Chinese cruiser Chaoyong

Type

Protected Cruiser

Period

19th Century

Nation

China

Overview: Chaoyong was a small protected cruiser built for the Imperial Chinese Navy's Beiyang Fleet, notable as one of the earliest modern warships acquired by Qing China. She was built by Charles Mitchell & Company in Newcastle upon Tyne, England, from a design by British naval architect Sir George Wightwick Rendel, the same basic design used for the Chilean vessel Arturo Prat (later the Japanese Tsukushi). Specifications: The ship displaced 1,350 long tons, measured 220 feet (67 m) long with a 32 ft (9.8 m) beam and 15.5 ft (4.7 m) draught, and carried a crew of 140. Her main armament was two Armstrong Whitworth 254 mm (10-inch) breech-loading cannons mounted fore and aft in stationary gun shields, backed by four 120 mm guns, Gatling guns, Hotchkiss guns, and Nordenfelt guns, plus torpedo tubes. She was built of steel with a single smokestack and twin masts that could also carry sail, and featured innovations such as hydraulic steering and electric incandescent lighting. Service History: Commissioned in 1881, Chaoyong served alongside her sister ship Yangwei in the Beiyang Fleet, rotating between Taku in summer and Chemulpo, Korea in winter. She saw no action in the Sino-French War but fought at the Battle of Yalu River on 17 September 1894 during the First Sino-Japanese War, where poor maintenance had reduced her top speed to barely 10 knots. She caught fire after being targeted by the Japanese fleet and sank after colliding with the Chinese cruiser Jiyuan while attempting to beach herself. Notable Facts: The design was advertised as a low-cost cruiser capable of using speed and a powerful main battery to threaten larger ironclads, representing an intermediate concept between flat-iron gunboats and true protected cruisers. A contributing factor in her loss was that her wooden superstructure partitions were heavily coated in flammable varnish, which fueled the fires that doomed her at Yalu. The wreck was surveyed and then destroyed by a Japanese salvage crew the day after the battle since it was not considered worth taking as a prize.