Amaho class Monitor
Tonnage - 3,400 tonnes standard
Speed - 8 knots under steam power
Range - 500nm at 5 knots
Armament - 1x2 16.1" muzzle-loading guns
Armor - Pilot house: 9" Gun turret: 9" Waterline belt: 3-5" Deck: 1"
The Amaho class, was the final step in me second generation of Zipang monitors, being much more powerful than the previous Kamho class, this class of monitor mounted a brand-new main Armament that consisted of for 16.1" muzzle-loading guns, making them considerably more powerful then the previous class of monitor, despite having a slight reduction in main belt thickness.
the service lives of all three members would be relatively unremarkable until 1886, in September of that year, Chuuho the second member of the class would be involved in a very peculiar incident, that's still baffles many historians to this day. on the morning of the 16th the ship was reported to have come under attack by a strange unknown enemy combatant, originally it was suspected to have them a Japanese attack however due to heavy fog, the exact identity of the attacker could not be ascertained by the captain or the crew, eventually after a 30-minutes brawl with the unknown attacker, Chuuho managed to score some kind of devastating hit on the unknown vessel. causing it to go up in a spectacular explosion, visible even through the thick fog, by the time that Chuuho had managed to make it to the position of the sunken enemy vessel all that was left was, what appeared to be some kind of oil like substance floating on the surface of the ocean, along with what appeared to be chunks of burnt and charred meat, as well as the occasional bit of bent and charged metal. the official enquiry into the attack afterwards, concluded that the ship had come under attack from a Japanese protected Cruiser, however the captain and crew swore on their lives that what they have encountered definitely wasn't any kind of ordinary Japanese vessel, if it was of Japanese origin to even begin with. however despite this brief encounter the rest of Chuuho's service life would be completely unremarkable, with her finally being decommissioned and scrapped in 1888, has sisters will follow not long after with Kamho been decommissioned in 1891 and Yoho being decommissioned and scrapped in 1893.
Amaho (M-6) 1863-1864-1866 - Decommissioned 1891
Chuuho (M-7) 1864-1865-1867 - Decommissioned 1888
Yoho (M-8) 1865-1866-1868 - Decommissioned 1893