Maritime Historical Studies Centre, University of Hull
Earles Shipyard: Russian Royal Yachts, the Kongo
and the Modern Japanese Navy
FAR HORIZONS – to the ends of the Earth | Robb Robinson
Earles Shipyard: Russian Royal Yachts, the Kongo and the Modern Japanese
Navy
In 1870 Edward James Reed (later Sir Edward), formerly naval architect and chief
constructor to the Admiralty, took charge of the newly reconstituted Earles
Shipbuilding and Engineering Company. During his short period as chairman and
managing director the shipyard developed an international reputation. He moved into
Kirkella House, Church Lane, Kirkella, not far from the parish church, and whilst
resident there his shipyard built two steam yachts for the Czarewitch of Russia. A
plaque on the gatehouse of Kirkella House still records the visit of the Czarewitch
and his party as guests of Reed in 1873. Under Reed’s leadership Earles also began
to build warships, not only for the Royal Navy but also for other countries. Not least
amongst the warships the yard turned out was the Kongo which occupied a
significant position in the development of Japan as a modern naval power.
Kirkella House, Church Lane, Kirkella, Hull and the plaque commemorating the visit of the
Czarewitch of Russia, Alexander III in 1873
(photographs courtesy of Alan Hopper, MHSC)
The Imperial Japanese Navy had a history stretching back centuries but failed to
keep fully abreast of all the latest technological and military developments after the
country’s rulers, the Tokugawa Shogunate, enforced the policy of ‘Sakoku’ from
1640. Sakoku, which means exclusion, strictly limited contacts between Japan and
the rest of the world for more than 200 years.
The country’s isolationist stance was abruptly disrupted after a US naval force,
commanded by Commodore Perry steamed into Edo (Old Tokyo) Bay in 1853 with
four warships. Perry’s arrival was perceived as a show of force and his fleet of
modern steam warships exposed the backwardness of the Japanese Navy. He
returned again the following year, this time with seven warships and demanded that
the government of the Shogun sign a Treaty of Peace and Amity; the long term result
was the opening up of Japan to international trade. Many Japanese regarded this
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Earles Shipyard: Russian Royal Yachts, the Kongo and the Modern Japanese
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and other treaties which followed as unequal having been secured by a show of
force. The relative vulnerability of the country thanks to its long standing policy of
isolation by then all too evident and shortly afterwards the country embarked on a
period of rapid modernisation. After the government of the Tokugawa Shogunate
was finally removed in 1867 and the Meiji Emperor restored to full power, the
Japanese were free to travel overseas for the first time in over two hundred years
and looked increasingly abroad in order to modernise their navy.
From 1870 the Royal Navy was seen as a model for the development of Japan’s
navy and in the later 1870s, through the agency of Sir Edward Reed, the country
ordered the armoured steel hulled frigate Fuso and two armoured corvettes. These
were the first warships to built abroad specifically for the Japanese navy. The order
for the Kongo went to Hull whilst the construction of the Hei was allocated to the
Milford Haven Shipbuilding and Engineering Company, although the engines were
supplies by Earles. Meanwhile the Fuso was to be constructed by the Samuda
Brothers at their yard on the Isle of Dogs. All three ships were designed by Reed.
Edward Reed was an energetic and ambitious man. He harboured political ambitions
and stood had unsuccessfully stood as a Liberal candidate for Parliament in Hull in
1873. However, in 1874 he was elected as Liberal MP for Pembroke Boroughs and
the following year he resigned as General Manager of Earles. His influence on the
whole Japanese warship order however is evident. The Kongo was built by Earles,
his former company whilst the Hei was launched in Milford Haven, within his
Pembroke Boroughs constituency. Reed was also clearly fascinated by Japan. He
visited the country in 1879 and later published a history of the country.
Earles soon began work on the Kongo and the vessel was ready for launching by the
middle of April 1877. Japanese officials were also able to oversee aspects of the
construction at Earles and the other shipyards and they were able to make the most
of the experience when modernising Japanese shipyards. The launch of the Kongo
was a major event in Hull, being attended by representatives of the Japanese
government and many Hull dignitaries including Llewellyn Longstaff as well as Sir
Edward Reed. The warship was reported to have glided into the Humber, decorated
with bunting and the Japanese Imperial flag. Tugs quickly brought her into dock for
fitting out whilst the dignitaries enjoyed a breakfast in Earles board room and the
Japanese visitors were afterwards taken on a tour of the docks and then to lunch at
the Town Hall.
In the months that followed the fitting out of the Kongo was completed. The 231 foot
ship was of composite construction. That is the frames were made of iron covered
with two thicknesses of teak planking. She was barque rigged with iron lower masts
and capable of carrying a total spread of sail of 17000 square feet. Her compound
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Earles Shipyard: Russian Royal Yachts, the Kongo and the Modern Japanese
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engines enabled her to run at from thirteen to fourteen knots. By all accounts she
was an elegant vessel, her handsomely ornamented with carved work, surmounted
with the emblematic Japanese dragon, her stern decorated with tracery formed of
leaves.
Yet this outward elegance covered a rugged core. She was the first ship of her type
to be fitted with an armour belt, a strip of armour four and a half inches thick
extending the whole length of the engine, boiler and magazines. The Kongo was
equipped with three Krupp long centimetre guns, each weighing 5.5 tons with a
seven inch calibre capable of firing 142lb steel shells. One of these guns was
mounted at the stern on rails so that it could be fired aft or from ports on either side
of the vessel. The other two large guns were mounted on the bow so each could be
fired forwards or give a respective port or starboard broadside. A further six Krupp
guns were mounted in ports on either side of the vessel.
The corvette “Kongo”
Source:http://hush.gooside.com/name/k/Kongo/Kongo.html
In early December the vessel completed a trial trip off Withernsea which by all
accounts proved very successful and in February 1878 the Kongo set off for
Yokohama, hoisting the Japanese flag as she left the Humber for the last time. Her
voyage to Japan took her by way of Malta where she coaled and then through the
Suez Canal. She arrived at Yokosuka at the mouth of Tokyo Bay on the 26th April
1878. Edward Reed despatched the other two ships of the Japanese order a few
weeks after her. Because of the relative inexperience of the Japanese, all three
warships were taken east by British Royal Navy crews, the Kongo being commanded
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Earles Shipyard: Russian Royal Yachts, the Kongo and the Modern Japanese
Navy
by Captain J.W. Webb, R.N., but a number of Japanese officers went with them. One
young officer who sailed with the Hei had completed much of his naval training in
Britain. He was Tōgō Heihachirō later to become win renown as Admiral Togo who
destroyed the Russian Baltic Fleet at Tushima during the Japanese Russian War of
1905. This was the very same Russian Baltic fleet that had bombarded Hull’s
Gamecock Boxing Fleet in the North Sea in October 1904 in the mistaken belief that
the unarmed trawlers were Japanese torpedo boats. Admiral Togo was sometimes
described by British journalists as the ‘Nelson of the East.’
The Kongo subsequently had a fairly eventful naval career. In 1882 and again in
1884 she carried out patrol work off the coast of Korea during periods of political
tension and crisis and at the end of the 1880s made a series of long distance
navigational training voyages, visiting Hawaii on a number of occasions. All three of
the vessels from Reed’s order provided a means for Japanese officers and men to
gain valuable experience in handling steam warships and deploying them effectively.
In effect, they played a crucial role in laying the foundations of Japan’s rise as a
naval power. In 1890 the Kongo and the Hei both visited Istanbul as part of a
goodwill mission to the Ottoman Empire. The two corvettes both saw action during
the First Sino Japanese War of 1894/5 taking part in battles of Lushunkow,
Wehaiwei and Yalu River. The old corvette was deployed once more in the Russo
Japanese War of 1904/5. After the end of this conflict the Kongo was assigned to
surveying duties before being withdrawn from service and scrapped in 1909. Her
sister ship Hei met the same fate a couple of years afterwards.
Thus the first Japanese Imperial Navy ship to be specifically ordered abroad and
delivered was built by Earles of Hull. Today, little remains of Earles at the time of
Edward Reed. The shipyard, of course, closed in the early 1930s and the modern
Victoria Dock Estate covers much of the old yard. However, Kirkella House still
stands with its plaque marking the visit of the Czarewitch and there is a story that the
old redwood tree in its grounds was planted by the Russian heir apparent on his visit
to Hull and district in 1873. There are still a few reminders of the Kongo and Hei out
there. In Hull, Admiral Togo is still remembered as the man who at the Battle of
Tushima in 1905 decisively defeated the Russian Admiral Rozhestvensky villain of
the Dogger Bank Incident. When she was built, the corvette Kongo was named after
Mount Kongo in the Nara Prefecture and later a World War Two battleship took the
same name. The name is still in use today as the Kongo class destroyers form a key
part of modern Japan’s Maritime Defence Force, perhaps a distant reminder of their
predecessor built so many years ago on the banks of the Humber.
Robb Robinson January 2008
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Earles Shipyard: Russian Royal Yachts, the Kongo and the Modern Japanese
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Select Bibliography
Roger Chesneau, Eugene M. Kolesnik, N.J.M. Campbell, Conway’s all the World’s
Fighting Ships (UK: Conway, 1979).
Arthur Credland, Earles of Hull (UK: City of Hull Museums and Art Galleries)
Edward Gillett and Kenneth A MacMahon, A History of Hul (UK: Hull University
Press, 1989)
Lawrence Sondaus, Naval Warfare, 1815 – 1914 (UK: Routlegde, 2001)
David C. Evans @ Mark R. Peattie, Kaigun Strategy, Tactics and Technology in the
Imperial Japanese Navy, 1887 – 1941 (USA: Naval Institute Press, 1997)
On-line References
http://www.absoluteastronomy.com/topics/Japanese_corvette_Kongo_(1877)
Absolute Astronomy. Com. Japanese Corvette Kongo (1877)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_corvette_Kong%C5%8D_(1877)
Wikipedia. Japanese Corvette Kongo (1877)
http://www.hmscaptain.co.uk/Characters/edwardreed.htm
The Story of HMS Captain: The Main Characters
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