Japanese corvette Yamato

Yamato (大和) was the second vessel in the three ship Katsuragi-class corvette of three wooden-hulled, sail-and-steam corvettes of the early Imperial Japanese Navy. It was named for Yamato province, the old name for Nara prefecture and the historical heartland of Japan. The name was used again for the very famous World War II battleship JAPANESE BATTLESHIP Yamato, commissioned in 1941.

History
Yamato was designed as an iron-ribbed, wooden-hulled, three-masted bark-rigged sloop-of-war with a coal-fired double expansion reciprocating steam engine with six boilers driving a single screw. Her basic design was based on experience gained in building the JAPANESE CORVETTE Kaimon and the Hiei-class corvette sloops, but was already somewhat obsolescent in comparison to contemporary European warships when completed. However, unlike her sister ships JAPANESE CORVETTE Katsuragi and JAPANESE CORVETTE Musashi, Yamato was built by the Onohama Shipyards, near Kobe. Her first captain was future Fleet Admiral Tōgō Heihachirō.

Yamato saw combat service in the First Sino-Japanese War, patrolling between Korea, Dairen and Weihaiwei. She was also at the Battle of Yalu River (1894) in a reserve capacity in the Western Fleet.

On 21 March 1898, Yamato was designated as a third-class gunboat, and was used for coastal survey and patrol duties.

During the Russo-Japanese War, Yamato served as a guard ship patrolling the Kanmon Straits between Honshū and Kyūshū. On 28 August 1912, she was reclassified as a second class coastal patrol vessel, and was assigned to coastal survey duties. On 1 April 1922, she was officially re-designated as a survey vessel, and her armament was replaced by two 8-inch guns. During the course of its surveys, Yamato discovered a seamount in the Sea of Japan, which was named after it.

On 1 April 1935, Yamato was retired from navy service and relocated to Uraga where she was used as a floating prison and training vessel for juvenile offenders until its retirement. She was swamped in a typhoon in September 1945 in Tokyo Bay. Her hulk was raised and scrapped in 1950.