Dingyuan-class ironclad

Zhenyuan in Japanese service as Chin'en.
Class overview
Name: Dingyuan-class ironclad
Builders: Stettiner Vulcan AG, Stettin, Germany
Operators:
Preceded by: None
Succeeded by: None
Cost: 1,000,000 silver taels
Built: 1881–1884
In service: 1885–1912
Completed: 2
Lost: 1
Scrapped: 1
General characteristics
Type: Ironclad turret ship
Displacement: 7,670 long tons (7,793 t) (deep load)
Length: 93.9 m (308 ft)
Beam: 18.3 m (60 ft)
Draught: 6.1 m (20 ft)
Installed power:
Propulsion:
Speed: 15.4 knots (28.5 km/h; 17.7 mph)
Range: 4,500 nmi (8,300 km; 5,200 mi) at 10 knots (19 km/h; 12 mph)
Complement: 363
Armament:
Armour:

The Dingyuan class (simplified Chinese: 定远; traditional Chinese: 定遠; pinyin: Dìngyǔan; Wade–Giles: Ting Yuen or Ting Yuan) was a pair of ironclads built for the Imperial Chinese Beiyang Fleet in the 1880s. As China lacked the technology and capability to construct its own armoured warships, they were ordered from Imperial Germany. Although they were completed in 1883–1884, they were not delivered until after the conclusion of the Sino-French War in 1885.

Design

Naval conflicts with Western powers earlier in the 19th century, during which European warships decisively defeated China's traditional junk fleets, prompted a major rearmament program that began in the 1880s under the viceroy Li Hongzhang. Advisers from the British Royal Navy assisted the program, and the first group of ships—several ironclad gunboats and two small cruisers—were bought from British shipyards.[1] Following a dispute with Japan over the island of Formosa, the Chinese Navy decided to buy large ironclad battleships to match the Japanese ironclads of the Fusō and Kongō classes then under construction. Britain was unwilling to sell China warships of this size, so Hongzhang turned to German shipyards.[2]

The German Kaiserliche Marine (Imperial Navy) was completing the four Sachsen-class ironclads, and offered to sell China ships built to a modified design. Hongzhang wanted to buy up to twelve of the ironclads, but tight finances prevented an order of more than two ships, along with a protected cruiser. Rather than mounting the main guns in a pair of large, open barbettes as in the Sachsen class, the new design placed four guns in two rotating barbettes forward.[3]

General characteristics

The ships of the Dingyuan class were 91 metres (299 ft) long between perpendiculars and 93.9 m (308 ft) long overall. They had a beam of 18.3 m (60 ft) and a draught of 6.1 m (20 ft). The ships displaced 7,144 long tons (7,259 t) as designed and up to 7,670 long tons (7,790 t) at full load. The ships' hulls were constructed with steel and were built with a ram in the bow. Steering was controlled by a single rudder.[2] Each vessel had a crew of 363 officers and enlisted men. Two heavy military masts were fitted, one just forward of the main battery guns and one aft. A hurricane deck covered the turrets and ran from the foremast to the funnels.[4] Each ship carried a pair of second-class torpedo boats astern of the funnels, along with derricks to unload the boats.[5]

Machinery

Dingyuan and Zhenyuen were powered by a pair of horizontal, three-cylinder trunk steam engines, each of which drove a single screw propeller. Steam was provided by eight cylindrical boilers that were ducted into a pair of funnels amidships. The boilers were divided into four boiler rooms. The engines were rated at 6,000 indicated horsepower (4,500 kW) for a top speed of 14.5 knots (26.9 km/h; 16.7 mph), though both ships exceeded these figures on trials, with Zhenyuen, the faster of the two, reaching 7,200 ihp (5,400 kW) and 15.4 kn (28.5 km/h; 17.7 mph). The ships carried 700 long tons (710 t) of coal normally and up to 1,000 long tons (1,000 t); this enabled a cruising radius of 4,500 nautical miles (8,300 km; 5,200 mi) at a speed of 10 kn (19 km/h; 12 mph). Both ships were fitted with sails for the voyage from Germany to China, though they were later removed.[6]

Armament

The ships were armed with a main battery of four 305-millimetre (12.0 in) 25-caliber guns, mounted in two barbettes en echelon. The barbettes are sometimes reported to have been order reverse, but both ships' guns were arranged identically, with the starboard barbette forward of the port one. The guns themselves were 31.5-long-ton (32.0 t) weapons built by Krupp.[3] The secondary battery consisted of two 150 mm (5.9 in) guns mounted individually, one on the bow and the other on the stern. Three 356 mm (14.0 in) torpedo tubes rounded out the armament; one was mounted in the stern, and the other two were placed forward of the main battery, all above water.[7]

Ships

NameBuilder[1]Laid down[2]Launched[1]Commissioned[2]
Dingyuan AG Vulcan Stettin 31 May 1881 28 December 1881 2 May 1883
Zhenyuan AG Vulcan Stettin March 1882 28 November 1882 March 1884

Service history

Completed in early 1883 and 1884, respectively, Dingyuan and Zhenyuen were to be sailed to China by a German crew, but delays—primarily from France following the outbreak of the Sino-French War in 1884—kept the ships in Germany.[1][8] After the war ended in April 1885, the two ironclads were permitted to depart for China, along with the cruiser Zhiyuan that had also been built in Germany. The three ships arrived in China in October and they were formally commissioned into the Beiyang Fleet.[9]

Notes

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  1. 1 2 3 4 Chesneau & Kolesnik, p. 395
  2. 1 2 3 4 Wright, p. 50
  3. 1 2 Wright, pp. 50–51
  4. ↑ Wright, pp. 50–52
  5. ↑ Wright, p. 53
  6. ↑ Wright, pp. 50–53
  7. ↑ Wright, p. 51
  8. ↑ Wright, pp. 53–54
  9. ↑ Wright, p. 66

Bibliography

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