Chinese cruiser Laiyuan

Type

Armored Cruiser

Period

19th Century

Nation

China

Overview: Laiyuan (來遠) was an armored cruiser of the late Qing dynasty Beiyang Fleet, built by the Vulcan shipyard in Stettin, Germany. Her sister ship was Jingyuan, and together the pair were sometimes classed as "gunboats" by their German designers but referred to as cruisers by the Chinese navy. Specifications: Laiyuan displaced about 2,900 long tons, measured 82.4 m in length with an 11.99 m beam and 5.11 m draft, and could make 16 knots. Her main armament was two 210 mm (8.3 in) Krupp guns in a forward barbette, backed by two 150 mm (5.9 in) secondary guns, four 457 mm torpedo tubes, and machine guns; belt armor ran 5.5 to 9.5 inches thick, with 8 inches at the conning tower and barbettes, though the belt did not extend above the waterline or to the hull's extremities. Her hull had a steel housing divided into 66 waterproof compartments packed with cork, a single funnel and mast, and a reinforced ram bow, but her two-inch lacquered teak deck made her notably flammable in action. Service History: After commissioning in 1888, Laiyuan joined the Beiyang Fleet and took part in a flotilla visit to Vladivostok in 1889 and a fleet visit to Singapore in early 1894 before recall ahead of the First Sino-Japanese War. At the Battle of the Yalu River (17 September 1894) she aggressively engaged the Japanese gunboat Akagi, inflicting heavy damage, but was herself set ablaze by quick-firing Japanese guns and burned for much of the battle before limping under her own power to the Lushunkou repair base. With repairs incomplete, she withdrew to Weihaiwei, where on the night of 5 February 1895 she was torpedoed by the Japanese torpedo boat Kotaka during the Battle of Weihaiwei, rolling over and sinking with the loss of roughly 170 crew. Notable Facts: Despite her armor, Laiyuan's flammable teak decking and limited ammunition stowage (only 50 rounds per main gun) were serious design weaknesses typical of this early ironclad-cruiser hybrid type. Her duel with the much smaller Akagi at Yalu — in which she was described as four times the gunboat's size and inflicted severe damage before catching fire herself — is one of the more dramatic single-ship actions of the battle, making her a compelling subject for dioramas depicting the engagement.