Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 57.djvu/99

Rh Beagle. To aid him, I gave him the following list of questions, to which he sent me the answers given below months afterward. My questions had gone through the regular naval channels. The answers show how methodical the Japanese are, even if they are slow. In these answers I use their language:

"'Question. How did the Japanese Government happen to get the Beagle?'

"'Answer. The details of getting are not plainly known, but the Prince of Kagoshima procured it on seventy-five thousand dollars, at the 23d of July, first year of Genzi (1860), afterward he offered it to the Government at the June of the third year of Genzi.'

"'Q. Are there any good photographs of her as she was when a war ship?'

"'A. No, we have no one.'

"'Q. Where is the Beagle now?'

"'A. After out of use, she was applied as a Chastising Place for seamen at the Yokosuka station, and then was auctioned at the March, twenty-second year of Genzi.'

"'Q. What was the date of her arrival in Japan? '

"' A. She was received by the Prince of Kagoshima, at Nagasaki, July, the first year of Genzi.'

"'Q. What is her present name? When was her name changed?'

"'A. At the present this ship has no name in the consequence of out of use, but after procured by the Kagoshima Prince the name of Beagle was changed into Kenko Kan.'

"'Q. Do you know how old this ship is, and what she was used for by the British Government before the Japanese got her?'

"'A. She was actually used during twenty-three years, after which she was put out of use, having been constructed at Liverpool, and we can not know what she was applied for before got by Japan, but she remained more or less than one year in England.' (Darwin made his famous voyage in her from 1831 to 1836.)

"'Q. What is the name of the captain who had charge of her after she became the property of the Japanese Government?'

"'A. Commander Sadakumi Shiba was appointed the acting captain February, 2d year of Genzi; Commander S. Hamataki, from December, 5th year of Genzi; Commander M. Omura, from November, 10th year of Genzi; Commander Sadakumi Shiba, from December, 11th year of Genzi; then the last was dismissed on the September, in the 14th year of Genzi.'

"'Q. In what capacity did the Japanese Government use her from the time she arrived up to the time she was dismantled?'