Japanese cruiser Yaeyama

Yaeyama (八重山) was an unprotected cruiser of the Imperial Japanese Navy. The name Yaeyama comes from the Yaeyama Islands, the southernmost of the three island groups making up current Okinawa prefecture. Yaeyama was used by the Imperial Japanese Navy primarily as an aviso (dispatch boat) for scouting, reconnaissance and delivery of high priority messages.

Background
Yaeyama was designed under the supervision of French military advisor Emile Bertin, and built in Japan by the Yokosuka Naval Arsenal, with its engine imported from Hawthorn Leslie and Company in England. With a small displacement, powerful engines, and a 20.75 kn speed, the heavily armed and lightly armored Yaeyama was an example of the Jeune Ecole philosophy of naval warfare advocated by Bertin. Due to its small size it is sometimes classified as a corvette or gunboat.

Design
Yaeyama was the second domestically-produced steel hulled vessel in Japan. It retained a full barque rigging with two masts for auxiliary sail propulsion in addition to her steam engine. Yaeyama was armed with three QF 4.7 inch Gun Mk I–IVs guns and eight QF 3 pounder Hotchkiss  guns. In addition, she carried two torpedoes, mounted on the deck.

Service record
Yaeyama was active in the First Sino-Japanese War, protecting troop transports to Korea, and covering the landing of Japanese forces at Port Arthur. She was subsequently involved in patrols of the Yellow Sea and was present at the Battle of Weihaiwei. In 1895, Yaeyama took part in the invasion of Taiwan, and saw action on 13 October 1895 at the bombardment of the Chinese coastal forts at Takow (Kaohsiung). During this campaign, ‘‘Yaeyama’’ precipitated a diplomatic incident when her captain intercepted the British-flagged merchant ship Thales in international waters on the morning of 21 October 1895. Thales had departed Taiwan the previous day with 800 passengers en route to Amoy. The search of a neutral vessel in international waters provoked a diplomatic protest from the United Kingdom.

After the war, Yaeyama was transferred to the reserve fleet.

Yaeyama was recalled to duty to assist in escorting transports supporting Japanese naval landing forces which occupied the port city of Tianjin in northern China during the Boxer Rebellion, as part of the Japanese contribution to the Eight-Nation Alliance.

On 11 May 1902, she ran aground during a storm in Nemuro Bay, Hokkaido 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 eight Niclausse boilers, and an extra smoke stack was added.

During the Russo-Japanese War of 1904-1905, Yaeyama participated in the naval Battle of Port Arthur and subsequent blockade of that port. Despite her small size and obsolescence, she was also present at the Battle of the Yellow Sea and the final decisive Battle of Tsushima, as well as the Japanese invasion of Sakhalin, where its high speed made it 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.

The advent of wireless communication made the use of dispatch vessels obsolete, and Yaeyama was scrapped on 1 April 1911.