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  • Informasia #10, October 19, 2026

    Mike Galbraith

    The Remarkable Life of the Meiji Maru: Japan’s Oldest Surviving Iron-made Ship

    Vimeo video: posted October 20, 2026Audio: posted

    October 20, 2026

    Who

    Mike Galbraith, Journalist, Kokusaika Training Consultant

    Abstract

    The Meiji Maru was especially built for the Japanese government in 1874 by the Robert Napier &Sons shipyard on the River Clyde near Glasgow in Scotland. It was designed as a steamship incorporating the latest engineering technology and, as with all early steamships, also had masts and sails in case the engines failed. In Meiji Maru’s case it was initially rigged as a two-masted topsail schooner. The ship was 225 feet long (68.6 m), 22.6 feet wide (6.9 m), weighed 1,027.57 tons, and could reach a speed of 11.5 knots.

    Used as a lighthouse tender, it had special accommodation for occasional use by the Meiji Emperor. Completed in 1874, its most famous voyage
    involved bringing the Meiji Emperor from Hakodate to Yokohama at the end of his 1876 tour of northern Japan. Since 1941 the date of the ship’s arrival in Yokohama on June 20th 1876 has been commemorated as Marine Day.

    In 1897 the ship was retired and transferred to the Tokyo Nautical School for use as a moored training ship and soon after was converted into the beautiful three-masted ship you can visit today. After WW2 it was temporarily requisitioned by the American Red Cross for use as a canteen and club, and was christened the USS Gary Owen by General McArthur’s wife. She lies in the grounds of the Etchujima campus of Tokyo University of Marine Science and Technology

    Our Speaker

    Mike Galbraith is a founding member of Informasia.

    Publications


    2012 Newsletter of Ocean PolicyResearch Foundation (OPRF) “Japan’s Important Cultural Asset Meiji MaruNeeds Funding for Restoration and New Approach to Secure Its Future”

    2015 & 2016 Britain & Japan Bibliographical Portraits Vol IX & Vol X (Editor Sir Hugh Cortazzi): Six papers in total

    2020 Transactions of the Asiatic Society of Japan Vol 123 (published in 2022): Paper on Japan's baseball history

    E-mail

    mike.galbraith@interworld.jp

    Requested by Patricia Yarrow

  • NEWS

    The news is that I am focusing this summer 2026 on mastering this Informasia website.

    Right now, I am combing through the current layout and updating it.

    Once everything is order in a few days, I have arranged to contact the fine Support team at Strikingly, Informasia's web host.

    We will discuss the correct template going forward. A reasonable fee is involved.

    The current template is a long page with sections.

    That must change to individual pages. No more endless scrolling!

    Actually, I am excited to have reached this stage after four years.

    Looks like Informasia has a community and continuity!

    April 28, 2026 /Patricia Yarrow

  • BOOKS

    Books by former Informasia lecturers. Updating goal: Display books in order of Informasia presentations, and information on the publication source. In progress as of August 2025/PY

    Charles De Wolf
    Andrew Fitzsimons - February
    Pierre-Emmanuel Bachelet
    Robert Morton

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  • ABOUT INFORMASIA

    Informasia launch

    May 2020

    Chaos ruled and all compass points were lost in the onslaught of the newly arrived worldwide COVID pandemic. In April, as all university classes moved to Zoom, Patricia Yarrow was gazing blankly from her Ryogoku (Tokyo) veranda. Bereft of meeting companions, academically informative monthly lectures, and friendly discussions, inspiration struck on that spring day. “We could do this on Zoom!”

    A flurry of messaging later, a core group of eight castaways met (safely on Zoom) on 25 May 2020 to toss ideas around. Alex Byrne dreamed up the name “Informasia”, and the vision began coming into focus. Our Informasia ship cast off with an stalwart crew for shores unknown. Since then, our mailing list has grown from 10 to nearly 400. Our Facebook page counts some 280 friends.

    Informasia community

    Thanks to all the friends and colleagues of Informasia in Japan, Asia, Singapore, Maylasia, Australia, New Zealand, throughout the UK and Europe, and the hardy east coast of the USA, our Zoom community, launched June 2020. It has grown steadily ever since. Presentations in 2022 ranged from deeply academic translations of Korea, Japan, China, to research in progress, alarming lockdowns in Shanghai, to tranquil musings on cherry blossoms and ethereal meditations on life between death, with a helping of the foreign politics between China and Japan. If lectures were flowers, our Informasia bouquet would create quite the splashy ikebana display.

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