The Chishima—Ravenna Collision

CHAPTER SEVEN THE CHISHIMA—RAVENNA COLLISION The Shimonoseki Straits, scene of the Western Powers’ bombardment of the Choshu rebels in 1864, were the setting, in 1892, for the incident which triggered the climax of the Japanese government’s long-running battle to restrict and end British extra-territoriality in Japan.1 The Chishima kan, a Japanese light cruiser of 741 tons,2 was on the home-leg of its journey from Saint-Nazaire, where it had been constructed and handed over to the Imperial Japanese Navy, when, on 29 November 1892 off Matsu - y ama in Ehime ken, it collided with the Ravenna, a P&O steamer of 3,257 tons out of Kobe bound for Hong Kong, and sank immediately with the loss of 74 sailors out of a complement of 90 whilst the damaged Ravenna limped into Nagasaki. With echoes of the Normanton incident, the loss of the Chishima and so many lives was felt deeply in Japan, all the more so as its fleet consisted of only some 30 ships—many of which were unsea-worthy. There was never any judicial determination of the facts surrounding the collision and the interlocutory proceedings of the ensuing court cases3 overlapped with—if they did not encourage—the final moves in the minuet danced by the two governments to end extra-territoriality. After the preliminary hearings in the Chishima cases, Mutsu Munemitsu, approached Maurice de Bunsen, the Chargé d’Affaires, in the Summer of 1893 about re-opening the treaty re-negotiations and the court case went into a state of suspension whilst Aoki Shuzo negotiated the 1894 Treaty. Abolition of extra-territoriality and the Treaty’s renegotiation had been discussed on and off for over ten years and would have occurred almost certainly at some stage during the 1890s even without this dispute; but it is 1 Appendix VII provides a timeline of the events. 2 The Chishima kan was designed by Louis-Émile Bertin, the French naval architect and, from 1886 to 1890, special foreign adviser to the Imperial Japanese Navy. It carried 11 guns and three torpedo tubes. Although completed at Saint-Nazaire on 1 April 1892 it had been commissioned formally into the Imperial Japanese Navy only on 24 November at Nagasaki. 3 The Imperial Japanese Government v. P&O [1895] AC 644 (IJG v. P&O) (the Chishima case) and Tsune Kijima & Others v. P&O (reported as P&O v. Tsune Kijima & Others [1895] AC661 (P&O v. TK&O) (the Tsune Kijima case; together, the Chishima cases). <UN> <UN> 284 chapter seven conceivable that the eruption of this very public litigation helped to pre- cipitate the final negotiations and concentrate both governments’ minds on the need to settle the main question. There was no agreement as to the precise events surrounding, or responsibility for, the collision so a somewhat straitened Japanese government, which had spent some ‘seven to eight hundred thousand yen (£100,000– £115,000)’4 on the Chishima’s construction, looked for compensation from P&O which, in turn, denied responsibility for the collision and claimed reimbursement for the Ravenna’s repairs. In a dispatch sent via Vancouver, de Bunsen saw immediately the makings of a major diplomatic problem.5 From then, the matter escalated until the preliminary points reached the Privy Council which reviewed the foundations of Britain’s extra-territorial regime in Japan. The incident and the ensuing cases exemplify many practical aspects of the operation of British extra-territoriality in Japan and how the two authorities balanced mutual co-operation to make the system work whilst defending their own interests amidst the emotion of the British commu- nity in Japan (and on the China Coast) and equally nationalistic Japanese elements. The Naval Court The first stage, on the British side, was the holding of a Naval Court. The Ravenna’s captain applied formally to the Consul in Nagasaki for such a Naval Court upon the vessel’s arrival there; but, from the beginning, it was considered more likely that the Naval Court would be held at Yokohama.6 Its function was to enquire into the Ravenna’s part in the accident and the role of its officers. The four man Naval Court, held over five days in December 1892,7 was presided over by HMS Leander’s captain and included Troup, a Lieutenant from HMS Leander and the master of a mer- chant vessel then in port. It acquitted the Ravenna’s master, chief officer and others on duty at the time ‘of any blame for the collision but stated 4 De Bunsen to Rosebery, 1 December 1892; FO46/480. 5 Ibid. Regular mail to London went via Suez whereas urgent dispatches too long to be sent by telegram went via Vancouver, the Trans-Canadian Railway and the Atlantic. 6 7 December 1892; TRS&NE. Naval Courts were usually held in the nearest port (in this case, either Kobe from which the Ravenna had sailed, or Nagasaki into which it put for repairs) but, given the immense public—and governmental—interest, Yokohama was more convenient. 7 20–23 and 28 December 1892. <UN> <UN>.

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