Ting Yuan and her sistership Chen Yuan were the fond men-of-war of Li Hung-chang who led China against Japan in 1894 and 1895. Reputed to be the largest and most powerful ironclad battleship in the Far East, Ting Yuan was naturally the vowed target of destruction for the Japanese navy whose naval war songs repeatedly alluded to her. At Weihaiwei, the once formidable Chinese fleet was wiped out, mainly by torpedo attack... ...1886 & 1891: Visited Nagasaki and Yokohama, Japan. This perceived threat spurred Japan to build cruisers like Matsushima as a counter-measure. 17 September 1894: Led the Peiyang Fleet in the Battle of the Yellow Sea as the flagship of Admiral Ding Yuchang. Suffered damage as the whole deck was ablaze. However, her shells did hit the Japanese flagship Matsushima and other vessels. Shortly after 2:00 AM, 5 February 1895: In Weihaiwei Harbour. Hit at the stern quarter on the port side (ie, left side) by one or two torpedoes from the Japanese torpedo boat No. 9. She had to be beached. According to a Japanese source, the Chinese officers subsequently blew it up at the funnel part, using 250 lb. of explosives, apparently fearing it would fall into enemys hands. In the torpedo boat raids at night on 4-5 February, four Chinese warships were hit. Some time after 12 February 1895: The Peiyang Fleet surrendered on 12 February. Now possessing everything in Weihaiwei, the Japanese naval personnel boarded Ting Yuan to examine her damage and took photographs. One of these photos shows her with her twin funnels gone. The same fate probably befell her twin pairs of 30-cm Krupp guns. Such damage was apparently the result of the blast set off by the Chinese.
Posted on: Sat, 26 Jul 2014 10:25:05 +0000
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