Henri Paul Hipolito Nicol was an officer of the French Navy

French Navy

The French Navy, officially the Marine nationale and often called La Royale is the maritime arm of the French military. It includes a full range of fighting vessels, from patrol boats to a nuclear powered aircraft carrier and 10 nuclear-powered submarines, four of which are capable of launching...

 in the 19th century. Based on the ship Minerva of the French Oriental Fleet, he deserted when the ship was anchored at Yokohama

Yokohama

is the capital city of Kanagawa Prefecture and the second largest city in Japan by population after Tokyo and most populous municipality of Japan. It lies on Tokyo Bay, south of Tokyo, in the Kantō region of the main island of Honshu...

 harbour, with his friend Eugène Collache

Eugène Collache

Eugène Collache was an officer of the French Navy in the 19th century. Based on the ship Minerva of the French Oriental Fleet, he deserted when the ship was anchored at Yokohama harbour, with his friend Henri Nicol to rally other French officers, led by Jules Brunet, who had embraced the cause of...

 to rally other French officers, led by Jules Brunet

Jules Brunet

Jules Brunet was a French officer who played an active role in Mexico and Japan, and later became a General and Chief of Staff of the French Minister of War in 1898...

, who had embraced the cause of the Bakufu in the Boshin War

Boshin War

The was a civil war in Japan, fought from 1868 to 1869 between forces of the ruling Tokugawa shogunate and those seeking to return political power to the imperial court....

.

Nicol was a classmate of Collache as the Ecole Navale

École Navale

The École Navale is the French Naval Academy in charge of the education of the officers of the French Navy.The academy was founded in 1830 by the order of King Louis-Philippe...

, France's Military Academy, where he had learnt some Japanese.

Nicol participated to the Naval Battle of Miyako, when three Bakufu warships were dispatched for a surprise attack against Imperial forces. He was on the Kaiten

Japanese warship Kaiten

The Japanese warship was a warship of the troops loyal to the Shogun during the Boshin War in Japan in 1868. She was armed with 13 cannons, had a complement of 153 men, a displacement of 710 tons, and an engine of 400 hp capable of generating a speed of 12 knots. Her length was 68.4 meters, width...

 together with the samurai warriors, the Shinsengumi

Shinsengumi

The were a special police force of the late shogunate period.-Historical background:After Japan opened up to the West following U.S. Commodore Matthew Perry's visits in 1853, its political situation gradually became more and more chaotic...

. The other ships were the Banryu

Japanese warship Banryu

The Japanese warship was a ship of the Bakufu Navy, and subsequently belonged to the troops loyal to the Shogun during the Boshin War in Japan in 1868. Banryū was originally built in England as a schooner, where she had been named Emperor. She had a length of 41.8 meters, a breadth of 5.45 meters,...

 and the Takao

Japanese steam warship Takao

was a steam warship belonging to the former navy of the Bakufu during the Boshin War of 1868-1869. She had been seized from the navy of the fief of Akita....

. Nicol had been selected for the main attack on the Kaiten because he was a native of Bordeaux

Bordeaux

Bordeaux is a port city on the Garonne River in the Gironde department in southwestern France.The Bordeaux-Arcachon-Libourne metropolitan area, has a population of 1,010,000 and constitutes the sixth-largest urban area in France. It is the capital of the Aquitaine region, as well as the prefecture...

, and happened to know well about the characteristics and construction of the revolutionary warship Kotetsu

Japanese battleship Kotetsu

, later renamed was the first ironclad warship of the Imperial Japanese Navy. Built in France in 1864 for the Confederate States Navy, and acquired from the United States in February 1869, she was an ironclad ram warship...

, built in the same city.

To create surprise, the Kaiten entered Miyako harbour with an American flag, and the Banryu with a Russian one. They raised the Bakufu flag seconds before boarding the Kotetsu. The Kotetsu managed to repel the attack with a Gatling gun, with huge loss on the attacking side. Nicol was severely wounded in the leg and arm.

The two rebel warships escaped back to Hokkaido however, but the Takao was pursued and wrecked herself voluntarily.

After the reddition of the Bakufu forces and the end of the conflict, Nicol was sent back to France with the other French officer. He was judged for treason, but condemned lightly. He was soon drafted as a private soldier in the Franco-Prussian War

Franco-Prussian War

The Franco-Prussian War or Franco-German War, often referred to in France as the 1870 War was a conflict between the Second French Empire and the Kingdom of Prussia. Prussia was aided by the North German Confederation, of which it was a member, and the South German states of Baden, Württemberg and...

, but died in the conflict at the age of 24.