Léonce Verny
Encyclopedia
François Léonce Verny, was a French
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...

 officer and naval engineer who directed the construction of the Yokosuka Naval Arsenal
Yokosuka Naval Arsenal
was one of four principal naval shipyards owned and operated by the Imperial Japanese Navy, and was located at Yokosuka city, Kanagawa prefecture on Tokyo Bay, south of Yokohama...

 in Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...

, as well as many related modern infrastructure projects from 1865 to 1876, thus helping jump-start Japan's modernization.

Early life

Léonce Verny was born in Aubenas
Aubenas
Aubenas is a commune in the southern part of the Ardèche department in the Rhône Valley in southern France.It is the seat of several government offices...

, Ardèche
Ardèche
Ardèche is a department in south-central France named after the Ardèche River.- History :The area has been inhabited by humans at least since the Upper Paleolithic, as attested by the famous cave paintings at Chauvet Pont d'Arc. The plateau of the Ardeche River has extensive standing stones ,...

. He studied at Lyon
Lyon
Lyon , is a city in east-central France in the Rhône-Alpes region, situated between Paris and Marseille. Lyon is located at from Paris, from Marseille, from Geneva, from Turin, and from Barcelona. The residents of the city are called Lyonnais....

 and then went on to the prestigious École Polytechnique
École Polytechnique
The École Polytechnique is a state-run institution of higher education and research in Palaiseau, Essonne, France, near Paris. Polytechnique is renowned for its four year undergraduate/graduate Master's program...

. He entered the Institute for Applied Maritime Science at Cherbourg in 1858, where he became a Naval Engineer. He worked for the French state in the arsenals of Brest
Brest, France
Brest is a city in the Finistère department in Brittany in northwestern France. Located in a sheltered position not far from the western tip of the Breton peninsula, and the western extremity of metropolitan France, Brest is an important harbour and the second French military port after Toulon...

 and Toulon
Toulon
Toulon is a town in southern France and a large military harbor on the Mediterranean coast, with a major French naval base. Located in the Provence-Alpes-Côte-d'Azur region, Toulon is the capital of the Var department in the former province of Provence....

.

China mission

Verny was sent to Ningbo
Ningbo
Ningbo is a seaport city of northeastern Zhejiang province, Eastern China. Holding sub-provincial administrative status, the municipality has a population of 7,605,700 inhabitants at the 2010 census whom 3,089,180 in the built up area made of 6 urban districts. It lies south of the Hangzhou Bay,...

 and Shanghai
Shanghai
Shanghai is the largest city by population in China and the largest city proper in the world. It is one of the four province-level municipalities in the People's Republic of China, with a total population of over 23 million as of 2010...

 in China
China
Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...

 from 1862-1864, to supervise the construction of four gunboat
Gunboat
A gunboat is a naval watercraft designed for the express purpose of carrying one or more guns to bombard coastal targets, as opposed to those military craft designed for naval warfare, or for ferrying troops or supplies.-History:...

s for the Chinese Navy
Beiyang Fleet
The Beiyang Fleet was one of the four modernised Chinese navies in the late Qing Dynasty. Among the four, the Beiyang Fleet was particularly sponsored by Li Hongzhang, one of the most trusted vassals of Empress Dowager Cixi and the principal patron of the "self-strengthening movement" in northern...

, as well as a new shipyard. During that time, he was also French Vice-Consul in Ningbo.

Career in Japan

Japan had started a modernization effort in 1853 and the Tokugawa government
Tokugawa shogunate
The Tokugawa shogunate, also known as the and the , was a feudal regime of Japan established by Tokugawa Ieyasu and ruled by the shoguns of the Tokugawa family. This period is known as the Edo period and gets its name from the capital city, Edo, which is now called Tokyo, after the name was...

 decided to build a modern naval shipyard and arsenal in collaboration with the French government. Verny was persuaded to go to Japan by his distant relative, French ambassador Léon Roches
Léon Roches
Léon Roches was a representative of the French government in Japan from 1864 to 1868.Léon Roches was a student at the Lycée de Tournon in Grenoble, and followed an education in Law...

 in September 1865, who negotiated the substantial annual salary of $10,000 dollars. He stayed on after the Meiji Restoration
Meiji Restoration
The , also known as the Meiji Ishin, Revolution, Reform or Renewal, was a chain of events that restored imperial rule to Japan in 1868...

 overthrew the Tokugawa government, continuing to work for the new Meiji government for a total of 12 years, returning home to France on March 13, 1876.

Yokosuka arsenal

Verny was appointed chief administrator and constructor of the Yokosuka Naval Arsenal in 1865. Yokosuka
Yokosuka, Kanagawa
is a city located in Kanagawa, Japan. As of 2010, the city had an estimated population of 419,067 and a population density of 4,160 people per km². It covered an area of 100.62 km²...

 was chosen because it was a well protected inlet, in close proximity to Yokohama
Yokohama
is the capital city of Kanagawa Prefecture and the second largest city in Japan by population after Tokyo and most populous municipality of Japan. It lies on Tokyo Bay, south of Tokyo, in the Kantō region of the main island of Honshu...

 and Tokyo
Tokyo
, ; officially , is one of the 47 prefectures of Japan. Tokyo is the capital of Japan, the center of the Greater Tokyo Area, and the largest metropolitan area of Japan. It is the seat of the Japanese government and the Imperial Palace, and the home of the Japanese Imperial Family...

. The same year, he briefly returned to France to purchase all necessary machinery and recruit French naval experts from Brest
Brest, France
Brest is a city in the Finistère department in Brittany in northwestern France. Located in a sheltered position not far from the western tip of the Breton peninsula, and the western extremity of metropolitan France, Brest is an important harbour and the second French military port after Toulon...

, Toulon
Toulon
Toulon is a town in southern France and a large military harbor on the Mediterranean coast, with a major French naval base. Located in the Provence-Alpes-Côte-d'Azur region, Toulon is the capital of the Var department in the former province of Provence....

, and Cherbourg (45 families in all) to help organize the construction of the arsenal. During the months in France, Verny also helped in the negotiations for the First French Military Mission to Japan, consisting of military advisors under Jules Brunet
Jules Brunet
Jules Brunet was a French officer who played an active role in Mexico and Japan, and later became a General and Chief of Staff of the French Minister of War in 1898...

 to help train and re-equip the Tokugawa army from 1867, and to assist it in the Boshin War
Boshin War
The was a civil war in Japan, fought from 1868 to 1869 between forces of the ruling Tokugawa shogunate and those seeking to return political power to the imperial court....

 against the Satchō Alliance
Satcho Alliance
The ', or Satchō Alliance was a military alliance between the feudal domains of Satsuma and Chōshū formed in 1866 to combine their efforts to overthrow the Tokugawa shogunate of Japan....

.

In Yokosuka, Verny trained 65 Japanese technicians and hired 2500 workers. The construction of the shipyard itself was only the central point of a major infrastructure development project, which encompassed foundries
Foundry
A foundry is a factory that produces metal castings. Metals are cast into shapes by melting them into a liquid, pouring the metal in a mold, and removing the mold material or casting after the metal has solidified as it cools. The most common metals processed are aluminum and cast iron...

, brick
Brick
A brick is a block of ceramic material used in masonry construction, usually laid using various kinds of mortar. It has been regarded as one of the longest lasting and strongest building materials used throughout history.-History:...

 kiln
Kiln
A kiln is a thermally insulated chamber, or oven, in which a controlled temperature regime is produced. Uses include the hardening, burning or drying of materials...

s, gunpowder
Gunpowder
Gunpowder, also known since in the late 19th century as black powder, was the first chemical explosive and the only one known until the mid 1800s. It is a mixture of sulfur, charcoal, and potassium nitrate - with the sulfur and charcoal acting as fuels, while the saltpeter works as an oxidizer...

 and weapons factories, an aqueduct
Aqueduct
An aqueduct is a water supply or navigable channel constructed to convey water. In modern engineering, the term is used for any system of pipes, ditches, canals, tunnels, and other structures used for this purpose....

 and hydraulic power facilities, modern buildings and technical schools to train Japanese technicians were established.

The Yokosuka Naval Arsenal completed its first warship, the Yokosuka-maru in November 1866, but the planned two repair yards, three shipyards and iron works were not completed by the time of the Meiji restoration. Initial fears that the pro-Bakufu French engineers would be replaced by British engineers were soon proven groundless, and Yokosuka continued to employ on French engineers until 1878.


Lighthouses

In addition to the construction of the Yokosuka Arsenal, Verny also built four lighthouse
Lighthouse
A lighthouse is a tower, building, or other type of structure designed to emit light from a system of lamps and lenses or, in older times, from a fire, and used as an aid to navigation for maritime pilots at sea or on inland waterways....

s in the Tokyo area, some of which still exist, such as the Jōgashima Lighthouse
Jōgashima Lighthouse
is a lighthouse located on the island of Jōgashima in the city of Miura, Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan, off the southernmost and western tip of Miura Peninsula, facing Sagami Bay...

, the Kannonzaki Lighthouse
Kannonzaki Lighthouse
Kannonzaki Lighthouse is a lighthouse on Cape Kannon, on Miura Peninsula, in Yokosuka, Kanagawa, Japan.The lighthouse was built by French engineer Léonce Verny. Its construction had been ordered under the Tokugawa regime in 1867 following the requests of foreign powers under the provisions of the...

 and the Nojimazaki Lighthouse
Nojimazaki Lighthouse
is a lighthouse located at the southern tip of the Bōsō Peninsula, in the city of Minamibōsō, Chiba Prefecture Japan.The Nojimazaki Lighthouse was one of eight lighthouses to be built in Meiji period Japan under the provisions of the Anglo-Japanese Treaty of Amity and Commerce of 1858, signed by...

. He also built the Shinagawa Lighthouse
Shinagawa Lighthouse
Shinagawa Lighthouse was a lighthouse in Shinagawa , south of Tokyo, Japan.The lighthouse was the third of the 4 lighthouses built by French engineer Léonce Verny. It has now been relocated at the Meiji Mura near Nagoya....

.

Léonce Verny also managed the building of the shipyard at Nagasaki, the largest in the Far East at that time. In Kobe, he built a metallurgical plant, as well as a patent slip
Patent slip
The patent slip or Marine Railway was invented by Scot Thomas Morton in 1818 as a cheaper alternative to a dry dock for ship repair. It consisted of an inclined plane, which extended well into the water, and a wooden cradle onto which a ship was floated...

.

Verny experienced numerous problems during his tenure in Japan, as the expectations of the Japanese government and military were very high, but funding was very limited, and Verny had to create much of the necessary infrastructure from scratch. When visited by the French construction director of the Chinese Fuzhou
Fuzhou
Fuzhou is the capital and one of the largest cities in Fujian Province, People's Republic of China. Along with the many counties of Ningde, those of Fuzhou are considered to constitute the Mindong linguistic and cultural area....

 arsenal in 1871, Verny noted that the Chinese budget was three times larger than his.

Verny returned to France in 1876, when the Japanese were able to take full control of the operations.

Later life

Upon his return to France, Verny went to work at one of the largest mining companies in France (Compagnie des houllières de Firminy) at Firminy
Firminy
Firminy is a commune in the Loire department in central France.It lies on the Ondaine River 8 mi. S.W. of Saint-Étienne by rail.-Sights:Two historic churches from the 12th and 16th centuries are located here...

 in Roche-la-Molière
Roche-la-Molière
Roche-la-Molière is a commune in the Loire department in the Rhône-Alpes region in central France.-See also:*Communes of the Loire department...

 in January 1877 and rose to the position of director in September 1895. He then served on the Board of Trade of Saint-Etienne (1881-1900) of which he was secretary from 1883 to 1896. He was subsequently awarded the Legion of Honour.

Verny died on May 2, 1908, in his home in Pont d'Aubenas.

Legacy

Yokosuka became one of the main arsenals of the Imperial Japanese Navy
Imperial Japanese Navy
The Imperial Japanese Navy was the navy of the Empire of Japan from 1869 until 1947, when it was dissolved following Japan's constitutional renunciation of the use of force as a means of settling international disputes...

 into the 20th century, in which were built battleship
Battleship
A battleship is a large armored warship with a main battery consisting of heavy caliber guns. Battleships were larger, better armed and armored than cruisers and destroyers. As the largest armed ships in a fleet, battleships were used to attain command of the sea and represented the apex of a...

s such as , and aircraft carrier
Aircraft carrier
An aircraft carrier is a warship designed with a primary mission of deploying and recovering aircraft, acting as a seagoing airbase. Aircraft carriers thus allow a naval force to project air power worldwide without having to depend on local bases for staging aircraft operations...

s such as and .

Léonce Verny is remembered in Japan as a symbol of modernization and of friendship with France
Franco-Japanese relations
France-Japan relations refers to bilateral relations between France and Japan. The history of goes back to the early 17th century, when a Japanese samurai and ambassador on his way to Rome landed for a few days in Southern France, creating a sensation...

. A park has been built in his name ("Verny Park") on the seafront at Yokosuka, with a bronze bust
Bust (sculpture)
A bust is a sculpted or cast representation of the upper part of the human figure, depicting a person's head and neck, as well as a variable portion of the chest and shoulders. The piece is normally supported by a plinth. These forms recreate the likeness of an individual...

 of Verny, and a small museum.

The dry dock
Dry dock
A drydock is a narrow basin or vessel that can be flooded to allow a load to be floated in, then drained to allow that load to come to rest on a dry platform...

s built by Verny are still intact and are currently used by the US Navy as part of the United States Fleet Activities Yokosuka
United States Fleet Activities Yokosuka
U.S. Fleet Activities Yokosuka, or Commander, Fleet Activities Yokosuka is a United States Navy base, in Yokosuka, Japan. Its mission is to maintain and operate base facilities for the logistic, recreational, administrative support and service of the U.S. Naval Forces Japan, U.S. 7th Fleet and...

.
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