Yaeyama in the 1880s
History
Empire of Japan
Name	Yaeyama
Ordered	1885 Fiscal Year
Builder	Yokosuka Shipyards,Japan
Laid down	June 1887
Launched	March 1889
Completed	15 March 1890
Fate	Scrapped 1 April 1911
General characteristics
Type	Unprotected cruiser
Displacement	1,584long tons (1,609 t)
Length	96.9 m (317 ft 11 in)w/l
Beam	10.5 m (34 ft 5 in)
Draught	4 m (13 ft 1 in)
Propulsion	2-shaft, 6 boilers (8 after 1902), 5,630 hp (4,200 kW)
Speed	20.75 knots (23.88 mph; 38.43 km/h)
Range	5000 nm @ 10 knots
Capacity	350 tons coal
Complement	200
Armament	3 ×QF 4.7 inch Guns 8 ×QF 3 pounder Hotchkiss guns 2 × 457 mm (18 in)torpedo tubes

Yaeyama (八重山) was anunprotected cruiser of theImperial Japanese Navy. The nameYaeyama comes from theYaeyama Islands, the southernmost of the three island groups making up currentOkinawa prefecture.Yaeyama was used by the Imperial Japanese Navy primarily as anaviso (dispatch boat) for scouting, reconnaissance and delivery of high priority messages.

Yaeyama was designed under the supervision ofFrench military advisorEmile Bertin, and built in Japan by theYokosuka Naval Arsenal. Her engine, a three-cylinder triple-expansionsteam engine supplied a pair of six cylindrical boilers was imported fromHawthorn Leslie and Company inEngland. With a small displacement, powerful engines, and a 20.75-knot (38.43 km/h) speed, the heavily armed and lightly armoredYaeyama was an example of theJeune Ecole philosophy of naval warfare advocated by Bertin.^[1] Due to its small size it is sometimes classified as acorvette orgunboat.

Yaeyama was the second domestically-produced steel-hulled vessel in Japan. It retained twomasts for auxiliary sail propulsion in addition to her steam engine.Yaeyama was armed with threeQF 4.7 inch guns and eightQF 3-pounder Hotchkiss guns. In addition, she carried two torpedoes, mounted on the deck.^[2]

Yaeyama was active in theFirst Sino-Japanese War, protecting troop transports toKorea, and covering the landing of Japanese forces atPort Arthur. She was present at the openingBattle of Pungdo, where she assisted in the rescue of the European crew of the steamer "Kowshing"after it was sunk by the cruiserNaniwa. She was subsequently involved in patrols of theYellow Sea. During theBattle of Weihaiwei,Yaeyama covered Japanese landing operations on 18 January 1895 (along withAtago andMaya) and shelled Chinese forts. Subsequently,Yaeyama took part in theinvasion of Taiwan, and saw action on 13 October 1895 at the bombardment of the Chinesecoastal forts at Takow (Kaohsiung) and theInvasion of the Pescadores.

While operating in support of the invasion of Taiwan,Yaeyama precipitated adiplomatic incident with theUnited Kingdom when her captain intercepted the British-flaggedmerchant ship SSThales ininternational waters on the morning of 21 October 1895.Thales had departed Taiwan the previous day with 800 passengers en route toAmoy, includingLiu Yongfu, the provisional second president of theRepublic of Formosa and leader of the military resistance against the Japanese invasion. Suspecting that Liu was on board,Yaeyama set off in pursuit, ordering the vessel to stop just short of Amoy and sending over a boarding party. The boarding party was unable to locate Liu (who had disguised himself as a coolie), but attempted to detain seven other Chinese passengers suspected of being part of the Formosa government. The captain of theThales refused to surrender the passengers, and after a tense ten-hour standoff,Yaeyama's captain CommanderHirayama Tojirō agreed to allowThales to proceed to Amoy. Liu thus escaped capture; however, the search of a neutral vessel in international waters provoked adiplomatic protest from the United Kingdom and resulted in an official apology by the Japanese government, the transfer of Commander Hirayama to the reserves, and the sacking of Japanese admiralArichi Shinanojō. After the war,Yaeyama was transferred to the reserve fleet.

Yaeyama was recalled to duty to assist in escorting transports supporting Japanesenaval landing forces which occupied the port city ofTianjin in northern China during theBoxer Rebellion of 1900, as part of the Japanese contribution to theEight-Nation Alliance.

On 11 May 1902,Yaeyama ran aground during a storm inNemuro Bay,Hokkaido together with the corvetteMusashi and could not be refloated until 1 September of that year. She remained at Yokosuka Naval Arsenal for repairs until June 1903. During this time, her locomotive-type cylindrical boilers were replaced with eightNiclausse boilers, and a second smoke stack was added, albeit without noticeable improvement in her performance.^[2]

During theRusso-Japanese War of 1904–1905,Yaeyama participated in the navalBattle of Port Arthur and subsequentblockade of that port. Despite her small size and obsolescence, she was also present at theBattle of the Yellow Sea and the final decisiveBattle of Tsushima, as well as the Japaneseinvasion of Sakhalin, where her high speed made her useful to carrying sensitive orders and messages between ships and from ship to shore.

After the war, she was used as a test ship for new boiler technologies.^[2]

The advent ofwireless communication made the use ofdispatch vessels obsolete, andYaeyama was scrapped on 1 April 1911.^[2]

• Chesneau, Roger (1979).Conway's All the World's Fighting Ships 1860–1905. Conway Maritime Press.ISBN 0-85177-133-5.
• Evans, David C.;Peattie, Mark R. (1997).Kaigun: Strategy, Tactics, and Technology in the Imperial Japanese Navy, 1887-1941. Annapolis, MD: Naval Institute Press.ISBN 0-87021-192-7.
• Howarth, Stephen (1983).The Fighting Ships of the Rising Sun: The Drama of the Imperial Japanese Navy, 1895-1945. Atheneum.ISBN 0-689-11402-8.
• Jentsura, Hansgeorg (1976).Warships of the Imperial Japanese Navy, 1869-1945. Annapolis, MD: Naval Institute Press.ISBN 0-87021-893-X.
• Paine, S.C.M. (2003).The Sino-Japanese War of 1894-1895: Perception, Power, and Primacy. Cambridge, MA: Cambridge University Press.ISBN 0-521-61745-6.
• Roberts, John (ed). (1983).'Warships of the world from 1860 to 1905 - Volume 2: United States, Japan and Russia. Bernard & Graefe Verlag, Koblenz.ISBN 3-7637-5403-2.
• Roksund, Arne (2007).The Jeune École: The Strategy of the Weak. Leiden: Brill.ISBN 978-90-04-15723-1.
• Schencking, J. Charles (2005).Making Waves: Politics, Propaganda, And The Emergence Of The Imperial Japanese Navy, 1868-1922. Stanford University Press.ISBN 0-8047-4977-9.

• Cruisers of the Imperial Japanese Navy
• Ships built by Yokosuka Naval Arsenal
• 1889 ships
• Naval ships of Japan
• First Sino-Japanese War cruisers of Japan
• Russo-Japanese War cruisers of Japan

• Use dmy dates from December 2020
• Pages using infobox ship image with unknown parameters
• Articles containing Japanese-language text