Dingyuan (ship)

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The Dingyuan in 1884 after completion
The Dingyuan in 1884 after completion
Overview
Type Tower ship
Shipyard

AG Vulcan Stettin , Stettin ,

Keel laying March 31, 1881
Launch December 28, 1881
delivery 1884
Commissioning October 29, 1885
Whereabouts self-sunk damaged on February 10, 1895
Technical specifications
displacement

7,144  ts / 7,355 ts maximum

length

94.5 m

width

18.4 m

Draft

 5.9 m

crew

363 men

drive

8 cylinder boilers
2 double expansion steam engines
7,500 HP
2 screws

speed

14.5 kn

Range

4,500 nm at 10 kn and 1000 t coal

Armament
  • 4 × 305 mm L / 22 gun
  • 2 × 150 mm L / 30 guns
  • 6 × 37 mm gun
  • 3 torpedo tubes 350 mm
Armor
  • Belt armor: 355 mm
  • Barbettes: 305 mm
  • Gun turrets: 152 mm
  • 15 cm towers: 51 mm
Sister ship

Zhenyuan

The Dingyuan ( Chinese  定 遠  /  定 远 , Pinyin Dìngyǔan , W.-G. Tingyüan , Japanese reading Teien ) was a tower ship built in Germany for China and from 1885 the flagship of the Imperial Northern Fleet ; in older books it is also called Ting Yuen or Ting Yuan . It was lost in the First Sino-Japanese War .

Her sister ship was the simultaneously delivered Zhenyuan ( Chinese  鎮遠  /  镇远 , Pinyin Zhènyuăn , W.-G. Chenyüan , also called Chen Yuen , Japanese reading Chin'en ), which was captured by Japan in the Sino-Japanese War and there until 1911 when Chin'en stayed on duty.

construction

Dingyuan's plan

The Dingyuan was the design of an "armored tower ship" of 7670 tons. It was a further development of the citadel ironclad of the Sachsen class . She was considered one of the most modern battleships of her time and at least on a par with the ships of the British or German navy. She was 94.5 m long, 18.4 m wide and had a draft of 5.9 m. The ship was protected by an armored belt with a thickness of 300 mm, which was supposed to withstand every battle with the guns available at the time.

The Dingyuan could run 14.5 knots with her 6,000 hp and had a range of 4500 nautical miles at a cruising speed of 10 knots.

The crew consisted of 363 officers and men. To meet the needs of the crew and the machines, twenty desalination plants were on board that produced sufficient fresh water.

Armament

The main armament consisted of four 305 mm Krupp cannons in two barbeds facing forward on the port and starboard sides. These cannons had a range of 7,800 m. Two 150 mm Krupp cannons were installed in single turrets at the bow and stern. These had a range of 11,000 m. In addition, the ship had six 37-mm cannons and three surface torpedo tubes. There were also two small 16-ton torpedo boats on board, which expanded the Dingyuan's capabilities.

Mission history

The Dingyuan in Meyer's Lexicon

After negotiations with the British and German governments, in 1881 the Chinese government awarded the German AG Vulcan Stettin the contract for 1.7 million silver tael (6.2 million gold marks ) for a modern warship . The keel was laid at the Szczecin shipyard on March 31, 1881 and it was launched on December 28, 1881. The sea trials began on May 2, 1883.

In 1884 the Dingyuan ran out for delivery with a German crew. At the request of France, which was in a conflict with China that led to the Sino-French War (1884–1885), the delivery was delayed. The Dingyuan was a very strong ship and far superior to any ship in the French Chinese squadron under Admiral Courbet . Their involvement would likely have significantly influenced the conflict in China's favor , particularly the Fuzhou naval battle in August 1884.

After the peace treaty, the Dingyuan was transferred through the Mediterranean Sea and the Suez Canal to China under the German trade flag from July 3, 1885 together with the sister ship Zhenyuan and the cruiser Jiyuan , also built in Stettin , which was actually planned as the third tower ship. However, insufficient funds were available and only a small protected cruiser was built instead . On October 29, 1885, the ships arrived in China ( Tianjin ) and formed the core of the Northern Fleet.

The first trip abroad took the two tower ships with six other ships to Wŏnsan in Korea in July 1886 . Visits to Vladivostok , Tokyo and Nagasaki followed . In August 1886 riots broke out in Nagasaki because of the appearance of sailors during a visit for disregarding Japanese customs. In the spring of 1894, both tower ships visited Singapore with the two small armored cruisers Jingyuan and Laiyuen, also supplied from Germany, and then had to march back quickly because of the tensions between Japan and China.

In the 1890s, the weak Chinese government lost interest in further developing its navy. There was also corruption, a lack of public funds and incompetence in maintaining the ships and training the crews. At the beginning of the First Sino-Japanese War , the Imperial Japanese Navy , which was considerably expanded during these years, only partially reached the strength of the Chinese Northern Fleet.

Sea battle at Yalu

Dingyuan was the flagship of Admiral Ding Ruchang in the sea ​​battle at Yalu on September 17, 1894. In this battle on the border between China and Korea, the Japanese navy tried to prevent the support and supply of the Chinese army in Korea by the Chinese fleet was protected. The main squadron of the Chinese initially ran in the keel line with the small armored cruiser Jiyuan (also Tsi Yuen ), the old Guangjia ( 廣 甲  /  广 甲 , also Kuang Chia ), the Elswick cruiser Zhiyuan ( 致遠  /  致远 , also Chih Yuen ) and the Vulcan cruiser Jingyuan ( 經 遠  /  经 远 , also King Yuen ) - which were both sunk -, the tower ships Dingyuan and Zhenyuan ( 鎮遠  /  镇远 , also Chen Yuen ), the Vulcan cruiser Laiyuan ( 來 遠  /  来 远 , too Lai Yuen ) - who left the battle burning and badly damaged, the Elswick cruiser Jingyuan ( 靖遠  /  靖远 , also Ching Yuen ), the smaller Chaoyong ( 超 勇 , also: Chao Yung ) - which was sunk - and its sister ship Yangwei ( 揚威  /  扬威 ) into battle with the Japanese. This formation hindered the tower ships in the middle of the row, since for a long time smaller ships of their own lay between them and the enemy. In addition, the Japanese could concentrate their fire on these units. Then they divided their units into the faster and slower units so that the Chinese had to fight two parts of the fleet that were far apart and acted differently.

In this battle, Admiral Ding Ruchang and many of his officers were among the first to be injured when they were fired on the upper bridge when they shot their first shot, which was unusable due to a design flaw. The Japanese had no means against the two battleships from Germany in the battle, but they separated individual ships from the fleet and sank them.

The Japanese sank five Chinese warships and significantly damaged three. About 850 Chinese sailors died and over 500 were wounded. The Dingyuan suffered the greatest losses of the Chinese ships still floating with 14 dead and 25 wounded. The disadvantages of the tower ships were their slow rate of fire and the lack of ammunition due to lack of effort.

Loss of the northern fleet in Weihai

The Dingyuan after the torpedo boat attack

After the lost battle on Yalu, the Northern Fleet withdrew to their base on Liugong Island . In early 1895, the Japanese enclosed the fleet by sea and land. On February 5, 1895, the Dingyuan suffered severe damage from a Japanese torpedo hit. This was also followed by artillery hits. Before the fleet surrendered, Captain Liu Buchan sank his ship and committed suicide. There was no support for the Northern Fleet by the other Chinese fleets until this state of the war.

Sister ship Zhenyuan

The almost identical Zhenyuan (also called Chen Yuen ) was also built by AG Vulcan in Stettin (today Szczecin, Poland). Her keel was laid in March 1882, the launch on November 28, 1882, and her sea trials began in March 1884. The two tower ships were usually used together.

In August 1886 riots broke out in Nagasaki because of the appearance of sailors during a visit. On December 24, 1894, the ship ran aground near Weihaiwei, but could be dislodged. When the Weihaiwei base surrendered on February 17, 1895, the Zhenyuan fell into the hands of the Japanese, who overtook her in the following two years and, as Chin'en  - the Japanese reading of the same name - put it back into service as a liner.

Naval Ensign of Japan.svg
The Chin'en , formerly Zhenyuan

Until the arrival of the Fuji , she was the largest ship in the Japanese fleet. During the Boxer Rebellion , she secured the Japanese troop transports.

In 1901 the ship was modernized: the two 150-mm Krupp cannons were replaced by four 152-mm rapid-fire guns. One was installed in the bow tower, the other three with protective shields at the stern (the stern tower was dismantled) and behind the chimneys on the sides. The new armament against torpedo boats consisted of two 57 mm and eight 47 mm guns. The old twin towers with the Krupp cannons remained, the possible speed dropped to 10.5 knots. On May 27, 1903, there was an accident in a tower with twelve dead.

She remained in service as a 2nd class liner during the Russo-Japanese War and served in the III. Squadron (5th Division) that secured the transition of the Japanese army to Korea and Manchuria . In the sea ​​battle near Tsushima she shot at the severely damaged Knjas Suworow and the workshop ship Kamchatka . In July 1905, the Chin'en was used in the occupation of Sakhalin in the newly established IV Squadron (7th Division).

From December 11, 1905 she was only a coastal defense ship and from May 1, 1908 a training ship. On April 1, 1911, the Chin'en retired from active service and was used as a target ship, where she was badly damaged on November 24, 1911 by the armored cruiser Kurama . The ship was sold on April 6, 1912 and demolished in Yokohama in 1914. Parts of the ship were exhibited in Japan and given to the People's Republic of China in 1947 and are now on display at the Military Museum of the Chinese Revolution in Beijing.

Replica

To represent this time, the Weihai Port Bureau and Weigao Group invested 50 million yuan (US $ 6 million) to build a replica of the Dingyuan . Construction began on a 1: 1 scale on December 20, 2003. The ship is the largest replica of an old warship in the world. The copy of the Dingyuan is now a floating museum. It contains records and memorabilia related to Dingyuan , the Beiyang Fleet, the Sino-Japanese War, and life at sea.

literature

  • Richard NJ Wright: The Chinese Steam Navy 1862-1945. Chatham Publishing, London 2000, ISBN 1-86176-144-9 .
  • Roger Chesneau, Eugene M. Kolesnik (eds.): All The World's Fighting Ships 1860-1905. Conway Maritime Press, 2002, ISBN 0-85177-133-5 .
  • Cord Eberspächer: Armstrong, Vulcan & Schichau: German-English shipyard rivalry for the Chinese Navy between 1870 and 1895. In: Jürgen Elvert, Sigurd Hess, Heinrich Walle (eds.): Maritime Economy in Germany. Shipping - shipyards - trade - sea power in the 19th and 20th centuries. Franz Steiner Verlag, Stuttgart 2012, ISBN 978-3-515-10137-0 , pp. 77-89.
  • Hansgeorg Jentsura, Dieter Jung, Peter Mickel: Warships of the Imperial Japanese Navy 1869–1945. Naval Institute Press, Annapolis 1977, ISBN 0-87021-893-X .
  • Roger Chesneau, Eugene M. Kolesnik (ed.): Warships of the World 1860 to 1905, Volume 2: USA, Japan and Russia. Bernard & Graefe Verlag, Koblenz 1983, ISBN 3-7637-5403-2 .

Web links

Commons : Dingyuan type battleships  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Footnotes

  1. Battle of Foochow: 1884 (Japanese) ( Memento of the original from June 29, 2006 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.d3.dion.ne.jp
  2. Anchor of the Zhenyuan ( Memento of the original from July 18, 2006 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.chinamil.com.cn