From Confederate Stonewall to imperial Kotetsu

The ironclad began as Sphinx, one of two vessels covertly commissioned in France for the Confederate States Navy. A diplomatic leak exposed the arrangement, after which confused sales to Denmark and Prussia preceded Confederate acquisition of the ship as Stonewall. Storm damage, Spanish repairs, and the reluctance of unarmored Union ships to engage marked her brief Atlantic career before the American Civil War ended. The vessel then passed through Spanish and United States custody and lay at Washington Navy Yard. The Tokugawa shogunate bought her for 400,000 dollars, but foreign neutrality delayed delivery during the Boshin War. When she finally arrived as Kotetsu under Meiji control, the Ezo fleet faced the only ironclad in Japanese waters on the opposing side.