The first important names in connection with the building and drilling
of China’s modern navy are Captain Lang, R. N. (British), and Captain
Siebelin (U. S. N. and H. S. M.). These men prepared the fleet for the
war with Japan in 1894, which developed Admiral Ting and Captain Teng
as China’s sole naval heroes, who, however, could do little with an
inefficient war board (Ping Pu) behind them. The captured battleships
_Chen Yuen_ and _Ting Yuen_ are in Japan’s retired list. They were very
fine ships for their day, and resisted heavy punishment in the battles
of the Yalu and Wei Hai Wei. The navy training schools are at Tientsin,
Chifu, Nanking, Fuchau, Shanghai, Amoy, and there will be another at
Nimrod Bay, south of Ningpo. Admiral Beresford, on his visit to China
in 1898, advised with the Chinese officials, especially Li Hung Chang,
regarding navy matters, and some cruisers were built in England, though
the two best battleships were built in Germany. Captain Bradley Osbon,
an American, served for years in developing the Chinese navy.
The Chinese cruiser _Hai Chi_, painted the regulation gray, and
spreading the gorgeous yellow dragon flag, took part in King George
the Fifth’s coronation festivities at Spithead in July, 1911, and in
September, 1911, she came to New York and anchored beneath Grant’s
tomb. Conspicuous friendliness on both occasions was shown to the
officers and crew as a mark of the new interest in China which has
arisen in Britain and America especially. Similar cruisers, the _Hai
Chow_ and the _Hai Yung_; gunboats of the _Po Pik_ class; and torpedo
boats of the _Wu Pang_ class, were in constant use in China in the
ante-republican days. One day they were watching that Portugal did not
encroach at Macao; a week later shelling rebels around the great cities
which line the Yangtze River or making a dash to the Gulf of Pechili to
be ready to take on board the infant emperor. The cruiser _Fei Hung_,
the first Chinese warship built in America, was launched at Camden, New
Jersey, on April 24, 1912. Larger cruisers are building in England, and
when Chinese politics and finances are more settled, it is proposed to
order battleships from both Britain and America, and form three fleets,
the Northern, Yangtze Central and Southern fleets. Shanghai can dock
the smaller vessels, but British Hongkong alone has up to this time
been able to dock battleships in Chinese waters. China has as yet no
submarines. The British navy maintains several submarine torpedo boats
at Hongkong, and in that land-locked harbor, of all others in the
world, the moral effect upon an enemy would be terrifying.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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