At the battle of the Yalu the Japanese and Chinese fleets were numerically equal--twelve ships--but the former had only three vessels (all under 3000 tons) carrying side armour, and eight were protected cruisers.[1] The Chinese, on the other hand, had five vessels with side armour, including two battleships, and six protected cruisers.[1] In heavy armament the Chinese had a great superiority, the Japanese having the advantage in quick-firing guns, as shown below: ------------------------------+------+------- GUNS. |JAPAN.| CHINA. ------------------------------+------+------- 12-inch and over | 3 | 8 Over 8-inch and under 12-inch | 8 | 17 Intermediate | 27 | 15 Q.F. 6-inch and 4.7 inch | 67 | 2 ------------------------------+------+------- At Tsu-shima the classification of armoured ships engaged was as follows: --------------------------+--------+-------- CLASS. | JAPAN. | RUSSIA. --------------------------+--------+-------- Battleships | 4 | 8 Coast-defence Armour-clad | ... | 3 Armoured Cruisers | 8 | 3 +--------+-------- TOTAL, | 12 | 14 --------------------------+--------+-------- The respective armaments were: -------+-------+-------+------+------+--------------- | | | | | Q.F. | | | | +------+-------- GUNS. | 12-IN.| 10-IN.| 9-IN.| 8-IN.| 6-IN.| 4.7 IN. -------+-------+-------+------+------+------+-------- Japan | 16 | 1 | ... | 30 | 160 | ... Russia | 26 | 15 | 4 | 8 | 102 | 30 -------+-------+-------+------+------+------+-------- In heavy guns (9-inch and over) the Russians had the large preponderance of 28, the proportion being 45 to 17. In the smaller types, 4.7-inch to 8-inch, on the other hand, the Japanese superiority was 50, and in the 6-inch Q.F. type alone it was 58. A fair inference seems to be that the Japanese secondary armaments played the most important part in the first and practically decisive period of the battle. In both actions the Japanese had the highest average speed--about 2 knots at the battle of the Yalu and much more at Tsu-shima, where the three Russian coast-defence ships, the older battleships, and the three armoured cruisers were poor steamers. Excluding, on the Russian side, the _Sissoy-Veliki_, _Navarin_, and _Nicolay I._, the difference of average battleship speed was only 0.6 knots; but the condition of the Russian vessels was such that they could not approach their theoretical maximum.