In
my novel Britannia’s Spartan, set in
1882, an important role is played by a cruiser of the Imperial Chinese Navy, the
Fu Ching. She is the fictional sister
of two warships the Yang Wei and the Chao Yung, that did indeed serve in that
navy. For a short period in the 1880s these vessels carried what was probably the
heaviest armament for any ships of their sizes afloat. Built in British yards,
their design had been evolved by Sir George Rendel, building on the success of
his earlier concept, the “Flatiron
Gunboat” which was armed with a single large-calibre weapon. While the latter
were intended for use in estuaries and sheltered waters, the new design
envisaged a small, cheap cruiser-type vessel suited for service in the open sea
and carrying two of the most powerful guns then available. These were Armstrong
10” breech-loaders. With reasonable
speed for the time, and with high mobility, these vessels would be suited, in
theory at least, to engage larger and more heavily armoured, but less nimble
ships. Despite the superficial attractiveness the concept was turned down by
the Royal Navy, due to concerns about seaworthiness in the English Channel and the
North Sea. These areas might well become battlegrounds in any future war since France
was perceived as Britain’s most likely potential enemy in this period.
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| Contemporary drawing - the sailing rig was unlikely to have been used except during the initial delivery voyage from Britain to China |
Overseas
customers were now sought and the first ship of the type was laid down for
Chile in 1879 as this nation’s war with Peru and Bolivia was commencing. In the
event that war ended before the vessel was completed and she was taken over by
the Imperial Japanese Navy as the Tsukushi. She was to serve
without distinction in the Sino-Japanese War of 1894-95 and the Russo-Japanese
War of 1904-05.Her construction and completion was however overtaken by two
generally similar vessels for another Far Eastern customer when an order was
placed by China. In the early 1880s the corrupt and floundering Chinese Empire
was wakening up to the threats posed by growing Russian and Japanese power on
its northern and eastern borders, as well as the pressure from France the south, from what is now Viet-Nam, and
which was to erupt into the Sino-French War of 1885 which ended in a
humiliating Chinese defeat. The need for a strong navy to protect China’s long
coastline was obvious but corruption and inefficiency was to make progress in this
spasmodic and inconsistent. A few ships of limited capacity could be built at
the Foochow Dockyard and equipped with imported guns, but the majority were
contracted from European sources, German as well as British, resulting in a wide
variety of calibres of guns and munitions.
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| Japanese view of the Battle of the Yalu, 1897 One of the superb woodblock prints made in Japan at the time |
The two Chinese “Rendel cruisers”, named Yang Wei and Chao Yung were of a mere 1350 tons, length 220 feet and beam of 32
feet. Two compound engines, each of 1300 HP, ensured a maximum speed of 16
knots, a respectable speed at a time when the Royal Navy’s HMS Iris, then entering service, was regarded as a marvel for
achieving just under 18 knots. Like the Iris,
the Chinese cruisers were of all-steel construction, which was also an
innovation, but their most remarkable feature was their armament. Each ship
carried two 10-inch Armstrong breech-loaders, one forward, one aft. There were
mounted so as to pivot inside fixed steel drums, armoured shutters being raised
to allow bearing on limited arcs ahead and astern (45 °)
and on either side (70 °). In addition each ship carried four 4.7 - inch
breech-loaders, two on each broadside, as well as what would have been a
fearsome collection of Gatling and Nordenveldt guns’ for protection against
torpedo boats. The hulls had only low freeboard fore and aft and had to be
built up for the delivery voyage from Britain to China. A simple fore and aft
rig was carried to supplement the engines and was probably of most use during
delivery. Like Royal Navy ships of the period – notably HMS Inflexible – electricity generation on shipboard represented a
major innovation, allowing incandescent
light fixtures, including arc searchlights. Hydraulic steering was another
innovation – and perhaps a needless complication.
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| Chinese ensign, initially triangular, later a rectangle |
The Yang Wei
and Chao Yung entered service in 1881. Though spasmodic
efforts were made to fashion the Chinese Navy into an effective force, the state
of unrest, corruption and reluctance to challenge traditional thinking meant
that the process was never effective. This was by comparison with the fast-modernising
Empire of Japan, which already had ambitions to dominate the Far East and set
out to build a powerful navy on the model of the Royal Navy. Japanese naval
development was based on coherent planning, with the emphasis not only on the necessary
“hardware” – the ships and weapons – but also on “software aspects” – structured
organisation, training plans and an ethos of professionalism and pride. By
contrast the Chinese navy acquired ships on a random and piecemeal basis,
without reference to any single coherent plan. Corruption was rife and the navy
was divided into as many as four different “fleets” which at any time might, or
might not, cooperate with each other.
The Sino-Japanese War of 1894-95 announced Japan’s
arrival as a major power on the world stage and resulted in humiliating defeats
of Chinese forces by both land and sea. By
the time of the war’s outbreak the Yang
Wei and Chao Yung were in a very
poor state of maintenance, little more than half their original top speed being
achievable and probably several of their weapons being unserviceable. Extensive
use of wooden partitioning, overlain with layers of varnish, made them
particularly vulnerable to onboard-fire. The concept of the large but
slow-loading gun-armament on a small vessel with limited armoured protection was
by now overtaken by the development of smaller-calibre quick-loading weapons.
In addition, lack of professionalism and corruption so serious that there were
rumours of munitions being sold off by officers had made the Chinese Navy a
hopeless adversary against the super-efficient Japanese.
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| Japanese cruisers in action at the Battle of the Yalu - note Chinese ships burning |
In the key Battle of the Yalu on 17th
September 1894 both the Yang Wei and the
Chao Yung were placed in the Chinese
line of battle. They were subjected to a hail of explosive 6-inch and 4.7-inch shells
from the Japanese cruisers involved and both vessels were soon engulfed in
flames as the wooden fittings took light. With her steering damaged the Yang Wei collided with the German-built
Chinese cruiser Jiyuan and sank in
shallow water, as did the Chao Yung,
which may have been trying to save herself by beaching. It was a sad end for two
vessels which in their time were mistakenly regarded as being at the cutting
edge of naval development.
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| The Yang Wei's and Chao Yung's Nemesis - Japanese 6-inch quick-firers in action |
Britannia’s Spartan
Six-inch breech loading guns represented the cutting edge of naval technology in the early 1880s. In my novel Britannia’s Spartan they are seen in use on both British and Japanese ships. The splendid woodcut below shows Japanese crews managing just such a weapon in the war of 1895 against China. Click here for further details – for UK and for US & Rest of World
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