese Navy" (Doubleday, Garden City NY), p. 82)

On 1 April 1873 RYŪJŌ and the TSUKUBA arrived at Shanghai carrying a diplomatic envoy, the first time the Japanese had attempted to use gunboat diplomacy in order to press their case, regarding the fate of Japanese seamen wrecked on Taiwan.
(Norihito Mizuno (2009), "Early Meiji Policies towards the Ryukyus and the Taiwanese Aborigional Territories" Modern Asian Studies, vol. 43, no. 3, pp. 683-739, at p. 713)

RYŪJŌ carried the Home Minister Ōkubo Toshimichi from Tokyo to China to negotiate over the status of Taiwan, which Japan had invaded. She departed on 16 August 1874 and arrived at Tientsin on 1 September 1874. The negotiations led to the Treaty of Peking on 31 October.
(Hans Lengerer (2019), "Pre-History of the Sino-Japanese War 1894-1895: The Taiwan Expedition" Warship International, vol. 56, no. 2, pp. 115-36, at p. 126)

In 1882-83 RYŪJŌ went on a voyage to Hawaii
(Baron Takaki (1906), "The Preservation of Health in the Japanese Navy and Army" British Medical Journal, vol. 1, no. 2368, pp. 1175-76, at p. 1175)

04/06/1887:
COMPLIMENTARY BANQUET ON THE JAPANESE WARSHIP RYUJO.
There is mnch reason to believe that the visit of His Imperial Japanese Majesty's warship RYUJO to these waters has been productive of a great deal of pleasure, not alone to her genial commander, his officers, and crew, but alike to those colonists who have fortunately made their acquaintance during the stay now about to be brought to a close. Ashore the politeness and general bonhomie of Captain Yashijima and his officers and cadets have been most marked, while the crew have invariably conducted themselves with the greatest regard for good order and sobriety. It is not too much to say that in this respect the ''Japa" have been a model for good behaviour to their fellow-tars of Her Majesty's Ships, and their visit to Adelaide will long be remembered with pleasure by those who have made their acquaintance. Not the least among these will be the children living in the vicinity of the beach, who somehow seem to have gained the affections of the dusky tars to a remarkable extent. It has been a pleasure to witness the good under standing existing between the men-o'-warsmen and the juveniles, and the speedy departure of the RYUJO will be to the latter an unfeigned cause of regret. In token, apparently, of the vessel's pleasurable stay here, Captain Yashijima and his officers gave a complimentary banquet on board on Monday afternoon
(Adelaide Observer)

23/07/1887:
Sydney, July 17. [...] The RYUJO left to-day for a cruise among the islands of the Pacific.
(Adelaide Observer)

Additional details from Sumihiro Sano:
JHO-SHO-MARU was transferred to Higo clan and formally named RYŪJŌ [Prancing Dragon]. The Higo clan then presented the RYŪJŌ to the Emperor. RYŪJŌ went into commission on 8th May 1870, as a major warship of the Imperial Japanese Navy.
When RYŪJŌ commissioned she was the strongest war ship in the Imperial Japanese Navy, so she was often assigned as the Imperial Ship.
Emperor Meiji sometimes embarked on RYŪJŌ and she took part in every domestic and foreign incident in the 1870s. From 1881 RYŪJŌ took part in training cruises for cadets three times and sailed to Australia, Chile, Peru, Hawaii, and South East Asia.
09/1888: her engine was removed, and she was assigned as a training ship of the gunnery training school.
02/12/1893: she was decommissioned, but continuously assigned as non manned training ship of gunnery training school.
12/09/1894: she was commissioned again and moored at the harbour entrance of Yokosuka, as a floating battery with 127 crew (for the Sino-Japanese War).
17/02/1895: decommissioned again.
09/1906: gunnery training on RYŪJŌ finished because of a new gunnery training facility established onshore.
22/04/1908: Marquess Hosokawa, the former Lord of Higo clan, submitted a request to the Minister of Navy to dispose RYŪJŌ's name board for the eternal memory of Higo clan.
31/07/1908: government issued instruction that the bow decoration and name board should be detached before disposal by sale for preservation. RYŪJŌ was then sold and scrapped.

Notes: Contract cost: £46,032 (Builder's List held in the Lloyd's Library of the Aberdeen Maritime Museum)
The name RYŪJŌ can be written as RYUJYO
Engine: direct acting, horizontal, cylinders 53" diameter, 280 horsepower.
RYŪJŌ's bow decoration is preserved at Kumamoto castle Museum. Kumamoto castle was the Higo clan headquarters.