Beiyang Fleet
Encyclopedia
Qing Dynasty
The Qing Dynasty was the last dynasty of China, ruling from 1644 to 1912 with a brief, abortive restoration in 1917. It was preceded by the Ming Dynasty and followed by the Republic of China....
. Among the four, the Beiyang Fleet was particularly sponsored by Li Hongzhang
Li Hongzhang
Li Hongzhang or Li Hung-chang , Marquis Suyi of the First Class , GCVO, was a leading statesman of the late Qing Empire...
, one of the most trusted vassals of Empress Dowager Cixi
Empress Dowager Cixi
Empress Dowager Cixi1 , of the Manchu Yehenara clan, was a powerful and charismatic figure who became the de facto ruler of the Manchu Qing Dynasty in China for 47 years from 1861 to her death in 1908....
and the principal patron of the "self-strengthening movement
Self-Strengthening Movement
The Self-Strengthening Movement , c 1861–1895, was a period of institutional reforms initiated during the late Qing Dynasty following a series of military defeats and concessions to foreign powers....
" in northern China in his capacity as the Viceroy of Zhili
Viceroy of Zhili
The Viceroy of Zhili , fully referred to as the Governor General of Zhili and surrounding areas; Overseeing Military Affairs, Food Production; Manager of Waterways; Director of Civil Affairs , was one of eight regional viceroys in China proper during the Qing Dynasty of China...
and the Minister of Beiyang Commerce (北洋通商大臣). Due to Li's influence in the imperial court, the Beiyang Fleet garnered much greater resources than the other Chinese fleets and soon became the dominant navy in East Asia
East Asia
East Asia or Eastern Asia is a subregion of Asia that can be defined in either geographical or cultural terms...
before the onset of First Sino-Japanese War
First Sino-Japanese War
The First Sino-Japanese War was fought between Qing Dynasty China and Meiji Japan, primarily over control of Korea...
in 1894–95 — it was the largest in the Far East
Far East
The Far East is an English term mostly describing East Asia and Southeast Asia, with South Asia sometimes also included for economic and cultural reasons.The term came into use in European geopolitical discourse in the 19th century,...
and the 8th in the world during the late 1880s in terms of tonnage
Tonnage
Tonnage is a measure of the size or cargo carrying capacity of a ship. The term derives from the taxation paid on tuns or casks of wine, and was later used in reference to the weight of a ship's cargo; however, in modern maritime usage, "tonnage" specifically refers to a calculation of the volume...
.
Creation
Sino-French War
The Sino–French War was a limited conflict fought between August 1884 and April 1885 to decide whether France should replace China in control of Tonkin . As the French achieved their war aims, they are usually considered to have won the war...
, the Beiyang Fleet was the second-largest regional navy but was gradually closing the gap with the Nanyang Fleet
Nanyang Fleet
The Nanyang Fleet was one of the four modernised Chinese navies in the late Qing Dynasty. Established in the 1870s, the fleet suffered losses in the Sino-French War, escaped intact in the Sino-Japanese War, and was formally abolished in 1909....
, based at Shanghai. By 1890, it was the largest of China's four regional navies.
Unlike the other Chinese fleets, the Beiyang Fleet consisted mostly of battleships imported from Germany and Britain. When the flagships and were purchased from Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
, the superiority in strength of the Beiyang Fleet became evident, as Germany was the emerging world power, rivalling Britain (which dominated the ocean) in new naval construction.
The Qing Chinese navy at its peak consisted of 78 ships, with a total tonnage of 83,900 tons. However, construction of new ships almost completely stopped in 1888 due to high expenditures in other fields by the Qing Dynasty, and the supposed naval expenditures were used to repair and build palaces by the Empress Dowager Cixi
Empress Dowager Cixi
Empress Dowager Cixi1 , of the Manchu Yehenara clan, was a powerful and charismatic figure who became the de facto ruler of the Manchu Qing Dynasty in China for 47 years from 1861 to her death in 1908....
after she lost interest in naval construction. Due to missing expenditures, the training of the fleet and personnel essentially ran to a standstill, which eventually contributed to its defeat in the Battle of the Yalu River
Battle of Yalu River (1894)
The Battle of the Yalu River , also called simply 'The Battle of Yalu' took place on September 17, 1894. It involved the Japanese and the Chinese navies, and was the largest naval engagement of the First Sino-Japanese War...
against Japan.
Sino-French War
Amédée Courbet
Anatole-Amédée-Prosper Courbet was a French admiral who won a series of important land and naval victories during the Tonkin campaign and the Sino-French War .-Early years:...
's Far East Squadron
Far East Squadron
The French Far East Squadron was an exceptional naval grouping created for the duration of the Sino-French War .- Background :...
during the Sino-French War
Sino-French War
The Sino–French War was a limited conflict fought between August 1884 and April 1885 to decide whether France should replace China in control of Tonkin . As the French achieved their war aims, they are usually considered to have won the war...
(August 1884 – April 1885). Nevertheless, it featured prominently in the calculations of the French government between 1883 and 1885. The Beiyang Fleet was due to take delivery in early 1884 of Dingyuan, and Zhenyuan, three modern warships then building in German shipyards. In December 1883, as war with China seemed increasingly likely, the French persuaded the German government to delay the release of these three ships. They did not reach China until the autumn of 1885, after the end of the Sino-French War.
In late June 1884, when the news of the Bac Le Ambush
Bac Le ambush
The Bac Le ambush was a clash during the Tonkin campaign in June 1884 between Chinese troops of the Guangxi Army and a French column sent to occupy Lang Son and other towns near the Chinese border. The French claimed that their troops had been ambushed by the Chinese...
broke, the French admiral Sébastien Lespès
Sébastien Lespès
Sébastien-Nicolas-Joachim Lespès was a French admiral who played an important role in naval operations during the Sino-French War , as second-in-command of Admiral Amédée Courbet's Far East Squadron.- Early career :...
, commander of the Far East naval division, was cruising off Che-foo in the Gulf of Petchili with the French warships La Galissonnière, Triomphante, Volta and Lutin, while the Beiyang Fleet lay at anchor in Che-foo harbour. Although war was clearly imminent, France and China remained technically at peace, and Lespès was forbidden to attack the Beiyang Fleet pending the outcome of diplomatic efforts to resolve the crisis. On 3 July 1884 the Beiyang Fleet's commander, Admiral Ding Ruchang
Ding Ruchang
thumb|250px|Admiral Ding RuchangDing Ruchang joined the Taiping Rebellion in 1854. But later he surrendered with Cheng Xuechi in the Battle of Anqing in 1861 and joined Li Hongzhang as a cavalryman to fight against the Taiping Rebellion. In 1874, he protested against the Qing Dynasty government's...
(丁汝昌), withdrew his ships from Che-foo to Pei-ho, where a strong bar across the harbour protected them from the French ships. The fleet remained at Pei-ho
Hai River
The Hai River , previously called Bai He , is a river in the People's Republic of China which flows through Beijing and Tianjin before emptying into the Yellow Sea at the Bohai Gulf.The Hai River at Tianjin is formed by the confluence of five rivers, the Southern Canal, Ziya...
in almost complete idleness throughout the Sino-French War.
In February 1885 the Beiyang Fleet reluctantly released two of its ships, and , to join a sortie launched by a number of ships of the Nanyang Fleet
Nanyang Fleet
The Nanyang Fleet was one of the four modernised Chinese navies in the late Qing Dynasty. Established in the 1870s, the fleet suffered losses in the Sino-French War, escaped intact in the Sino-Japanese War, and was formally abolished in 1909....
to break the French blockade of Formosa. The two ships set sail for Shanghai to join the Nanyang vessels, but were almost immediately recalled by Li Hongzhang, who claimed that they were needed to watch the Japanese in Korea. The result was the loss of two Chinese warships from the Nanyang Fleet at the Battle of Shipu
Battle of Shipu
The Battle of Shipu was a French naval victory during the Sino-French War . The battle took place on the night of 14 February 1885 in Shipu Bay , near Ningbo, China.- Background :...
(14 February 1885). Li's selfish attitude was neither forgotten nor forgiven, and in the First Sino-Japanese War the Nanyang Fleet made little attempt to help the Beiyang Fleet.
Composition, 1894
Between 1881 and 1889 the Beiyang Fleet acquired a squadron of eight protected or armoured cruisers, most of which were built in either Britain or Germany. The cruisers Chaoyong 超勇 and Yangwei 揚威, which joined the fleet in 1881 and were prudently kept far from the scene of action during the Sino-French War by Li Hongzhang, were products of Laird's yard, Birkenhead. Three German-built cruisers, Jiyuan, Jingyuan
King Yuen
The King Yuen was an armoured cruiser that was built by the Stettiner Vulcan AG shipyards in Stettin, Germany for the Beiyang Fleet....
(normally romanised as Kingyuan or King Yuen 經遠 to distinguish her from another, British-built, cruiser whose name was pronounced identically) and 來遠, were completed in 1887 in the Vulcan yard at Stettin. Another pair of protected cruisers, Chingyuan 靖遠 and Zhiyuan 致遠, were built by Armstrong in 1887 at its new Elswick yard. The latter pair were a class loosely known as the "Elswick Cruisers", ships built for export under a generally similar design. These cruisers were fast (25 knots) and heavily armed, but was not adopted by the Royal Navy because the Admiralty considered them to be "weak in structure". Their view proved to be right when both Chinese pair were lost in the Sino-Japanese War, and the Japanese pair (Yoshino and Takasago) during the Russo-Japanese War 1904. These foreign-built ships were joined in 1889 by the armoured cruiser Pingyuan
Pingyuan (coastal battleship)
The Pingyuan was a Chinese armored coastal warship built by the Mawei Navy Yard, modelled on the French . The name is also spelled Ping Yuen, Ping Yuan or Ping-yüan....
, a product of the Foochow Navy Yard originally named Longwei (Lung-wei, 龍威).
The Beiyang Fleet also included six steel unarmoured British-built gunboats, delivered in 1879. These gunboats, of identical specifications, were named respectively Zhenbei ('Guard the north'), Zhendong ('Guard the east'), Zhennan ('Guard the south'), Zhenxi ('Guard the west'), Zhenbian ('Guard the frontier') and Zhenzhong ('Guard the interior'). The first four ships were originally to have been allocated to the Nanyang Fleet, but Li Hongzhang was so impressed with their quality that he took them over for the Beiyang Fleet, compensating the Nanyang Fleet with four elderly gunboats that had served with the Beiyang Fleet since 1876.
The Beiyang Fleet also possessed an array of small torpedo boats. Exact numbers are uncertain, because these craft were not systematically listed, but some details are known. Four 16-ton torpedo boats were built in 1883 at the Vulcan yard in Stettin for the use of the steel battleships Dingyuan and Zhenyuan. These four craft, known respectively as Dingyuan No. 1 and No. 2 and Zhenyuan No. 1 and No. 2, were delayed in harbour by the Germans during the Sino-French War along with their mother ships, and joined the Beiyang Fleet in October 1885.
(a) Battleships
| Name (pinyin) | Name (Wade Giles) | Characters | Type | Construction | Specifications |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ting-yuan | 定遠 | steel battleship | 1882, Vulcan, Stettin | 7,430 tons, 14.5 knots, four 12-in and two 6-in Krupp cannon | |
| Chen-yuan | 鎮遠 | steel battleship | 1882, Vulcan, Stettin | 7,430 tons, 14.5 knots, four 12-in and two 6-in Krupp cannon |
(b) Cruisers
| Name (pinyin) | Name (Wade Giles) | Characters | Type | Construction | Specifications |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ch'ao-yung | 超勇 | steel cruiser | 1881, Laird, Birkenhead | 1,350 tons, 15 knots, two 10-in Armstrongs, four 12-cm quickfirers, two 1-in guns, 3 fixed torpedo tubes | |
| Yang-wei | 揚威 | steel cruiser | 1881, Laird, Birkenhead | 1,350 tons, 15 knots, two 10-in Armstrongs, four 12-cm quickfirers, 3 fixed torpedo tubes | |
| Chi-yuan | 濟遠 | steel protected cruiser | 1884, Vulcan, Stettin | 2,440 tons, 15 knots, two 8-in guns, one 6-in gun, four 3-in guns, six 2-in guns, four 15-in torpedo tubes | |
| Jingyuan King Yuen The King Yuen was an armoured cruiser that was built by the Stettiner Vulcan AG shipyards in Stettin, Germany for the Beiyang Fleet.... |
Ching-yuan | 經遠 | steel protected cruiser | 1887, Vulcan, Stettin | details to follow |
| Lai-yuan | 來遠 | steel protected cruiser | 1887, Vulcan, Stettin | details to follow | |
| Zhiyuan Chih Yuen The Chih Yuen 致遠 was a protected cruiser in service with the Chinese Beiyang Fleet. Chih Yuen was the sister ship to Ching Yuen, both of which were designed and constructed in Elswick, in the United Kingdom by Armstrong Whitworth. This type of cruisers, produced exclusively for export, were... |
Chih-yuan | 致遠 | steel protected cruiser | 1887, Armstrong, Elswick | 2,355 tons, 18 knots, three 8.2-in guns, two 5.9-in guns, eight 2.2-in guns, four 18-in torpedo tubes |
| Jingyuan Ching Yuen The Ching Yuen was a protected cruiser in service with the Chinese Beiyang Fleet. Ching Yuen was the sister ship to Chih Yuen, both of which were designed and constructed in Elswick, in the United Kingdom by Armstrong Whitworth.... |
Ching-yuan | 靖遠 | steel protected cruiser | 1887, Armstrong, Elswick | details to follow |
| Pingyuan Pingyuan (coastal battleship) The Pingyuan was a Chinese armored coastal warship built by the Mawei Navy Yard, modelled on the French . The name is also spelled Ping Yuen, Ping Yuan or Ping-yüan.... |
P'ing-yuan | 平遠 | steel armoured cruiser | 1889, Foochow Navy Yard | details to follow |
(c) Gunboats
| Name (pinyin) | Name (Wade Giles) | Characters | Type | Construction | Specifications |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Zhenbei | Chen-pei | 鎮北 | steel Rendel gunboat | 1879, Laird, Birkenhead | 440 tons, 10 knots, one 35-ton Armstrong, two 22-lb guns |
| Zhenbian | Chen-pien | 鎮邊 | steel Rendel gunboat | 1879, Laird, Birkenhead | 440 tons, 10 knots, one 35-ton Armstrong, two 22-lb guns |
| Zhendong | Chen-tung | 鎮東 | steel Rendel gunboat | 1879, Laird, Birkenhead | 440 tons, 10 knots, one 35-ton Armstrong, two 22-lb guns |
| Zhennan | Chen-nan | 鎮南 | steel Rendel gunboat | 1879, Laird, Birkenhead | 440 tons, 10 knots, one 35-ton Armstrong, two 22-lb guns |
| Zhenxi | Chen-hsi | 鎮西 | steel Rendel gunboat | 1879, Laird, Birkenhead | 440 tons, 10 knots, one 35-ton Armstrong, two 22-lb guns |
| Zhenzhong | Chen-chung | 鎮中 | steel Rendel gunboat | 1879, Laird, Birkenhead | 440 tons, 10 knots, one 35-ton Armstrong, two 22-lb guns |
(d) Torpedo boats
| Name (English) | Name (pinyin) | Name (Wade Giles) | Characters | Type | Construction | Specifications |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Dingyuan No. 1 | Dingyuan yihao | Ting-yuan i-hao | 定遠一號 | torpedo boat | 1883, Vulcan, Stettin | 15.7 tons, two 14-in torpedo tubes in bow |
| Dingyuan No. 2 | Dingyuan erhao | Ting-yuan erh-hao | 定遠二號 | torpedo boat | 1883, Vulcan, Stettin | 15.7 tons, two 14-in torpedo tubes in bow |
| Zhenyuan No. 1 | Zhenyuan yihao | Chen-yuan i-hao | 鎮遠一號 | torpedo boat | 1883, Vulcan, Stettin | 15.7 tons, two 14-in torpedo tubes in bow |
| Zhenyuan No. 1 | Zhenyuan erhao | Chen-yuan erh-hao | 鎮遠二號 | torpedo boat | 1883, Vulcan, Stettin | 15.7 tons, two 14-in torpedo tubes in bow |
Torpedo Boat
Torpedo boat
A torpedo boat is a relatively small and fast naval vessel designed to carry torpedoes into battle. The first designs rammed enemy ships with explosive spar torpedoes, and later designs launched self-propelled Whitehead torpedoes. They were created to counter battleships and other large, slow and...
s
- Left Fleet 1 "左隊一號"
- Left Fleet 2 "左隊二號"
- Left Fleet 3 "左隊三號"
- Right Fleet 1 "右隊一號"
- Right Fleet 2 "右隊二號"
- Right Fleet 3 "右隊三號"
- Fulong "福龍"
- "捷順"
Training Ships
- Kangji "康濟"
- WeiyuanWeiyuanWeiyuan may refer to following in China:*Weiyuan County, Gansu , of Dingxi, Gansu*Weiyuan County, Sichuan , of Neijiang, SichuanTowns *Weiyuan, Changshun County, in Changshun County, Guizhou...
*"威遠" - "敏捷"
Auxiliary Ships
- "泰安"
- Zhenhai "鎮海"
- Caojiang "操江"
- "湄云"
Transport
- Liyun "利運"
First Sino-Japanese War
Claiming her responsibilities on ChosonJoseon Dynasty
Joseon , was a Korean state founded by Taejo Yi Seong-gye that lasted for approximately five centuries. It was founded in the aftermath of the overthrow of the Goryeo at what is today the city of Kaesong. Early on, Korea was retitled and the capital was relocated to modern-day Seoul...
affairs, in 1894, the Imperial Japanese Navy
Imperial Japanese Navy
The Imperial Japanese Navy was the navy of the Empire of Japan from 1869 until 1947, when it was dissolved following Japan's constitutional renunciation of the use of force as a means of settling international disputes...
launched the First Sino-Japanese War
First Sino-Japanese War
The First Sino-Japanese War was fought between Qing Dynasty China and Meiji Japan, primarily over control of Korea...
against China. Due to the lack of government funding and the intensive Japanese naval program, Beiyang's once superior resources were becoming outdated. By the time of the Battle of Yalu River (1894)
Battle of Yalu River (1894)
The Battle of the Yalu River , also called simply 'The Battle of Yalu' took place on September 17, 1894. It involved the Japanese and the Chinese navies, and was the largest naval engagement of the First Sino-Japanese War...
, the Beiyang Fleet suffered heavy losses due to the surprise attack of the Japanese and the inferiority of its equipment, and was eventually annihilated in the Battle of Weihaiwei
Battle of Weihaiwei
The Battle of Weihaiwei was a 23 day siege with a major land and naval component during the First Sino-Japanese War. It took place between 20 January and 12 February 1895 in Weihai, Shandong Province, China) between the forces of Meiji Japan and Qing China...
.
Minor attempts to rebuild the fleet were made after the war, but the Beiyang Navy was never to reattain its former significance.