- Sunk: 1854/12/2
The Diana was a Russian warship which served as the flagship of a fleet brought by Yevfimy Vasilyevich Putyatin to Japan in late 1854. Originally arriving at Hakodate on 1854/9/18, the fleet then made its way to Osaka, and then to Shimoda, in accordance with the demands of the Tokugawa shogunate.
The Diana was damaged by a tsunami while anchored in Shimoda harbor on 1854/11/4.[1] While making its way to Heda (on Suruga Bay) to be repaired, the ship encountered difficult weather and ended up shipwrecked at Ipponmatsu (in what is today Numazu City, Shizuoka prefecture) on 11/27. The ship sank entirely on 12/2; surviving members of the crew were provided temporary lodgings at Miyajima (in what is today Fuji City, Shizuoka) until they were relocated to Heda village, where they were granted permission to build a new vessel.[2]
Sailors from the Diana were later granted passage on the German merchant ship Greta, but the Greta was then captured near the mouth of the Amur River by the HMS Barracouta sometime in early to mid-1855.[3]
Russian envoy Konstantin Possiet later gifted 52 cannon from the wreck of the Diana to the shogunate in 1856.[4]
