Chinese cruiser Hai Yung

History
China
Name:	Hai Yung
Builder:	Vulcan
Launched:	1897
Completed:	1898
Out of service:	1937
General characteristics
Type:	Hai Yung-class protected cruiser
Displacement:	2680 tons
Length:	328 ft (100.0 m)
Beam:	40 ft 9 in (12.4 m)
Draft:	19 ft (5.8 m)
Propulsion:	2-shaft reciprocating VTE, 7,500 ihp (5,600 kW), 8 cylindrical boilers, 200-580 tons coal
Speed:	19.5 knots (22.4 mph; 36.1 km/h)
Complement:	244
Armament:	3 × 150 mm (5.9 in) QF guns 8 × 105 mm (4.1 in) QF guns 3 × 14 in (360 mm) torpedo tubes
Armour:	Deck 2.75–1.5 in (70–38 mm) Gun shields 2 in (51 mm) Conning tower 1.5 in (38 mm)

Hai Yung (Chinese: 海容; pinyin: Hǎiróng) was a protected cruiser of the Chinese Navy. Hai Yung was one of a class of three ships built in Germany for the Chinese after the losses of the First Sino-Japanese War.^[1] The ship was a small protected cruiser with quick-firing guns, a departure from the prewar Chinese navy’s emphasis on heavy but slow-firing weapons for its cruisers. Hai Yung resembled the British protected cruisers of the Apollo class and Italian Regioni class, and may have been modeled on the similar Dutch Gelderland-class cruisers.^[2] Germany itself would increase the number of similar ships for its own navy starting with the Gazelle class and its faster successors up until World War I.

In 1906 Hai Yung was sent on a six-month journey to survey the conditions of overseas Chinese communities in South-East Asia.^[3] Much of the navy switched loyalties to the rebellion that overthrew the Manchu dynasty in 1911.. On 24 April 1916, Hai Yung collided with the Chinese Army transport ship Hsin-Yu in the East China Sea south of the Chusan Islands. Hsin-Yu sank with the loss of about 1,000 lives.^[4]

Hai Yung and her sister ships survived the revolution and were obsolete by the time of the Second Sino-Japanese War. Hai Yung along with her sister ships were designated to be scuttled as river blockships in 1937.

References

1. Conways, p. 397
2. Wright, p. 111
3. Wright, p. 123
4. "Chinese transport sunk." The Times (London). Tuesday, 25 April 1916. (41150), col B, p. 4.

Bibliography

• Gardiner, Robert, ed. (1979). Conway's All the World's Fighting Ships 1860—1905. New York: Mayflower Books. ISBN 0-8317-0302-4.
• Wright, R., The Chinese Steam Navy, 1862–1945 (London, 2001)