The steam engines and hauling machinery at the Kosuge Ship Repair Dock

The Kosuge Ship Repair Dock is an existing modern shipbuilding facility that was constructed in the earliest stage of shipbuilding, or the end of the Edo Era. In 1867, the Satsuma-han started construction of the dock with partner Thomas.B. Glover and others for the purpose of repairing steam ships they imported from foreign countries. The dock was completed in 1869.

The dock is a western-slipway type and it could haul a ship weighing up to 1,000 tons. The hauling machinery is housed in the earliest-stage brick house built in Japan and includes a Corniche boiler from England, a 2-cylinder vertical steam engine (25 HP), and a hauling gear device. Carriages are arranged like an abacus on rails laid down on a gentle slope, and ships are loaded by being hauled onto the abacuses at high tide. The dock thus goes by the name ‘Soroban Dock.’ It was designated as a national historical site in 1969.