Japanese gunboat Maya

Japanese gunboat Maya off Kure in 1892
History
Empire of Japan
Name	Maya
Ordered	1883
Builder	Onohama Shipyards
Laid down	1 June 1885
Launched	18 August 1886
Commissioned	10 January 1888
Decommissioned	16 May 1908
Stricken	1 December 1911
Fate	Scrapped 1932
General characteristics
Class and type	Maya-class gunboat
Displacement	614 long tons (624 t)
Length	47.0 m (154.2 ft)
Beam	8.2 m (26 ft 11 in)
Draught	2.95 m (9 ft 8 in)
Propulsion	reciprocating steam engine 2 shafts, 2 boilers 950 hp (710 kW)
Speed	11.0 knots (12.7 mph; 20.4 km/h)
Range	60 tons coal
Complement	104
Armament	2 × 150 mm (6 in) Krupp L/22 breech-loading gun 2 × 1-inch Nordenfelt guns
Service record
Operations:	Siege of Port Arthur

Maya (摩耶) was an iron-hulled, steam gunboat, serving in the early Imperial Japanese Navy.^[1] She was the lead vessel in the four vessel Maya class, and was named after Mount Maya in Kobe.

Maya was an iron-ribbed, iron-sheathed, two-masted gunboat with a horizontal double expansion reciprocating steam engine with two cylindrical boilers driving two screws.^[2] She also had two masts for a schooner sail rig.

Maya was laid down at the Onohama Shipyards in Kobe on 1 June 1885 and launched on 18 August 1886. She was completed on 20 January 1888.^[3]

Maya saw combat service in the First Sino-Japanese War of 1894-1895 under the command of Lieutenant Commander Hashimoto Masaaki, patrolling between Korea, Dairen and escorting Japanese transports.

On 21 March 1898, Maya was re-designated as a second-class gunboat, and was used for coastal survey and patrol duties.^[3]

During the Russo-Japanese War of 1904-1905, Maya assisted in the Siege of Port Arthur, and also made a sortie up the Yalu River to attack Russian positions, and was part of the Japanese fleet for the invasion of Sakhalin. ^[4] She was rearmed with four 4.7 in (120 mm) QF guns and two quadruple 1-inch Nordenfelt guns in 1906.

She was removed from active combat status on 16 May 1908, and was used as a training vessel at the Yokosuka Naval District. Maya was removed from the navy list and transferred to the Home Ministry on 1 December 1911^[3] for use as a police boat in Kobe harbor. She was subsequently demilitarized and sold in December 1918 to a commercial trading firm, Ikeda Shoji, who used her as a transport until she was scrapped in 1932.

• Corbett, Sir Julian. Maritime Operations in The Russo-Japanese War 1904-1905. (1994) Originally classified, and in two volumes, ISBN 1-55750-129-7
• Chesneau, Roger and Eugene M. Kolesnik (editors), All The World's Fighting Ships 1860-1905, Conway Maritime Press, 1979 reprinted 2002, ISBN 0-85177-133-5
• Jentsura, Hansgeorg (1976). Warships of the Imperial Japanese Navy, 1869-1945. Naval Institute Press. ISBN 0-87021-893-X.