Louis-Émile Bertin was one of France's leading naval architects. From 1886 to 1890 he served as a special adviser to Japan, assisting the nation in developing its naval infrastructure, arsenals, and training methods, as well as designing and procuring ships for Japanese use. Bertin was a major proponent of the
Jeune École doctrine, which advocated the use of heavily armed cruisers and torpedo boats to raid commerce and attack more expensive and heavily armored enemy battleships. The
Matsushima class protected cruiser was Bertin's concept of the ideal warship under Jeune École, featuring a massive
12.6 inch Canet gun. Unfortunately, the gun had a major impact on stability and stressed the hull, and its official rate of fire of one shell every five minutes proved to be wildly optimistic, with the firing cycle taking closer to an hour. When the Imperial Japanese Navy ordered the protected cruiser
Akitsushima (intended as a fourth
Matsushima) to a modified design featuring quick-firing 6 inch guns instead of the Canet gun, Bertin was outraged and soon returned to France. He went on have a successful career back in France, eventually becoming the country's chief naval architect.
What if the Japanese had more closely followed Bertin's advice and had him stay in the country longer? Would Bertin and have helped the development of the Imperial Japanese Navy, or would he have set it back with his advocacy for Jeune École? What would a longer tradition of Jeune École thought mean for Japanese naval doctrine, which historically came to be heavily dominated by the writings of
Alfred Thayer Mahan?