Japanese corvette Musashi

Musashi (武蔵) was the third and final vessel in the Katsuragi-class corvette of three wooden-hulled, sail-and-steam corvettes of the early Imperial Japanese Navy. It was named for Musashi province, a former province of Japan located in the Kantō region. The name was used again for the more famous World War II battleship JAPANESE BATTLESHIP Musashi.

History
 Musashi  was designed as an iron-ribbed, wooden-hulled, three-masted barque-rigged sloop with a coal-fired double expansion reciprocating steam engine with four boilers driving a single screw. Her basic design was based on experience gained in building the JAPANESE CORVETTE Kaimon and the Hiei-class corvette screw sloops, but was already somewhat obsolescent in comparison to contemporary European warships when completed.

Musashi was laid down at Yokosuka Naval Arsenal on 1 October 1884, launched on 30 March 1886 and commissioned on 9 February 1887.

Musashi saw service in the First Sino-Japanese War, patrolling between Korea, Dairen and Weihaiwei, from her base at the Korean port of Chemulpo. She was assigned to the Western Fleet.

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

During the Russo-Japanese War, Musashi served as a guard ship in Hakodate harbor. On 28 August 1912, she was reclassified a second class coastal patrol vessel, but was used primarily for training duties. On 1 April 1922, she was officially re-designated a survey vessel, and her armament was replaced by two 8-inch guns. Musashi was retired on 1 April 1928, and was broken up for scrap in 1935.