Naval battle of Shimonoseki
Encyclopedia
The Battle of Shimonoseki Straits (Japanese:下関海戦, Shimonoseki Kaisen) is a little-known naval engagement fought on July 16, 1863, by a warship
of the United States
Navy, the USS Wyoming
, against the powerful feudal Japan
ese daimyo
, Lord
Mori Takachika
of the Chōshū clan based in Shimonoseki. It was a prelude to the larger-scale 1863 and 1864 Shimonoseki Campaign by allied foreign powers. It took place among the troubled events of the Late Tokugawa shogunate
from 1854 to 1868, associated with the opening of Japan to the Europe
an and American powers.
, breaking with centuries of imperial tradition and dissatisfied with Japan's opening to the United States and Europe, began to take an active role in matters of state and issued on March 11 and April 11, 1863, an "Order to expel barbarians
" (攘夷実行の勅命). The Shimonoseki based Chōshū clan, under Lord Mori, followed on the order, and began to take actions to expel all foreigners from the date fixed as a deadline, May 10 on a lunar calendar
. Openly defying the shogunate, Mori ordered his forces to fire without warning on all foreign ships traversing Shimonoseki Strait.
The Chōshū clan was equipped with mostly antiquated cannon
firing round shot
, but also some modern armament, such as five 8-inch Dahlgren gun
s which had been presented to Japan by the United States
, and three steam warships of American construction; the bark
Daniel Webster of six guns, the brig
Lanrick or Kosei of ten guns, and the steamer
Lancefield or Koshin of four guns.
Simon Cooper, was riding at anchor outside Shimonoseki Strait, when intercepted and unexpectedly fired upon by two European-built warships belonging to the Choshu clan. The crew of one enemy vessel taunted the frantic American seamen with the loud and unnerving cry, "Revere the Emperor and drive out the barbarians!" ("尊皇攘夷", pronounced "Sonnō Jōi
"). Under incessant cannon fire, Pembroke managed to get under way and escape through the adjacent Bungo Strait
, miraculously with only slight damage and no casualties. Upon arrival in Shanghai, Cooper filed a report of the attack and dispatched it to the U.S. Consulate in Yokohama
, Japan.
Next day, June 26, the French naval dispatch steamer Kienchang was also riding at anchor outside the strait when rebel Japanese artillery
, atop the bluffs surrounding Shimonoseki, opened fire on her. Damaged in several places, the French vessel was lucky to get away with but one wounded sailor.
On July 11, despite warnings from the crew of the Kienchang, with whom they had rendezvoused earlier, the 16-gun Dutch
warship Medusa cruised into Shimonoseki Strait. Her skipper, Captain François de Casembroot
was convinced that Lord Mori would not dare fire on his vessel, due to the strength of his ship and longstanding relations between the Netherlands and Japan. But Mori did just that, pounding Medusa with more than thirty shells and killing or wounding nine seamen. De Casembroot returned fire and ran the rebel gauntlet at full speed, fearful of endangering the life of the Dutch Consul General, who was then aboard Medusa.
Within a short time, the Japanese warlord had managed to fire on most of the foreign flags of those nations with consulates in Japan.
In the morning of July 14, 1863, under sanction by Minister Pruyn, in an apparent swift response to the attack on the Pembroke, the screw sloop
USS Wyoming under Captain David McDougal
sailed into the strait and single-handedly engaged the US-built but poorly manned Japanese fleet. For almost two hours before withdrawing, McDougal sank two enemy vessels and severely damaged the other one, and inflicted some forty Japanese casualties. The Wyoming suffered considerable damage with 4 crew dead and 7 wounded.
At 4:45 a.m. on 14 July, Comdr. McDougal called all hands; and Wyoming got under way 15 minutes later, bound for the strait. After a two-day voyage, she arrived off the island of Himeshima on the evening of 15 July and anchored off the south side of that island.
At five o'clock in the following morning, Wyoming weighed anchor and steamed toward the Strait of Shimonoseki. She went to general quarters at nine, loaded her pivot gun
s with shell
, and cleared for action. The warship entered the strait at 10:45 and beat to quarters. Soon, three signal guns boomed from the landward, alerting the batteries and ships of Lord Mori of Wyoming's arrival.
At about 11:15, after being fired upon from the shore batteries, Wyoming hoisted her colors and replied with her 11-inch pivot guns. Momentarily ignoring the batteries, McDougal ordered Wyoming to continue steaming toward a bark, a steamer, and a brig at anchor off the town of Shimonoseki. Meanwhile, four shore batteries took the warship under fire. Wyoming answered the Japanese cannon "as fast as the guns could be brought to bear",
while shells from the shore guns passed through her rigging
.
USS Wyoming then passed between the brig and the bark on the starboard hand and the steamer on the port, steaming within a pistol shot's range. One shot from either the bark or brig struck near Wyoming's forward broadside gun, killing two men and wounding four. Elsewhere on the ship, a Marine was struck dead by a piece of shrapnel.
Wyoming, in hostile territory, then grounded in uncharted waters shortly after she had made one run past the forts. The Japanese steamer, in the meantime, had slipped her cable and headed directly for Wyoming —possibly to attempt a boarding. The American man-of-war, however, managed to work free of the mud and then unleashed her 11-inch Dahlgren
s on the enemy ship, hulling her and damaging her severely. Two well-directed shots exploded her boiler
s and, as she began to sink, her crew abandoned the ship.
Wyoming then passed the bark and the brig, firing into them steadily and methodically. Some shells were "overs" and landed in the town ashore. As Comdr. McDougal wrote in his report to Secretary of the Navy Gideon Welles
on 23 July, "the punishment inflicted and in store for him will, I trust, teach him a lesson that will not soon be forgotten."
After having been under fire for a little over an hour, Wyoming returned to Yokohama. She had been hulled 11 times, with considerable damage to her smokestack and rigging. Her casualties had been comparatively light: four men killed and seven wounded—one of whom later died. Significantly, Wyoming had been the first foreign warship to take the offensive to uphold treaty rights in Japan.
The two Japanese steamers sunk by the Wyoming were raised again by Chōshū in 1864 and attached to the harbor of Hagi
. The results of the battle were not sufficient to stop the actions of the Choshu clan against foreign shipping and the shore batteries of Choshu remained intact. The shelling of foreign ships continued. Foreign powers would later combine into a powerful fleet in 1864 in order to conduct the Shimonoseki Campaign, with successful results.
Warship
A warship is a ship that is built and primarily intended for combat. Warships are usually built in a completely different way from merchant ships. As well as being armed, warships are designed to withstand damage and are usually faster and more maneuvrable than merchant ships...
of the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
Navy, the USS Wyoming
USS Wyoming (1859)
The first USS Wyoming of the United States Navy was a wooden-hulled screw sloop that fought on the Union side during the American Civil War. Sent to the Pacific Ocean to search for the CSS Alabama, Wyoming eventually came upon the shores of Japan and engaged Japanese land and sea forces...
, against the powerful feudal 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...
ese daimyo
Daimyo
is a generic term referring to the powerful territorial lords in pre-modern Japan who ruled most of the country from their vast, hereditary land holdings...
, Lord
Lord
Lord is a title with various meanings. It can denote a prince or a feudal superior . The title today is mostly used in connection with the peerage of the United Kingdom or its predecessor countries, although some users of the title do not themselves hold peerages, and use it 'by courtesy'...
Mori Takachika
Mōri Takachika
was the 14th daimyo of Chōshū Domain. He was later allowed to use a character from the name of shogun Tokugawa Ieyoshi and changed his name to Yoshichika...
of the Chōshū clan based in Shimonoseki. It was a prelude to the larger-scale 1863 and 1864 Shimonoseki Campaign by allied foreign powers. It took place among the troubled events of the Late Tokugawa shogunate
Late Tokugawa shogunate
, literally "end of the curtain", are the final years of the Edo period when the Tokugawa shogunate came to an end. It is characterized by major events occurring between 1853 and 1867 during which Japan ended its isolationist foreign policy known as sakoku and transitioned from a feudal shogunate...
from 1854 to 1868, associated with the opening of Japan to the Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
an and American powers.
Background
In 1863 the Japanese Emperor KōmeiEmperor Komei
was the 121st emperor of Japan, according to the traditional order of succession. Kōmei's reign spanned the years from 1846 through 1867.-Genealogy:Before Kōmei's accession to the Chrysanthemum Throne, his personal name was ;, his title was ....
, breaking with centuries of imperial tradition and dissatisfied with Japan's opening to the United States and Europe, began to take an active role in matters of state and issued on March 11 and April 11, 1863, an "Order to expel barbarians
Order to expel barbarians
The was an edict issued by the Japanese Emperor Kōmei in 1863 against the Westernization of Japan following the opening of the country by Commodore Perry in 1854.-The order:...
" (攘夷実行の勅命). The Shimonoseki based Chōshū clan, under Lord Mori, followed on the order, and began to take actions to expel all foreigners from the date fixed as a deadline, May 10 on a lunar calendar
Lunar calendar
A lunar calendar is a calendar that is based on cycles of the lunar phase. A common purely lunar calendar is the Islamic calendar or Hijri calendar. A feature of the Islamic calendar is that a year is always 12 months, so the months are not linked with the seasons and drift each solar year by 11 to...
. Openly defying the shogunate, Mori ordered his forces to fire without warning on all foreign ships traversing Shimonoseki Strait.
The Chōshū clan was equipped with mostly antiquated cannon
Cannon
A cannon is any piece of artillery that uses gunpowder or other usually explosive-based propellents to launch a projectile. Cannon vary in caliber, range, mobility, rate of fire, angle of fire, and firepower; different forms of cannon combine and balance these attributes in varying degrees,...
firing round shot
Round shot
Round shot is a solid projectile without explosive charge, fired from a cannon. As the name implies, round shot is spherical; its diameter is slightly less than the bore of the gun it is fired from.Round shot was made in early times from dressed stone, but by the 17th century, from iron...
, but also some modern armament, such as five 8-inch Dahlgren gun
Dahlgren gun
Dahlgren guns were muzzle loading naval artillery designed by Rear Admiral John A. Dahlgren USN, mostly used in the period of the American Civil War. Dahlgren's design philosophy evolved from an accidental explosion in 1849 of a 32-pounder being tested for accuracy, killing a gunner...
s which had been presented to Japan by the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
, and three steam warships of American construction; the bark
Barque
A barque, barc, or bark is a type of sailing vessel with three or more masts.- History of the term :The word barque appears to have come from the Greek word baris, a term for an Egyptian boat. This entered Latin as barca, which gave rise to the Italian barca, Spanish barco, and the French barge and...
Daniel Webster of six guns, the brig
Brig
A brig is a sailing vessel with two square-rigged masts. During the Age of Sail, brigs were seen as fast and manoeuvrable and were used as both naval warships and merchant vessels. They were especially popular in the 18th and early 19th centuries...
Lanrick or Kosei of ten guns, and the steamer
Steamboat
A steamboat or steamship, sometimes called a steamer, is a ship in which the primary method of propulsion is steam power, typically driving propellers or paddlewheels...
Lancefield or Koshin of four guns.
Attacks on Foreign Shipping
The first attack occurred on June 25, 1863. The American merchant steamer Pembroke, under CaptainCaptain (nautical)
A sea captain is a licensed mariner in ultimate command of the vessel. The captain is responsible for its safe and efficient operation, including cargo operations, navigation, crew management and ensuring that the vessel complies with local and international laws, as well as company and flag...
Simon Cooper, was riding at anchor outside Shimonoseki Strait, when intercepted and unexpectedly fired upon by two European-built warships belonging to the Choshu clan. The crew of one enemy vessel taunted the frantic American seamen with the loud and unnerving cry, "Revere the Emperor and drive out the barbarians!" ("尊皇攘夷", pronounced "Sonnō Jōi
Sonno joi
is a Japanese political philosophy and a social movement derived from Neo-Confucianism; it became a political slogan in the 1850s and 1860s in the movement to overthrow the Tokugawa bakufu, during the Bakumatsu period.-Origin:...
"). Under incessant cannon fire, Pembroke managed to get under way and escape through the adjacent Bungo Strait
Bungo Channel
The is a strait separating the Japanese islands of Kyūshū and Shikoku. It connects the Pacific Ocean and Seto Inland Sea. The narrowest part of this channel is the Hōyo Strait....
, miraculously with only slight damage and no casualties. Upon arrival in Shanghai, Cooper filed a report of the attack and dispatched it to the U.S. Consulate in 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...
, Japan.
Next day, June 26, the French naval dispatch steamer Kienchang was also riding at anchor outside the strait when rebel Japanese artillery
Artillery
Originally applied to any group of infantry primarily armed with projectile weapons, artillery has over time become limited in meaning to refer only to those engines of war that operate by projection of munitions far beyond the range of effect of personal weapons...
, atop the bluffs surrounding Shimonoseki, opened fire on her. Damaged in several places, the French vessel was lucky to get away with but one wounded sailor.
On July 11, despite warnings from the crew of the Kienchang, with whom they had rendezvoused earlier, the 16-gun Dutch
Netherlands
The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...
warship Medusa cruised into Shimonoseki Strait. Her skipper, Captain François de Casembroot
François de Casembroot
François de Casembroot was an officer of the Royal Netherlands Navy.Casembroot was named Commander of the ship Medusa, which patrolled the Japanese coast from 1862 to 1864...
was convinced that Lord Mori would not dare fire on his vessel, due to the strength of his ship and longstanding relations between the Netherlands and Japan. But Mori did just that, pounding Medusa with more than thirty shells and killing or wounding nine seamen. De Casembroot returned fire and ran the rebel gauntlet at full speed, fearful of endangering the life of the Dutch Consul General, who was then aboard Medusa.
Within a short time, the Japanese warlord had managed to fire on most of the foreign flags of those nations with consulates in Japan.
Battle
Screw sloop
A screw sloop is a propeller-driven sloop-of-war. In the 19th century, during the introduction of the steam engine, ships driven by propellers were differentiated from those driven by paddle-wheels by referring to the ship's screws...
USS Wyoming under Captain David McDougal
David McDougal
David Stockton McDougal was an officer in the United States Navy during the American Civil War most noted for his leadership during a naval battle off of Japan.-Biography:...
sailed into the strait and single-handedly engaged the US-built but poorly manned Japanese fleet. For almost two hours before withdrawing, McDougal sank two enemy vessels and severely damaged the other one, and inflicted some forty Japanese casualties. The Wyoming suffered considerable damage with 4 crew dead and 7 wounded.
At 4:45 a.m. on 14 July, Comdr. McDougal called all hands; and Wyoming got under way 15 minutes later, bound for the strait. After a two-day voyage, she arrived off the island of Himeshima on the evening of 15 July and anchored off the south side of that island.
At five o'clock in the following morning, Wyoming weighed anchor and steamed toward the Strait of Shimonoseki. She went to general quarters at nine, loaded her pivot gun
Pivot gun
A pivot gun was a type of cannon mounted on a fixed central emplacement which permitted it to be moved through a wide horizontal arc. They were a common weapon aboard ships and in land fortifications for several centuries but became obsolete after the invention of gun turrets...
s with shell
Shell (projectile)
A shell is a payload-carrying projectile, which, as opposed to shot, contains an explosive or other filling, though modern usage sometimes includes large solid projectiles properly termed shot . Solid shot may contain a pyrotechnic compound if a tracer or spotting charge is used...
, and cleared for action. The warship entered the strait at 10:45 and beat to quarters. Soon, three signal guns boomed from the landward, alerting the batteries and ships of Lord Mori of Wyoming's arrival.
At about 11:15, after being fired upon from the shore batteries, Wyoming hoisted her colors and replied with her 11-inch pivot guns. Momentarily ignoring the batteries, McDougal ordered Wyoming to continue steaming toward a bark, a steamer, and a brig at anchor off the town of Shimonoseki. Meanwhile, four shore batteries took the warship under fire. Wyoming answered the Japanese cannon "as fast as the guns could be brought to bear",
while shells from the shore guns passed through her rigging
Rigging
Rigging is the apparatus through which the force of the wind is used to propel sailboats and sailing ships forward. This includes masts, yards, sails, and cordage.-Terms and classifications:...
.
USS Wyoming then passed between the brig and the bark on the starboard hand and the steamer on the port, steaming within a pistol shot's range. One shot from either the bark or brig struck near Wyoming's forward broadside gun, killing two men and wounding four. Elsewhere on the ship, a Marine was struck dead by a piece of shrapnel.
Dahlgren gun
Dahlgren guns were muzzle loading naval artillery designed by Rear Admiral John A. Dahlgren USN, mostly used in the period of the American Civil War. Dahlgren's design philosophy evolved from an accidental explosion in 1849 of a 32-pounder being tested for accuracy, killing a gunner...
s on the enemy ship, hulling her and damaging her severely. Two well-directed shots exploded her boiler
Boiler
A boiler is a closed vessel in which water or other fluid is heated. The heated or vaporized fluid exits the boiler for use in various processes or heating applications.-Materials:...
s and, as she began to sink, her crew abandoned the ship.
Wyoming then passed the bark and the brig, firing into them steadily and methodically. Some shells were "overs" and landed in the town ashore. As Comdr. McDougal wrote in his report to Secretary of the Navy Gideon Welles
Gideon Welles
Gideon Welles was the United States Secretary of the Navy from 1861 to 1869. His buildup of the Navy to successfully execute blockades of Southern ports was a key component of Northern victory of the Civil War...
on 23 July, "the punishment inflicted and in store for him will, I trust, teach him a lesson that will not soon be forgotten."
After having been under fire for a little over an hour, Wyoming returned to Yokohama. She had been hulled 11 times, with considerable damage to her smokestack and rigging. Her casualties had been comparatively light: four men killed and seven wounded—one of whom later died. Significantly, Wyoming had been the first foreign warship to take the offensive to uphold treaty rights in Japan.
The two Japanese steamers sunk by the Wyoming were raised again by Chōshū in 1864 and attached to the harbor of Hagi
Hagi, Yamaguchi
is a city located in Yamaguchi, Japan and was incorporated as a city on July 1, 1932. Formerly part of Abu District.On March 6, 2005, the former city of Hagi merged with the towns of Susa and Tamagawa, and the villages of Asahi, Fukue, Kawakami and Mutsumi to form the new city of Hagi.Iwami Airport...
. The results of the battle were not sufficient to stop the actions of the Choshu clan against foreign shipping and the shore batteries of Choshu remained intact. The shelling of foreign ships continued. Foreign powers would later combine into a powerful fleet in 1864 in order to conduct the Shimonoseki Campaign, with successful results.