Zhenyuan was a German-built Chinese Beiyang Fleet

Beiyang Fleet

The Beiyang Fleet was one of the four modernised Chinese navies in the late Qing Dynasty. Among the four, the Beiyang Fleet was particularly sponsored by Li Hongzhang, one of the most trusted vassals of Empress Dowager Cixi and the principal patron of the "self-strengthening movement" in northern...

 turret ship

Turret ship

Turret ships were a 19th century type of warship, the earliest to have their guns mounted in a revolving gun turret, instead of a broadside arrangement....

 of the 19th century. Her sister ship was the Dingyuan. Built with 14 inches (355.6 mm) thick armour and modern Krupp

Krupp

The Krupp family , a prominent 400-year-old German dynasty from Essen, have become famous for their steel production and for their manufacture of ammunition and armaments. The family business, known as Friedrich Krupp AG Hoesch-Krupp, was the largest company in Europe at the beginning of the 20th...

 guns, they were superior to any in 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...

 at the time.

Background

Zhenyuan displaced 7,670 tons loaded and had a speed of 15.4 knots (29 km/h). At 10 knots (19 km/h), she had a range of around 4,500 nautical miles (8,300 km). Her armament consisted of four 12 inch (305 mm) Krupp 25 calibre breech-loading guns

Rifled breech loader

A rifled breech loader is an artillery piece which, unlike the smooth-bore cannon and rifled muzzle loader which preceded it, has rifling in the barrel and is loaded from the breech at the rear of the gun....

 in two barbette

Barbette

A barbette is a protective circular armour feature around a cannon or heavy artillery gun. The name comes from the French phrase en barbette referring to the practice of firing a field gun over a parapet rather than through an opening . The former gives better angles of fire but less protection...

s one either side with a secondary armament of two 5.9 inch (150 mm) 35 calibre Krupp breech-loaders placed fore and aft. To this was added six 37 mm guns and three above the waterline torpedo tubes. Total crew was around 363 officers and men.

Zhenyuan was built by Stettiner Vulcan AG

Stettiner Vulcan AG

Aktien-Gesellschaft Vulcan Stettin was a German shipbuilding and locomotive builder company, located in Stettin . AG Vulcan Stettin played a significant role in both World Wars, building U-boats and warships for the Kaiserliche Marine...

, in Stettin, 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...

 (now Szczecin, Poland

Poland

Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...

). The hull was laid down in March 1882, she was launched on 28 November 1882 and started her sea trials in March 1884.

Service Life

During 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...

 between the Japan

Japan

Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...

ese and Chinese

China

Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...

, the Zhenyuan was commanded by Philo N. McGiffin. The ship saw action at the Battle of the Yalu River, which took place on 17 September 1894, during which she suffered severe damage. Captured by the Japanese after the Weihai

Weihai

Weihai is a city in eastern Shandong Province, People's Republic of China. It is the easternmost prefecture-level city of the province and a major seaport. Between 1898 and 1930, the town was a British colony known as Weihaiwei or the Weihai Garrison , and sometimes as Port Edward...

wei siege on February 17, 1895, she was rebuilt in 1896/7 and served throughout the Russo-Japanese War

Russo-Japanese War

The Russo-Japanese War was "the first great war of the 20th century." It grew out of rival imperial ambitions of the Russian Empire and Japanese Empire over Manchuria and Korea...

 as a second-line battleship, under the name Chin'en - the Japanese rendition of the ship's original Chinese name. She was scrapped in 1914, being too old and too obsolete to participate in World War I

World War I

World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...

.

Further Sources

• Wright, Richard N. J., The Chinese Steam Navy 1862-1945, Chatham Publishing, London, 2000, ISBN 1-86176-144-9
• Chesneau, Roger and Eugene M. Kolesnik (editors), All The World's Fighting Ships 1860-1905, Conway Maritime Press, 1979 reprinted 2002, ISBN 0-85177-133-5