Page 130 - An Overview of Penghu

｜The memorial and the memorial hall for battleship Matsushima｜

They are located on the south side of the Magong Park. At 4:08 am on April 30, 1908,
Japanese battleship Matsushima sank to the bottom of the Magong Port while docking at
the Port after an explosion in its arsenal. Since it happened all of a sudden, the crew could
not be rescued in time; among the 460 onboard, 223 died. The navy also lost half of its
naval reserve officers.

Note: Matsushima and its sister ships, Itsukushima and Hashidate, were commanded
by Major General Yoshimatsu Shigeo, who led around 170 reserve naval officers (note:
students who had just graduated from naval schools) to form a training fleet. The three
ships departed from the Yokosuka Naval Port on December 25, 1907, and sailed around the
South China Sea for about 90 days, covering more than 9,580 nautical miles. However,
they encountered an unfortunate incident of unknown cause at the Magong Port, which
destroyed the ships and killed members on board.

In 1909, a 28 cm-wide gun of the sunk ship was used to build a memorial for the
deceased. The memorial text was written by then Admiral Itō Sukeyuki. The Matsushima
Memorial Hall beside the monument was built in 1912 with the leftover funds for the
memorial.

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