was a sail-and-steam corvette of the early Imperial Japanese Navy

Imperial Japanese Navy

The Imperial Japanese Navy was the navy of the Empire of Japan from 1869 until 1947, when it was dissolved following Japan's constitutional renunciation of the use of force as a means of settling international disputes...

. Tenryū was named after the Tenryū River

Tenryu River

The is a river arising from Lake Suwa in Okaya, Nagano Prefecture, grazing Aichi Prefecture and flowing through western Shizuoka Prefecture in central Honshū, Japan. With a length of , it is Japan's ninth longest river.-Geography:...

 in Shizuoka

Shizuoka Prefecture

is a prefecture of Japan located in the Chūbu region on Honshu island. The capital is the city of Shizuoka.- History :Shizuoka prefecture was formed from the former Tōtōmi, Suruga and Izu provinces.The area was the home of the first Tokugawa Shogun...

 and Nagano Prefecture

Nagano Prefecture

is a prefecture of Japan located in the Chūbu region of the island of Honshū. The capital is the city of Nagano.- History :Nagano was formerly known as the province of Shinano...

s.

History

Tenryū was designed was designed as an iron-ribbed, wooden-hulled, three-masted bark

Barque

A barque, barc, or bark is a type of sailing vessel with three or more masts.- History of the term :The word barque appears to have come from the Greek word baris, a term for an Egyptian boat. This entered Latin as barca, which gave rise to the Italian barca, Spanish barco, and the French barge and...

-rigged sloop

Sloop-of-war

In the 18th and most of the 19th centuries, a sloop-of-war was a warship with a single gun deck that carried up to eighteen guns. As the rating system covered all vessels with 20 guns and above, this meant that the term sloop-of-war actually encompassed all the unrated combat vessels including the...

 with a coal-fired double expansion reciprocating steam engine

Steam engine

A steam engine is a heat engine that performs mechanical work using steam as its working fluid.Steam engines are external combustion engines, where the working fluid is separate from the combustion products. Non-combustion heat sources such as solar power, nuclear power or geothermal energy may be...

 with four boilers driving a single screw. It was based on the design of the , except slightly larger in displacement and with slightly heavier weaponry. As with the Kaimon, construction took much longer than initially anticipated, and it required over seven years to complete. However, even after launching, numerous issues needed to be addressed, including a problem with stability that required the addition of bulges to the hull.

Tenryū was laid down at the Yokosuka Naval Arsenal

Yokosuka Naval Arsenal

was one of four principal naval shipyards owned and operated by the Imperial Japanese Navy, and was located at Yokosuka city, Kanagawa prefecture on Tokyo Bay, south of Yokohama...

 on 9 February 1878, launched on 18 August 1883 and commissioned on 5 March 1885.

Tenryū saw combat service in the First Sino-Japanese War

First Sino-Japanese War

The First Sino-Japanese War was fought between Qing Dynasty China and Meiji Japan, primarily over control of Korea...

, at the Battle of Lushunkou

Battle of Lushunkou

The Battle of Lüshunkou was a major land battle of the First Sino-Japanese War. It took place on 21 November 1894 in Lüshunkou, Manchuria between the forces of Meiji Japan and Qing China...

 and subsequently at the Battle of Yalu River (1894)

Battle of Yalu River (1894)

The Battle of the Yalu River , also called simply 'The Battle of Yalu' took place on September 17, 1894. It involved the Japanese and the Chinese navies, and was the largest naval engagement of the First Sino-Japanese War...

. On 21 March 1898, Tenryū was designated a second-class gunboat

Gunboat

A gunboat is a naval watercraft designed for the express purpose of carrying one or more guns to bombard coastal targets, as opposed to those military craft designed for naval warfare, or for ferrying troops or supplies.-History:...

, and was used for coastal patrol duties. It caught fire on November 1897, and required extensive repairs.

During the Russo-Japanese War

Russo-Japanese War

The Russo-Japanese War was "the first great war of the 20th century." It grew out of rival imperial ambitions of the Russian Empire and Japanese Empire over Manchuria and Korea...

, Tenryū was based as a guard ship at Kobe port

Port of Kobe

The Port of Kobe is a Japanese maritime port in Kobe, Hyōgo in the greater Osaka area, backgrounded by the Hanshin Industrial Region.Located at a foothill of the range of Mount Rokkō, flat lands are limited and constructions of artificial islands have carried out, to make Port Island, Rokko...

. After the war, it was transferred to the Maizuru Naval District

Maizuru Naval District

was one of four main administrative districts of the pre-war Imperial Japanese Navy. Its territory included the entire Sea of Japan coastline from northern Kyūshū to western Hokkaidō.-History:...

, where it served as a training vessel. Tenryū was retired on 21 December 1911, and sold for scrap on 20 October, 1912.