Hai’an class class cruiser (1872)

Imperial Ming Navy – Steam Frigates

Hai’an (海安) or known at the time the Zhen’an (镇安 or Chen-an) class of wooden steam powered frigates built for the Imperial Chinese Navy are forgotten today in the shadow of the immense PLAN, but the pair (with her sister Yuyuen) remained the largest and most powerful warships of the Imperial Chinese Navy until the Dingyuan class ironclads were acquired in the 1880s. But since the latter were built in Germany, they remained the largest vessels built in China until the 1930s. Made at the Kiangnan Arsenal they however ran over budget and used substandard building materials which limited their career. Hai’an was a training ship but saw action in the Sino-French War like her sister, but was eventually scrapped postwar, whereas her sister was sunk by French spar torpedo vessels during the war. The experience led to massively reinforce regional navies, notably the Beiyang fleet prior to the war of 1894.

About the Kiangnan Arsenal

The origins of the Jiangnan Shipyard was in the Self-Strengthening Movement of late Qing Dynasty, from 1861 to 1895, through reforms, further reinforced after military defeats and concessions to foreign powers. The establishment of Imerial Chinese defence industries led to create the Kiangnan Arsenal in Shanghai in 1865 (the 4th year of the Tongzhi era), with plans established under Zeng Guofan, Viceroy of Liangjiang and perfected under Li Hongzhang with supervised construction.
It was called the General Bureau of Machine Manufacture of Jiangnan, simplified as Jiangnan/Kiangnan) Machine Works and later arsenal. Its goal was to manufacture modern firearms and build warships. This a shipyard was built close to a plant and machinery manufacturing facilities, foundry and support installations. The US firm Thomas Hunt and Company was invited from a concession in Shanghai to bring expertise and skilled workers. Initially manufacturing of arms was made in the concession, but local Chinese authorities disallow arms manufacture within the territory, to the plant and equipment were purchased combined these with existing assets at the old Suzhou and Anqing arsenals, plus new equipment purchased by Yung Wing in the US, all to form the new Kiangnan Arsenal in 1865.

It became the largest Chinese arsenal with the largest budget from 1869 of more 400,000 silver taels. High officials like Zeng Guofan, Zuo Zongtang, and Zhang Zhidong headed it under the Qing Dynasty. Senior technical staff were Westerners, however. Chief engineer was US citizen T. F. Falls helped by translator John Fryer.
This even became the largest weapons factory in East Asia and produced the first ever Chinese steam boat, “Huiji” in 1868 and its foundry made the first Chinese steel in 1891.
It also became a forerunner of school training for foreign service civil servants. It competed with Foochow arsenal for warships construction in the 1870-80s. Among its realizations were the Ts’ao Chiang class composite gunboats (launched 1876) for the Nanyang (southern) Fleet, but the earlier Hai’an remained their best known early construction.
For memory, China had only two “cruisers” built in the 1870s, the two Hai’An, but in the 1880s many more modern cruisers were purchased abroad.

Design of the Haian class

Hai’an was the lead ship of a class of wooden steam powered frigates. They were reclassified as “cruisers” by conveniences in later publications, but were designed and built as classic frigates of the 1860s. Like her sister, she was built at the Kiangnan Arsenal dockyard for the Imperial Chinese Navy’s Nanyang Fleet (southern). Hai’an and Yuyuen became the largest vessels ordered and built in China until the cruiser Ping Hai of 1931. Hai’an was also known as “Chen-an” in publications of the time. Conways retains the “Hai An” naming. These were comfortably large vessels indeed at 2,630 long tons (2,672 t) long overall, for a beam of 42 feet (13 m), average draft of 21 feet (6.4 m). Retrospectively, they appeared as a very bold project for a shipyard that young. It is said that the US engineer in chief modelled it after the late 1960s steam frigates, but she was very much her own thing.
By the way, there were little information available on the context of their construction.

Propulsion

Conways is quite minimalist on these, just stating they were wooden hulled frigates with a single funnel and ship-rigged and that in general they were “unseaworthy and not very successful”.
They were powered by a single 2-bladed propeller and shaft driven by a 1,750 ihp (1,300 kW) reciprocating engine (probably imported), there were nowhere the skills necessary to built it locally) and this enabled a cruise speed of 12 knots (22 km/h; 14 mph). Single funnel, not retractable. She also had a sailing rig across three masts and a crew which amounted to 372.

Armament

Initially these frigates only had two 9-inch (229 mm) muzzle-loading rifles (MLRs) of unknown origin but likely Armstrong, mounted on the upper deck.
This was completed by twenty-four 70-pounder Whitworth naval guns, mounted in broadsides.
During a later overhaul these were all replaced by Krupp guns, two upper deck 8.2-inch (208 mm) with good arc of fire, and in the broadside four 5.9-inch (150 mm) and twenty 4.7-inch (119 mm) guns. Hai’an’s construction cost of 355,190 taels, way above the initially planned budget, and also like her sister Yuyuen this was due to a combination of factors, but chiefly the inexperience of the yard to build such large vessels. On key factor was the complete lack of established wood supply for their construction. The US engineers proposed to import pine from the US, but by cutting corners the use of low quality pine from Oregon and Vancouver was retained for construction and improper storage and travel, seasoning, meant these timbers showed obvious signs of rot after just a few months at sea. This severely restricted their career above all else and perhaps explains how the French were so effective in the battle of Shipu.

Hai’an was launched on 24 May 1872 at Kiangnan Arsenal, ahead of her sister, 19 months later. The cost was such that there was no budget left to hire a crew, and her sister Yuyuen was not initially manned. Hai’an had a crew faster, and acted as a training vessel instead of going in exercises, to provide the missing crew for her sister and other vessels also in construction between Kiangnan and Foochow.

When they started their sea trials, both Hai’an-class frigates were judged unseaworthy. After limited exercises and firing practices, again due to budget constrains, the ships were found active, despite their hull state, embroiled in the Sino-French War. Hai’an, being unseaworthy, was not envisioned as a blockade runner, but instead was prepared to be used as a block ship to bar the entry fo Shanghai in case the French Navy attempt to attack the city. She was filled with stones, towed out to the bar of the Huangpu River. However, the attack never materialized and the was towed back into Shanghai postwar, disposed of as a hulk a few years after. She was discarded around 1887-89, but her exact fate is uncertain.

Yuyuen was launched on 23 December 1873 at Kiangnan Arsenal and launched 19 months after her sister ship, not initially manned after launch due to costs overruns. Instead, she was provisionally converted as a store ship and guard ship with a skeleton gunner crew in the Wusong District in Shanghai. Both sisters defended the city indeed.

As the Sino-French war flared up in 1884, and judged in slightly better conditions thahn her sister, she was fully manned and took part in the Battle of Foochow as part of the squadron hunting down French vessels following the anticipated attack on Nanking. She served alongside the cruisers Kai Che, Nan Shuin and Nan Thin. The French instead went for Formosa (Taiwan) and the Nanking squadron was sent to break a blockade of the island, joined by the sloop-of-war Teng Ch’ing, under command of Admiral Wu Ang-k’ang. Yuyuen was under command of Captain Chin Young-chai, but he lacked experienced in sea combat.

She met her fate at the Battle of Shipu. After leaving Shanghai in December 1884, the hastily assembled, green crew was drilled and trained as much as possible en route, and she reached Wenzhou in January 1885, then veered north in search of the French. The French navy was spotted of Shipu Bay on 14 February. The Chinese tried to arrange their squadron in a V-shaped formation, Lissa style, with the slower Yuyuen at its rear. The French fleet saw Yuyuen loosing pace and being separated from the rest and saw an opportunity. She soon lost sight of the Chinese cruisers in poor weather and later moved back into Shipu Bay, with a mastering of the currents enabling them to stay ahead.

However, she was blockaded in port by the French, which stayed outside due to their deeper drafts. In the night, the ironclads lowered their own stem cutters, that could be equipped with spare torpedoes, an initial form of torpedo. They made two attempts to sink both ships in port, one at 10:00 pm on 14 February, repulsed by vigorous fire and other at 4:00 am on 15 February, with the faster cutters from Bayard, this time successful. They managed to stay hidden among fishing vessels within the bay and creeped close to Yuyuen enough for an attack. So close that Yuyuen chief engineer launched and hit a French sailor… with his gun sponge. Soon small arms fire was exchanged. Of the three cutters, one successfully detonated her spar torpedo under Yuyuen. The detonation sank the cutter, but it blasted a hole in her wooden hull, and flooding was quick.

The cutters also that night sank the admiral ship Teng Ch’ing. The battle scene was latter explored by US adviser L. C. Arlington, stationed on Yuyuen, reporting part of the crew jumped over the side, others lowering boats. All this time, the shore batteries remained silent, and only started to fire after the detonation. One shells hit Teng Ch’ing, causing immense damage… The two cutters remaining managed to leave the bay. This was, in naval history, the first time that “torpedo boats” made such an attack from a mother ship. Such concepts led to experiment with specialized cruiser TB carriers in France and UK. Yuyuen ended as the largest vessel sunk during the war.

Yuyuen’s hull sat upright, her sails still flying. Local villagers started looting her as she was devoid of crewmen, which all left in the night. The Fubleo crew arrived in the village, found the surviving crew of Yuyuen and Ten Ch’ing, reported the villagers hostile actions, but no fire was exchanged. The family of Captain Chin was however arrested, claiming the ship was not sunk by the French but rather was sabotage by her own crew with holes drilled in the bottom, as an excuse to abandon ship. She was never raised and scrapped on site, after being stripped of her artillery and valuable equipments left by the villagers, with the remaining wooden hull slowly decaying.

Read More

Books

hesneau, Roger & Kolesnik, Eugene M., eds. (1979). Conway’s all the world’s fighting ships 1860-1905 P.398
Elman, Benjamin A. (2005). On Their Own Terms: Science in China 1550–1900. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press.5.
Feuerwerker, Albert; Murphey, Rhoads; Clabaugh Wright, Mary (1967). Approaches to Modern Chinese History. Berkeley
Wright, Richard N.J. (2000). The Chinese Steam Navy. London: Chatham Publishing.

Links

https://www.historyofwar.org/articles/weapons_hai_an.html
https://www.famousfix.com/topic/chinese-frigate-haian
en.wikipedia.org Chinese_frigate_Hai-an
en.wikipedia.org Chinese frigate Yuyuen
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Shipu
https://www.klueser.de/story.php?id=26&battle=Shipu1885&language=en
https://www.oldchinaships.com/
https://soar.earth/maps/asia-shipu-bay-china-1966-12-12-15121?pos=29.078529227451803%2C121.90679539000001%2C11.81