Haiqi
.svg){kind=small}
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|---|---|
 The sister ship Haitien during the shipyard trials |
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| Overview | |
| Type | Protected cruiser |
| units |
Armstrong, Mitchell & Co. , Low Walker |
| Keel laying | November 11, 1896 |
| Launch | January 24, 1898 |
| Commissioning | May 10, 1899 |
| Whereabouts | sunk on August 11, 1937 as a block ship |
| Technical specifications | |
| displacement |
4515 tn.l. |
| length |
129.28 m above all |
| width |
14.17 m |
| Draft |
5.45 m |
| crew |
350-420 men |
| drive |
8 cylinder boilers of |
| speed |
24 kn in the test, normal 22.5 kn |
| Range |
8000 nm at 10 kn |
| Armament |
2 × 203 mm-L / 45- |
| Coal supply |
300, max. 1000 tn.l., |
| Armor deck command tower |
|
| Sister ship |
Haitien , |
The Haiqi ( 海 圻 , Hǎiqí ) was a protected cruiser of the Chinese Beiyang fleet of the Haiqi class . In contemporary sources it was called Hai Chi . Together with the sister ship Hai Tien , she was designed by Armstrong, Mitchell & Co in Elswick and, in contrast to the sister ship, built at the shipyard in Low Walker. The two ships were replicas of the Buenos Aires sold to Argentina , the largest variant of the so-called Elswick cruiser . It was part of the rearmament program of the Imperial Chinese Navy after the lost Sino-Japanese War of 1894/1895, in which the modern parts of the fleet were completely destroyed or conquered. The two sister ships were the largest ships in the Chinese Navy and the Hai Chi remained so until she was sunk as a block ship in the Yangtze at the beginning of the Sino-Japanese War in 1937.
Building history
Shortly after the end of the lost Sino-Japanese War of 1894/1895, orders for new cruisers were placed with the previous suppliers. So three small gun cruisers were ordered from the German Vulcan shipyard in Stettin , which came into service as the Hai Yung class in 1898. In 1896 two larger gun cruisers were also ordered from Armstrong . The offered replica of the Buenos Aires type cruiser , which was completed for Argentina in 1895, was accepted by China. The main change was the creation of a uniform battery of 120 mm guns in addition to the two heavy 8-inch guns and the abandonment of copper planking, since the cruisers were to be used in the Chinese Northern Fleet.
The Haiqi and her sister ship displaced 4515 tn.l. As replicas of the Buenos Aires , they were one of the largest Elswick cruisers built , with the Haiqi being built at the company's Low Walker shipyard, which primarily manufactured civilian ships, but also carried out military orders to full capacity. The two machines had been supplied by Hawthorn, Leslie & Company and had a blower device that created an artificial draft to achieve a top speed of 24 knots .
The ships, like the first Elswick cruisers, had two heavy artillery pieces, while the protected cruisers with the same displacement of the large navies usually had a lighter unit armament. The main battery on the ship's sides had ten 120 mm guns. Four of the five torpedo tubes were movably installed on the deck on the sides. The fifth launch tube was installed rigidly in the bow.
Mission history
During the Boxer Rebellion in June 1900 , the Haiqi was in Penglai, at that time Teng Chow near Chefoo, and the commandant offered the American consul support with regard to the safety of Christian missionaries and priests. When the USS Oregon ran aground on an underwater rock near the Changshan Islands in thick fog on June 28 and suffered considerable damage, the Chinese cruiser secured the American liner until it could be brought back into service as a makeshift three days later.
In 1904, the Haiqi and the Hairong in Chefoo, despite their superiority, did not prevent two Japanese destroyers from attacking the Russian torpedo boat Reshitel'nyi ("Решительный" since 1902, ex Kondor / "Кондор") , which arrived the day before the battle in the Yellow Sea. , ex Baklan / "Баклан", assembled from sections in Port Arthur in 1901) of the Sokol type and captured from the Chinese port. The Russians failed to destroy the ship by blowing up the stock of ammunition. In the hand-to-hand combat between the Russian sailors and the boarders, two men died on each side. The torpedo boat entered the service of the Japanese Navy as Akatsuki in early 1905 and took part in the naval battle at Tsushima .
In 1907 the Haiqi made a six-month journey through Southeast Asia with the smaller Hairong , which was built in Germany , to explore the living conditions of the Chinese overseas . The two cruisers left Shanghai on October 27th and visited Hong Kong , Manila (November 7th to 13th), Saigon , Bangkok , Singapore (December 5th to 10th), Batavia , Semarang , Soerabaya , Muntok on Bangka and Penang and ran then back to China via Singapore (January 11-14, 1908).
In 1908 the commander of the Chinese fleet, Admiral Sa Zhenbing , received the American Great White Fleet in Amoy on the Haiqi , of which he had been in command in 1900, accompanied by the smaller cruisers Hairong , Haichou , Haishen and other units . A large reception was given in honor of the regent Cixi . In 1910 there was another American naval visit to Amoy, where Sa Zhenbing again received the visitors with the Haiqi and the Hairong .
In June 1911, the cruiser Haiqi took part in the celebrations for George V's accession to the throne in Spithead . Over 180 ships were present on this fleet parade, including ships from 17 foreign countries. The guests also included other Elswick cruisers, such as the sister ship Buenos Aires of the Argentine Navy, the last Elswick cruiser Hamidiye of the Turkish Navy and the last cruiser started by the shipyard as a speculative construction, the Chacabuco of the Chilean Navy, which simultaneously with the Haiqi was created at the Low Walker shipyard. The Chinese cruiser under Rear Admiral Chin Pih Kwang then visited New York in September as the first Chinese warship in the USA and then Havana . The return trip took place via Great Britain, where the new training cruiser Ying Swei joined, and the Suez Canal to China. The Haiqi covered a total of 30,850 nm between April 1911 and May 1912 and visited 14 ports in eight states.
In the service of the Republic of China
In 1917 large parts of the Chinese Navy under Admiral Lin Baoyi moved south and joined the forces of Sun Yat-sen, who had returned to China . Admiral Lin became a member of the government, but soon turned to the group of southern warlords under Marshal Lu Rongting . Sun Yat-sen and his military supporter Chen Jiongming successfully fought this group and in 1922 took control of the so-called Chinese Southern Fleet with the Haiqi and Haishen and the training cruiser Chao Ho and other smaller units in Canton . The cruisers Hairong and Haichou remained with the Northern Squadron in Shanghai .
In preparation for the attempt by the "constitutional" government of Sun Yat-sen to curtail the power of the military in northern China, the Haiqi and other units moved to Qingdao in 1924 . After the move north by the Kuomintang government in 1927, the Haiqi remained in Qingdao and were assigned to the northeastern squadron. In July 1933 the squadron mutinied against the central government of Chiang Kai-shek and the Haiqi moved with other ships back to Canton, where this fleet unit became an independent power. In 1934 attempts were made to modernize the old cruiser, with at least 40 mm anti-aircraft guns on board. The torpedo armament may have been removed.
In 1935, Chiang Kai-shek requested the transfer of the Canton Squadron to the capital Nanjing . The commander of the Chinese fleet, Admiral Chen Shaokuan in Shanghai, tried to get hold of these units. It is unclear whether he feared that the Haiqi were trying to defer to the Japanese or one of their Chinese partners, or whether he did not want to allow a fleet to be at the disposal of the government in Chiang Kai-Shek. On June 21, 1935, the Haiqi and the smaller Haishen accompanying them met the ships of the Shanghai squadron with the modern cruiser Ning Hai and three other ships near Hong Kong . Despite their considerable firepower, the Haiqi did not take up a fight, but instead took refuge in the British colony of Hong Kong after exchanging fewer shots. After negotiations, the Haiqi moved to Nanjing by July 18, 1935, where it was held in reserve with other old cruisers.
When the Sino-Japanese War broke out in 1937, 35 obsolete military and civilian ships were sunk in the Yangtze as barriers to protect the capital, Nanjing . On August 11, 1937, the largest ship in the Chinese Navy, the Haiqi , was sunk as a block ship 160 km west of Shanghai in the Yangtze.
Sister ship Haitien
The keel of the sister ship Haitien was also laid on February 16, 1897 under the hull number 668 at the Armstrong warship yard in Elswick. The first cruiser of the cruisers ordered by China was launched on November 27, 1897 and it was taken over by the Chinese on March 28, 1899 in front of the sister ship. In the acceptance tests the Haitien reached 22.64 kn and with artificial pull even 24.215 kn. It was the fastest Elswick cruiser built to date.
The lead ship of the 396 ft. Cruiser, the Buenos Aires , even reached 23.2 knots in the 12-hour test, but did not carry out any speed tests with artificial pull. The largest cruisers of the Elswick type were thus also the fastest of this basic type.
Like the sister ship, the cruiser did not actively intervene in the events of the Boxer Riots. The Haitien lay in Taku when the international associations intervened . Surrounded by the international fleet, the cruiser had to endure the expansion of important parts that made it no longer operational. Only after the Boxer Protocol had been signed in September 1901 did the Chinese government regain possession of the cruiser.
In April 1904 the cruiser ran aground at Eagle Point on the Yangtze, 60 miles from Shanghai, and was a total loss.
It was not possible to bring the ship away, only parts of the armament could be salvaged.
literature
- Peter Brooke: Warships for Export: Armstrong Warships 1867-1927 , World Ship Society, Gravesend (1999), ISBN 0-905617-89-4
- Roger Chesneau, Eugene M. Kolesnik (Eds.): All The World's Fighting Ships 1860-1905 , Conway Maritime Press, reprinted 2002, ISBN 0-85177-133-5
- Richard NJ Wright: The Chinese Steam Navy 1862-1945 , Chatham Publishing, London, 2000, ISBN 1-86176-144-9
Web links
- Side view of the Haiqi in blueprint
- Hai Tien class in battleships-cruisers
- Hai Chi protected cruisers
Footnotes
- ↑ OUTBREAK AT CHE-FOO FEARED New York Times NYT, June 27, 1900
- ↑ A YARN ABOUT THE OREGON NYT, August 18, 1900
- ^ Wright, p. 123, French article on travel
- ↑ AMERICANS HONOR CHINA'S EMPRESS NYT, November 4, 1908
- ↑ CHINESE CRUISER WELCOMED TO PORT NYT, September 12, 1911
- ↑ Ying Swei , December 2, 1911 in service, Vickers, 2460 tn.l., 20 kn, 2-152 mm, 4-102 mm guns
- ↑ The Chinese PLA's Dialectical (Maritime) Strategy and Power Projection Capabilities under the People's War ( page no longer available , search in web archives ) Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. P. 18
- ^ Sun Yat Sen Captures Southern Chinese Fleet NYT, April 30, 1922
- ↑ CHAO HO protected cruiser , completed February 21, 1912, Armstrong, 2725 tn.l., 20 kn, 2-152 mm, 4-102 mm guns
- ↑ NING HAI light cruisers , completed July 31, 1932, Harima, 2526 ts ,. 22 kn, 6x2-140 mm
