Chinese turret ship Zhenyuan
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Zhenyuan (Chinese: 鎮遠; also romanized in Chen Yuan) was a German-built Chinese Beiyang Fleet turret ship of the 19th century. Her sister ship was the Dingyuan. Built with 14 inch thick armour and modern Krupp guns, they were superior to any in the Japanese Navy at the time.
Zhenyuan displaced 7,670 tons loaded and had a speed of 15.4 knots (29 km/h). At 10 knots (19 km/h), she had a range of around 4,500 nautical miles (8,300 km). Her armament consisted of four 12 inch (305 mm) Krupp 25 calibre breechloading guns in two barbettes one either side with a secondary armament of two 5.9 inch (150 mm), 35 calibre Krupp breechloaders placed fore and aft. To this was added six 37 mm guns and three above the waterline torpedo tubes. total crew was around 363 officers and men.
Zhenyuan was built by Stettiner Vulcan AG, in Stettin, Germany (now Szczecin, Poland). The hull was laid down in March 1882, she was launched on 28 November 1882 and started her sea trials in March 1884.
She fought at the Battle of the Yalu River, which took place on 17 September 1894, between the Japanese and Chinese during the First Sino-Japanese War. Captured by the Japanese after the Weihai siege on February 17, 1895, she was rebuilt in 1896/7 and served throughout the Russo-Japanese War as a second-line battleship, under a name Chinen. She was scrapped in 1914.
[edit] References
- Wright, Richard N. J., The Chinese Steam Navy 1862-1945, Chatham Publishing, London, 2000, ISBN 1-86176-144-9
- Chesneau, Roger and Eugene M. Kolesnik (editors), All The World's Fighting Ships 1860-1905, Conway Maritime Press, 1979 reprinted 2002, ISBN 0-85177-133-5
