Japanese coastal battleship Heien

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IJN Heien
Career Beiyang Navy Ensign / Japanese Navy Ensign
Builder: Foochow (Mawei) Navy Yards, China
Ordered:
Laid down 1 January 1883
Launched:
Completed: Unknown; prize of war to Japan 1895
Fate: Mined off Pigeon Bay (Piegen Bay) West of Port Arthur, 18 September 1904
General characteristics
Displacement: 2,150
Length: 60.96 meters at waterline
Beam: 12.192 meters
Draught: 4.19 meters
Propulsion: 2-shaft reciprocating triple expansion steam engine, 2 boilers; 2 400 HP
Speed: 10.5 knots
Fuel: 350 tons coal
Complement: 202
Armament:
Armor:
  • 203mm belt armor;
  • 508 mm deck armor;
  • 127 mm turret

The Heien, originally known as 平遠 Pingyuan, built by the Mawei Navy Yard near Foochow (Fuzhou), was a Coastal Defence warship/battleship of the Chinese Beiyang Fleet and later the Imperial Japanese Navy. Previous transliterations of its Chinese name include Ping Yuen and Ping Yuan, also of its Japanese name Heiyen.

[edit] Service record

Beiyang Fleet

As part of the Beiyang fleet, the Pingyuan was present at the Battle of the Yellow Sea/Yalu River during the first Sino-Japanese War. Eventually being captured at the Battle and Siege of Weihaiwei and commissioned into the Imperial Japanese Navy, firstly as Ping Yuen Go and later in 1900 as the Heien.

Imperial Japanese Navy

In Japanese Service, Heien was assigned to the 3rd Squadron and was part of the blockading force at the Battle of Port Arthur in the Russo-Japanese War of 1904-1905. The Heien was disabled by mine in Pigeon Bay (Piegen Bay) West of Port Arthur 18 September 1904 and foundered in heavy weather later that day.

[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
  • Jentsura, Hansgeorg. Warships of the Imperial Japanese Navy, 1869-1945. Naval Institute Press (1976). ISBN 087021893X
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