Fujian Fleet


The Fujian Fleet founded in 1678 as the Fujian Marine 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.

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, the wooden transports Fupo, Feiyun, Ji'an, Yongbao and Chenhang, 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.
Table 1: Ships of the Fujian Fleet
Name Name CharactersTypeConstructionSpecifications
FuxingFu-hsing福星wooden gunboat1870, Foochow Navy Yard515 tons, 3 guns
ZhenweiChen-wei振威wooden gunboat1872, Foochow Navy Yard572.5 tons, 10 knots, 6 guns
FupoFu-p'o伏波scout-transport1870, Foochow Navy Yard1,258 tons, 5 guns
FeiyunFei-yun飛雲scout-transport1872, Foochow Navy Yard1,258 tons, 13 knots, 5 Prussian breechloaders
YangwuYang-wu揚武wooden corvette1872, Foochow Navy Yard1,393 tons, 15 knots, 13 British muzzle-loaders
Ji'anChi-an濟安scout-transport1873, Foochow Navy Yard1,258 tons, 12 knots, 5 guns
YongbaoYung-pao永保scout-transport1873, Foochow Navy Yard1,391 tons, 3 guns
ChenhangCh'en-hang琛航scout-transport1874, Foochow Navy Yard1,391 tons, 3 guns
JianshengChien-sheng建勝Rendel flatiron gunboat1875, Laird, Birkenhead250 tons
FushengFu-sheng福勝Rendel flatiron gunboat1875, Laird, Birkenhead280 tons
YixinI-hsin藝新river patrol boat1876, Foochow Navy YardNo details available
HenghaiHeng-hai橫海composite sloop1885, Foochow Navy YardDetails to follow
FujingFu-ching福靖steel torpedo boat1893, Foochow Navy Yard2,200 tons, 17 knots, two 8-in Armstrong guns, 8 quickfirers

The Battle of Fuzhou

Nine of the eleven vessels of the Fujian Fleet were destroyed in less than an hour during the Battle of Fuzhou. 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.

Fleet acquisitions after 1885

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, 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.
In 1893 the 2,200-ton steel torpedo boat Fujing was completed at the Foochow Navy Yard and joined the Fujian Fleet. She was sent north during the Sino-Japanese War to assist the Beiyang Fleet, but returned to Fujian in 1896 without having seen action. She sank in a storm near Port Arthur in 1898.

Ships of the Fujian Fleet