Chinese Nanyang Fleet

One of the forgotten gunboat-size Chinese cruisers

In 1880 the concept of the cruiser was rather new. Not long ago, mixed Frigates were still the norm. This was a time of transition in which Vickers-Armstrong ruled the trade and wrote the book, providing cheap 'cruisers' to the rest of the world. Countries still with young shipbuilding industries such as Italy or Japan purchased protected cruisers, and China was no stranger to this as well. Given limited resources at the time, anything was better than a motley collection of sometimes hunded-year old sampans and junks armed with bronze or wooden cannons and firelances that made up much of the Qing Chinese navy at the time.

Nothing could oppose aggressive Western trade backed by the fleet of the British and French especially in 1840-57. Concessions were obtained by force, and in 1860 Russia's annexation north of the Amur, the USA's 'punitive expedition' against Korea in 1870, and Britain's war to gain Burma the next year, all contributed to raising the Imperial court's concerns about their fleet.

The change started when the Foochow and Kiangnan shipyards, reorganized and helped by Westerners started to deliver the first Chinese armed steamers and in 1869, the Foochow fleet was created. In 1875, the Empress authorized a global naval budget for all maritime provinces. Minister Li Hung Chang later started to reorganize the disparate fleet and started to create a modern navy in 1880, purchasing ships abroad. The most impressive order was of two ironclads to be built in German shipyards.

Context: The Sino-French war

In 1882 France had ambitions in Indochina, which at the time was considered China's backyard. The process started with the attack on Tourane in 1858 by Rigault de Genouilly's combined French-Spanish forces, which deposed the hostile (to catholic missionaries especially) Nguyễn dynasty. Shortly afterward, a new campaign started which ended in 1862 with the Treaty of Saigon granting new concessions to the French, and additional provinces fell under French control until 1867, the soon to be called French colony of Cochinchina was created and the Cambodian king Norodom requested French protectorate. Further extensions came with the Tonkin campaign in 1883–86 generally also called the "Sino-French war". Until 1894, Indochina was formed by the addition of Annam, Tonkin, and the Kingdom of Cambodia and Laos.

But in 1881, Henri Rivière's expedition in Tonkin and the Battle of Paper Bridge in 1883 accelerated the degradation of relations between France and China, since in 1882 the Vietnamese Government sought help from Liu Yongfu, leader of the elite black flags troops, backed by China. Rivière was beaten at first, but the Black Flags were beaten in turn in two more battles whereafter a Tonkin became a protectorate of France. Negotiations to avoid war and attempts by the German government to delay the delivery of two ironclads for the Beiyang Fleet did not succeed.


The 1880 Chinese cruiser Chaoyong, British-built for the Beiyang fleet.

Order of the Pao Min at Shanghai

In this context, the Pao Min was ordered for the southern fleet "Nanyang", (the most likely to clash with the French), in October 1883. Also called Baomin (保民), this vessel was single of her class, and a "cruiser", receiving at least some protection. She was not however a "protected cruiser". The latter received an armoured deck over her engines and magazines, as well as gun shields. The Pao Min was launched in January 1884 and completed in October, so relatively quickly.

The Nanyang fleet would comprise the screw frigates Hai-an and Yu-yuan (delivered 1872), the unprotected cruisers K'ai Chi and Kai Che (delivered 1884), Nan Shui, Nan Shuin, and Nan-jui of the same type (1884), the cruisers Nan Ch'en and Nan Chin (1884), and the Pao Min. The next year, the unprotected cruisers Ching Ch'ing and King Ch'ing were ordered, and the Hian T'ai and Huan Tai in 1887. The Pao Min was ordered locally to the Kiangnan DYd in late 1883.

In various sources, Pao Min is described sometimes as a "cruiser", therefore receiving some limited protection, while others, among which the respected Conway's books, classed this ship as an unprotected cruiser. In any case, this vessel was small, displacing 1477 to 1480 tons standard for dimensions of 64,9m (oa) by 11m wide with a draught of 4.27 meters. Her steam reciprocating engine was rated for 1900 KW and this power was backed by schooner-rigged sailing. Additional sails were customary of the time. Her armament was mostly German, being two 150/35 mm Krupp guns (6 in) and six 120/35 mm (5 in) plus four QF 47/20 mm guns.

Design of the Pao Min

After crawling the internet this is the only photo i found of the Pao Min. It is contradictory to the usual description of a two-masted ship but the hull, unique funnel and superstuctures are coherent. According to battleship-scruiser.uk, the photo relates to the pao Min in 1889, so after the Sino-French war. A close examination of the bridge superstructure shows what its seems interesting woodwork.

The locally-built Paomin was laid down in Kiangnan shipyards. This was part of the Kiangnan Arsenal complex and General Bureau of Machine Manufacture of Jiangnan. Now the yard is called Jiangnan and is still the main southern Chinese naval yard today. The arsenal became the largest in Asia, procuring most of Chinese 1870-90s weaponry, but also the yard produced the first Chinese steamboat (the Huiji) in 1868 and the first domestically produced steel in 1891.



This ship was a Schooner-rigged, steel-hulled cruiser. Information is scarce, to say the least about this obscure cruiser, but since no data could be found about her armour protection if any, the designation given by Conway, page 399, must be closest to the truth. What was an unprotected cruiser? A 'cruiser' in general was supposed to be a gun-armed vessel, faster and more heavily armed than a gunboat, at least in the 1880s. The fact that she was not given any protection at the time while some received limited armour over the magazines and engines, plus gun shields, made her more vulnerable but also cheaper. There is just one known photo of the vessel, which makes this post less bare.


The two profiles allegedly attributed to the Pao Min/Baomin. The first is from navalhistory.flixco.info and shows a ship with two large sponsons guns, but the right three masts also in the photos but it's unlikely the Pao Min. The second one if more faithful to Conway's description.

As shown by the photo, (and the reconstitution made and displayed in Navypedia (as there was no profile in Conway's), the Pao Min was a conventional three-masted vessel. The steel hull had a straight bow that extended with a ram underwater. The stern was raked and looked like schooner sterns of the time, probably being well decorated and housing the officer's quarter. The hull, painted black, was not flush deck as there was a small break in the forward deck, before walls pierced by three ports were on either side, and the walls ended at the rear on the quarterdeck to left the aft Krupp main gun gave it the best traverse opening. What was unusual was the forward gun was placed in a closed trap in the bow, not on the main forward deck above. Therefore, despite its absence of shielding, it was protected by the hull itself.

This design feature was rare at the time for main guns (but not unusual for lighter guns in traversing barbettes). The hull, 64.9m pp and 69.4m overall sat low in the water, therefore this opening was probably very wet in anything but calm seas. The 4.27 m draught was nonetheless still deep enough that her use on rivers was limited to the Yangtze. Appearance as-built changed in the 1890s. The photo attributed to the Paomin shows three masts and a raked stern. In the 1890s and according to Conway's short description, she was two-masted and there is no mention of a raked stern. It is likely that the Pao Min lost her mizzen mast. A simple pole is shown in the 1890s appearance where the mizzen should have been.

Armament Sources are diverging a bit about the precise caliber of the various guns carried by the cruiser. Conway's is less precise with 5.9 in guns (150 mm) and 5-in guns (127 mm), two 3-pdr, while Navypedia is clearer by giving the calibers in millimetres: 149 mm or since its a German gun, 14.9 cm/32 RK L/35 C/80. This meant these main Krupp guns were 32 calibers long, rifled, and rear-loaded. The two guns, called 15 cm Schnelladekanone Länge 35 were brand new in 1883 as the arsenal just proposed them for export. These became very popular guns, rivalling Vickers products worldwide. In addition to China, which purchased many of these for their ships, fortresses, and land troops, the gun was also used by Austria-Hungary, Denmark, Japan, The Netherlands, The Ottoman Empire, Romania, and Spain.

Widespread among Chinese cruisers, these guns had separate loading cased charge and projectile, firing a 45.6 kg (101 lb) projectile of a 149.1 mm (5.87 in) 35 caliber. The 5.8 tonnes loading system was a horizontal sliding breech block. The gun elevation was -7° to +20° and the rate of fire was about 4-5 rpm for a well-trained crew. Muzzle velocity was 650 m/s (2,100 ft/s) with a maximum firing range of 10 km (6.2 mi) at +19°. One was placed as said above in the bow port. The gun was on rails and tracked forward to fire. Foward of it, the port was closed when not in use. The opening allowed some limited traverse, about 60-70° only. Certainly less than in a standard deck position. As said also, it could only perform well in calm weather. Splash would have obscured it completely.


A Royal Navy Hotchkiss QF 3-pdr (47 mm)

The secondary armament comprised six Krupp (presumably) 12cm/32 RK L/35 C/80 guns, all placed in side ports on the main deck. Their traverse was also limited. The first pair was just abreast the foremast, the second behind the funnel, and the third between the main and mizzen masts. In addition, the ship was equipped to deal with early torpedo boats and other close threats with two French Hotchkiss '3-pdr' also 47mm/40 Hotchkiss guns. The latter were unprotected but it is difficult to locate them on the ship, most probably in a high position, possibly on either side of the main bridge. Note: Another reference gives the cruiser a top speed of 16 knots, two 200-lb and six 70-lb guns.

Propulsion
Information is scarce about it. There was a steam reciprocating engine, driving one shaft and single propeller, rated for 1900 ihp. Navypedia is diverging completely, stating there were two HC engines instead, fed by 6 cylindrical boilers. It is perhaps related to a hypothetical refit or an error from one source. Both agree about the ratings, 1,900 ihp. Whatever the case, the ship's top speed was noted as nine knots also. This could seem laughable for a cruiser, especially today, but that that time the ship was considered as a glorified gunboat. Conway's itself classifies the Pao Min, not along with the cruisers, but with the gunboats and sloops which is telling. Sources agree that the cruiser carried 300-360 tons of coal. The range was estimated to be 3360 nautical miles at 10 knots. The complement was 200 men.

Active service of the Pao Min: 1884-1903

The Chinese cruiser was completed in October 1884, too late to be thrown into the furnace of the Sino-French war. She was part of the Nanyang Fleet (南洋水師), one of the four modernised provincial Chinese navies in the late Qing Dynasty (1870s). This fleet was crippled during the Sino-French War. Later the remainder escaped intact in the Sino-Japanese War, but the Pao Min did not survive long enough to see the fleet formally abolished in 1909. When the Pao Min entered service, the star of the fleet and the only ship really feared by the French was the semi-experimental tiny ironclad called Jinou, made at Foochow.

Admiral Li Chengmou (李成謀), a veteran of the Fujian fleet and traditional Yangtze water forces commanded the fleet. He decided to stay safely in Shanghai and Nanking in August 1884. They were closely watched at a distance from July 1884 by the French ironclad Triomphante, which maintained de facto a "blockade". Pao Min was still fitting-out in Shanghai during the war. French Admiral Amédée Courbet asked to lead an attack, which was denied by PM Jules Ferry. The French ironclad, therefore, departed with the cruiser d'Estaing for the Min River, concentrating the squadron for an attack against the Fujian Fleet and Foochow Navy Yard. The "blockade" was maintained by the cruiser Perceval which replaced both ships in-station.

Courbet's attack on the Fujian Fleet on 23 August 1884 (Battle of Fuzhou) was the starting point of the war. Therefore Admiral Li Chengmou decided to split the fleet to protect both Shanghai and the arsenal and Nanking. Staying in Shanghai were the Longxiang, Feiting, Cedian, and, Huwei. The cruisers Nanrui and Nanchen, and other ships including the Pao Min sailed out for Nanking. French cruiser Perceval did not oppose them and departed in turn. In February 1885, trying to break the French blockade of Formosa the Chinese squadron suffered defeat in the Battle of Shipu while Kaiji, Nanrui, Nanchen, Chaowu, Yuankai were trapped and blockaded in Zhenhai Bay until the end of the war. Pao Min was delivered as the war ended.

Operational records are not known directly, and she is only mentioned a few times though her known fate is becoming a hulk in 1903. Afterward she could have survived many more years in this state, one source giving 1920 as her scrapping date. Entering service shortly after the war ended, she somewhat compensated in the declining Nanyang fleet for the losses of the Yuyuan and Chengqing soon joined by the Foochow built composite cruisers Jingqing and Huantai in 1886-87.

During the interwar years (before 1894) she did not see much action and the Paomin, now a third-rank cruiser was assigned to the Chinese Nanyang gunboat fleet. The Beiyang Fleet was rebuilt at the end of the 1890s with five brand new steel cruisers made in British & German shipyards. These were second rank protected cruisers but nevertheless, this placed China on the level of the Chilean Navy, certainly at that time the elite naval power of South America.


Nanyang fleet's Frigate Dengyingzhou in construction

In 1894 during the first Sino-Japanese war, the Pao Min is absent from the Battle of Pungdo in July as only the Chinese cruiser Tsi-yuan and gunboat Kwang-yi are mentioned, plus the transport Kow-shing. During the Battle of the Yalu River (1894), Paomin was not involved as this affair concerned the Beiyang fleet. Records after the battle are not known either and the ship is supposed to have been scrapped in 1910, but probably existed as a hull in WW1. All in all, the Pao Min is just anecdotical in the Chinese naval history, missing two wars, but she was important nevertheless as one of the first domestically-built Chinese cruisers, in what is now probably the largest PLAN shipyard and arsenal.

Specifications

Specifications*
Dimensions	64.92 m x 10.97 m x 4.27 m draft (213 x 36 x 14 ft).
Displacement	1,480 tonnes standard -approx. 1,590 tonnes Fully Loaded
Crew	200
Propulsion	1 shaft reciprocating, 2 boilers, 1900 ihp.
Speed	Top speed 9 knots, 3000? nm range, about 300 tons coal.
Armament	2 x 249 mm (5.9 in), 6 x 120 mm (5 in), 2 x 47 mm QF (3 pdr).
Armor	None.

Src/Read More

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nanyang_Fleet
https://www.worldnavalships.com/chinese_navy.htm
http://oceania.pbworks.com/w/page/8450927/Chinese%20Cruisers
http://www.navypedia.org/ships/china/ch_cr_pao_min.htm
https://enacademic.com/dic.nsf/enwiki/5204442
https://www.quora.com/Why-did-China-have-no-fleet-after-the-Beiyang-fleet-s-destruction
http://docshare03.docshare.tips/files/26364/263644851.pdf
Google Books the Sino Japanese wars 1894-95
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Naval_ships_of_Qing_China
https://fr.scribd.com/document/263644851/Nanyang-Fleet
Arlington, L. C., Through the Dragon's Eyes (London, 1931)
Duboc, E., Trente cinq mois de campagne en Chine, au Tonkin (Paris, 1899)
Loir, M., L'escadre de l'amiral Courbet (Paris, 1886)
Lung Chang [龍章], Yueh-nan yu Chung-fa chan-cheng [越南與中法戰爭, Vietnam and the Sino-French War] (Taipei, 1993)
Rawlinson, J., China's Struggle for Naval Development, 1839–1895 (Harvard, 1967)
Wright, R., The Chinese Steam Navy, 1862–1945 (London, 2001)
https://wikivisually.com/wiki/Battle_of_Zhenhai
https://wikivisually.com/wiki/Battle_of_Shipu
https://wikivisually.com/wiki/Sino-French_War

Naval History