The Sinking of Beiyang Fleet Warships

In the first installment of what will be a two-part feature, we’ll delve into the courageous resistance displayed by the Beiyang Fleet warships against the Japanese Combined Fleet in the Battle of the Yellow Sea during the First Sino-Japanese War in 1894.

Transcript

The Sinking of Beiyang Fleet Warships

In the first installment of what will be a two-part feature, we’ll delve into the courageous resistance displayed by the Beiyang Fleet warships against the Japanese Combined Fleet in the Battle of the Yellow Sea during the First Sino-Japanese War in 1894.

Located 19 nautical miles southwest of Donggang City, northeast China’s Liaoning Province, there is a 6.6 square kilometer island resembling a reclining spotted deer amidst the vast Yellow Sea, thus the name Dalu Dao, which translates to Big Deer Island. 

On the north slope of the eastern mountain range of the island, amid green pines and cypresses, lies a cemetery. In front of a semicircular mound made of red bricks and topped with cement, there stands a 2.5-meter-high stone stele inscribed with four shining golden characters: Deng Shichang’s Tomb, who was the captain of the cruiser Zhiyuan. According to the oral tradition passed down through generations in Dalu Island village, this is the resting place of the hero. 

Besides occasional winds and waves from the north or south, this vast sea area now remains calm. Yet, it was engulfed in turmoil 130 years ago. On September 17, 1894, the Chinese Beiyang Fleet, or the Northern Ocean Fleet, clashed with the Japanese Combined Fleet here, marking the world’s first large-scale naval battle between steam-powered armored fleets, known as the Battle of the Yellow Sea. This was a crucial battle of the First Sino-Japanese War, called the Jiawu War in Chinese, and it had a decisive impact on later stages of the conflict. Both sides deployed over 10 warships, forming staggered and linear formations, resulting in a barrage of cannon fire and boiling seawater.

The naval battle raged from 12:48 PM until 5:30 PM, lasting for nearly five hours. The Beiyang Fleet suffered the loss of five ships and retreated to Weihai in Shandong Province and Lüshun in Liaoning Province. One of the most dramatic moments occurred around 3 PM when the flagship of the Beiyang Fleet, the Dingyuan, caught fire after being hit by enemy shells. Japanese ships seized the opportunity to close in for the kill, but just as it seemed the Dingyuan was doomed, the Zhiyuan charged out, racing towards the enemy at full speed. Despite sustaining heavy damage earlier in the battle and listing heavily to the right with its left propeller exposed above the water, the Zhiyuan’s desperate charge was a gamble with the intent to take down the enemy at any cost. However, this fastest cruiser of the Beiyang Fleet exploded violently at a distance from the Japanese ships, plunging into the sea.

The ship’s commanding officer, captain Deng Shichang became a hero, and the elegiac couplet bestowed by Emperor Guangxu became well known. It extolled that, “On this day, tears flow throughout the land. With your sacrifice, our navy’s might stands firm.” 

However, the sinking of the Zhiyuan left behind many mysteries. According to a report presented to the Qing court by Li Hongzhang, an important statesman, diplomat and military leader in the late Qing Dynasty, the ship was sunk by torpedoes fired by Japanese ships, while some eyewitnesses recalled it was a 320mm caliber cannon that caused the sinking. Yet, neither torpedoes nor cannons were mentioned in the battle reports of the Japanese ships involved.

It wasn’t until 2015, when the Zhiyuan, sleeping on the seabed for 120 years, was rediscovered, that this puzzle began to be cleared up with clues provided by a batch of fragments and artifacts. Simultaneously, this excavation marked the first official achievement of the “Sino-Japanese sunken ship underwater archaeology” project initiated in 2013. Over the next decade, the project continued to make progress, and by 2023, almost all remaining wrecks of the Beiyang Fleet’s main force had been confirmed and investigated.

Serving as the first comprehensive summary of this project, the “Underwater Archaeological Survey Report of the Zhiyuan” was officially published in 2023. Starting from 2024, researchers will concentrate on completing archaeological reports for the Dingyuan, Jingyuan, and other ships. Many pieces of information and details about the Beiyang Fleet and the First Sino-Japanese War, are being deciphered or are about to be revealed.

The search for the sunken ships of the Beiyang Fleet actually began in the 1980s. The two 210mm cannons displayed in the Museum of the Sino-Japanese War (1894-1895) were salvaged from the wreckage of the Jiayuan in 1986. Similarly, the Zhiyuan underwent several salvage attempts but never made substantial progress.

In 1988, the Cultural Department of Liaoning Province made an attempt, but it was aborted due to the unfortunate death of a diver during the exploration process. In 1996, Chai Yongjun, then Vice Director of the Enterprise Culture Research Institute of the China Academy of Art, initiated another effort and established the Zhiyuan Salvage Preparation Office with the approval of the National Cultural Heritage Administration. The following year, the National Office for Salvaging the Zhiyuan was formally established to organize salvage preparation work. Subsequent search operations near Huangshijiao in Zhuanghe and Heidao deviated significantly from the main battlefield. A few years later, a television station in Beijing approached Donggang City, hoping to raise funds from the public for the salvage operation, but it also came to nothing. In 2012, a magazine proposed collaboration with a US magazine to send divers for exploration, but this, too, failed to materialize.

Despite the various reasons for these failed explorations, they reflect an undeniable fact: investigating and salvaging sunken ships from the Battle of Jiawu, including the Zhiyuan, poses extreme challenges. 

Zhou Chunshui, a former researcher at the Underwater Cultural Heritage Protection Center of the National Cultural Heritage Administration, who has been dedicated to the research and practice of underwater archaeology and the protection of underwater cultural heritage for many years, told The Context that, from a practical perspective, archaeological investigations of the Beiyang sunken ships face several challenges: 

First, locating the wreck site is a daunting task. The relevant data are very complex, some of the information is not accurate, and there are even some conflicting data points, so it takes a lot of effort just to find the location. Moreover, the seawater in the northern region is very cold, with temperatures around 3°C in April and only reaching to around 10°C by June. That means the working season is compressed into just three months from July to September, which results in very limited search time. 

Second, identifying the appearance of the sunken ships is also a major issue. Traditional sunken ship archaeology mainly deals with wooden sailing ships, which are relatively small, typically over 20 meters long. By contrast, metal sunken ships can be tens of meters long and over 10 meters wide, and their structures are far more complex since they are primarily mechanical. Additionally, the visibility in northern waters is often poor, and sunken ships are almost entirely buried in compacted sediment, requiring specialized salvage techniques to overcome these challenges.

Therefore, this is a task that requires a significant investment of manpower, resources, and technology, as well as comprehensive planning and thorough preparation to accomplish. The opportunity arose in 2013 when plans were made to expand the marine Honggang area in Dandong Port, Liaoning Province. To avoid damage to cultural heritage during construction, the Underwater Cultural Heritage Protection Center of the National Cultural Heritage Administration, in collaboration with cultural and archaeological units in Liaoning Province, officially launched underwater archaeological investigations in the construction zone. 

Zhou Chunshui was appointed as the project leader and led the archaeological team to begin a new geophysical survey in April 2014. Through the use of equipment such as multibeam sonar, side-scan sonar, shallow seismic profiling, a magnetometer, as well as underwater exploration and excavation, a steel sunken ship site was finally discovered at the main battlefield of the Battle of Jiawu in the southwest of Dandong. In 2015, with the discovery of two white porcelain plates with the inscription “Zhiyuan,” the sunken ship was confirmed to be the long-sought Zhiyuan.

In October 2016, the underwater archaeological investigation of the Zhiyuan concluded after three years. The investigation yielded a total of 429 artifacts covering more than 70 categories, providing a clear understanding of the basic condition of the remaining hull. Through these findings, previous assertions that the sinking was due to torpedo or cannon attacks were essentially ruled out. 

Zhou Chunshui explained this in detail: “If it had been sunk by a torpedo, there would definitely be tearing injuries to the bottom of the ship, but through analysis of the current condition of the sunken ship, the entire bottom of the ship is relatively intact. Additionally, we found some intact shells and torpedo fuses inside the ship, which would definitely have detonated if hit by torpedoes or shells.”

Zhou Chunshui believes that the true cause of the sinking of the Zhiyuan may have been the tilting of the hull due to previous damage, leading to flooding inside the compartments, which reached a critical point where the ship could no longer remain afloat. In fact, in a post-war document, officers Cao Jiaxiang and Rao Mingqu of the Zhenyuan also mentioned a similar view, noting: “…with the Zhiyuan and Jingyuan, when replacing the rubber seals of the water gates, which were old and damaged and could not be repaired, the ship sank immediately after a short time when the guns were fired.”

However, this viewpoint is not conclusive. Professor Jiang Bo from the Institute of Cultural Heritage Studies at Shandong University has a different opinion. As the former director of the Underwater Archaeological Research Institute of the National Cultural Heritage Administration, he also participated in the investigation of the Zhiyuan. Based on the outward signs of the bulge found on the armored deck, he inferred that it was the result of a boiler explosion. During the final charge, the Zhiyuan’s speed exceeded its power limit, leading to intense forced draft and causing the boiler pressure to become too high, resulting in a severe explosion and rapid sinking of the ship. He told The Context that “accidents caused by boiler explosions were not uncommon in early ships.”

Around the same time the Zhiyuan was discovered in 2014, an area about 30 kilometers westward received signals reflected by a magnetometer, indicating a massive iron object buried beneath the sea surface at a depth of 10 meters.

Local fishermen recall instances of finding copper pieces, foreign coins, bullet casings, tobacco pouches, and even picking up torpedoes at sea. Additionally, elders remembered encountering scattered soldiers claiming to be under the command of General Lin on the night of September 17, 1894. This “General Lin” refers to Lin Yongsheng, the commanding officer of the Jingyuan, who was “hit by a shell and died instantly” during the afternoon battle. Simultaneously, records in the Republican-era Zhuanghe County Chronicle mention that the sinking site of the Jingyuan was near the fishing village, not far from Shalao Stone, eight miles to the east. These various signs point to the possibility that the signal detected by the magnetometer may be from the remains of the Jingyuan.

However, if we consider another set of data, this possibility seems minimal. In reports released by Japan after the war, the coordinates of the Jingyuan’s sinking point were initially located at 123 degrees 33 minutes east longitude and 39 degrees 32 minutes north latitude, later adjusted to 123 degrees 40 minutes 7 seconds east longitude and 38 degrees 58 minutes north latitude, both significantly distant from the Shalao Stone area.

As the underwater exploration progressed, archaeologists were greeted with the sight of a shipwreck emerging from the seabed, measuring over 40 meters in length and rising 0-2 meters above the sea floor. The hull of the wreck featured heavy armor plating, ranging from 20 to 40 centimeters thick, which closely matched the characteristics of the Jingyuan, a type of armored cruiser. Furthermore, a German-language nameplate recovered from the wreckage corroborated the historical fact that the Jingyuan was built in Germany. 

Formal investigations began in 2018, and through sand removal operations on the starboard side of the mid to aft section of the hull, two large wooden characters “Jingyuan” were revealed, buried 5.5 meters below the seabed. Additionally, a wooden plaque with the inscription “Jingyuan” further confirmed the identity of the wreckage. With these discoveries, there was no doubt left: this was indeed the Jingyuan.

Well, that’s the end of Part 1 of our podcast about the Beiyang Fleet. Our theme music is by the famous film score composer Roc Chen. We want to thank our writer Xu Pengyuan, translator Du Guodong, and copy editor Pu Ren. And thank you for listening. We hope you enjoyed it, and if you did, please tell a friend so they, too, can understand The Context.