Fujian Fleet

The Fujian Fleet was one of China's four regional fleets during the closing decades of the nineteenth century. The fleet was almost annihilated on 23 August 1884 by Admiral Amédée Courbet's Far East Squadron at the Battle of Fuzhou, the opening engagement of the Sino-French War (August 1884–April 1885).

Composition

The Fujian Fleet, which would be the main target of the French attack in August 1884, was considerably weaker than the Beiyang Fleet and the Nanyang Fleet, though slightly stronger than the Guangdong Fleet. Nearly all of its ships were elderly products of the Foochow Navy Yard. Its flagship, the wooden corvette "Yangwu", was built in 1872. The other Chinese-built ships included the wooden gunboats "Fuxing" and "Zhenwei" (1870 and 1872), the wooden transports "Fupo", "Feiyun", "Ji'an", "Yongbao" and "Chenhang" (all built in 1874 or earlier), and the despatch vessel "Yixin". The fleet also included two British-built ships, the 256-ton Rendel ‘flatiron’ gunboats "Jiansheng" and "Fusheng", which had been ordered by the southern trade commissioner Shen Baozhen in the wake of the Japanese incursion into southern Taiwan in 1874 and were built at Laird’s yard in Birkenhead in 1875. [Lung Chang, "Yuen-nan yu Chung-fa chan-cheng", 286]

"Table 1: Ships of the Fujian Fleet"

Nine of the eleven vessels of the Fujian Fleet were destroyed in less than an hour during the Battle of Fuzhou (23 August 1884). The Chinese flagship "Yangwu" was successfully attacked with a spar torpedo and grounded. The despatch vessel "Fuxing" was also attacked, less successfully, with spar torpedoes, and was finally carried by boarding. She had already been set alight by French shellfire, and was eventually abandoned by the French prize crew and sank in the middle of the Min River. "Zhenwei" was blown up by a single shell from the ironclad "Triomphante", which joined the French squadron minutes before the battle began. "Chenhang", "Yongbao", "Feiyun", "Ji'an", "Fusheng" and "Jiansheng" were either sunk or set alight by shellfire from the cruisers "Duguay-Trouin", "Villars" and "d’Estaing". Only "Fupo" and "Yixin" survived the battle without serious damage, by escaping upriver before the French ships had a chance to engage them. [Duboc, "Trente cinq mois de campagne", 252–5; Ferrero, "Formose, vue par un marin français", 65–8; Huard, "La guerre du Tonkin", 382–403; Loir, "L’escadre de l’amiral Courbet", 124–41; Rollet de l’Isle, "Au Tonkin et dans les mers de Chine", 171–85; Thomazi, "La conquête de l’Indochine", 207–9; Wright, "The Chinese Steam Navy", 62–3]

The Fujian Fleet never recovered from the loss of most of its ships in the Sino-French War. During the following decade it acquired several new ships, but it was never as large again as it was in 1884. The composite sloop "Henghai" was completed at the Foochow Navy Yard in late 1885 and entered service with the Fujian Fleet. The sloop, which had been lying on the slips at the Foochow Navy Yard in August 1884, had been holed by French gunfire in the Battle of Fuzhou (23 August 1884), but the Chinese seem to have repaired the damage rapidly. "Henghai" served with the Fujian Fleet for less than a year. She ran aground off the Pescadores Islands on 30 March 1886 in thick fog, and broke up several days later during a gale after efforts by the warships "Fupo" and "Wannianqing" to refloat her had failed. [Wright, "The Chinese Steam Navy", 68.]

hips of the Fujian Fleet

Notes

References

* Destelan, P., "Annam et Tonkin: Notes de voyage d'un marin" (Paris, 1892)
* Duboc, E., "Trente cinq mois de campagne en Chine, au Tonkin" (Paris, 1899)
* Ferrero, S., "Formose, vue par un marin français du XIX^e siècle" (Paris, 2005)
* Huard, "La guerre du Tonkin" (Paris, 1887)
* Loir, M., "L'escadre de l'amiral Courbet" (Paris, 1886)
* Lung Chang [龍章] , "Yueh-nan yu Chung-fa chan-cheng" [越南與中法戰爭, Vietnam and the Sino-French War] (Taipei, 1993)
* Rawlinson, J., "China's Struggle for Naval Development, 1839–1895" (Harvard, 1967)
* Rollet de l'Isle, M., "Au Tonkin et dans les mers de Chine" (Paris, 1886)
* Thomazi, A., "La conquête de l'Indochine" (Paris, 1934)
* Vienet, R., 'Devant le champ de bataille de Mawei (Chine)', "La Géographie", 1525 (June 2007), 31–53
* Wright, R., "The Chinese Steam Navy, 1862–1945" (London, 2001)

ee also

* Battle of Fuzhou
* Beiyang Fleet
* Guangdong Fleet
* Nanyang Fleet