Beiyang Fleet
The Beiyang Fleet was one of the four modernized Chinese navies in the late Qing dynasty. Among the four, the Beiyang Fleet was particularly sponsored by Li Hongzhang, one of the most trusted vassals of Empress Dowager Cixi and the principal patron of the "self-strengthening movement" in northern China in his capacity as the Viceroy of Zhili and the Minister of Beiyang Commerce. Due to Li's influence in the imperial court, the Beiyang Fleet garnered much greater resources than the other Chinese fleets and soon became the dominant navy in Asia before the onset of the 1894–1895 First Sino-Japanese War. It was the largest fleet in Asia and the 8th largest in the world during the late 1880s in terms of tonnage.
Creation
The creation of the Beiyang Fleet dated back to 1871, when four ships from the southern provinces were shifted north to patrol the northern waters. The Beiyang fleet was initially considered to be the weakest of the four Chinese regional navies. This soon changed when Li Hongzhang allotted the majority of naval funds to the Beiyang Fleet. In 1884, on the eve of the Sino-French War, the Beiyang Fleet was the second-largest regional navy but was gradually closing the gap with the Nanyang Fleet, based at Shanghai. By 1890, it was the largest of China's four regional navies.Unlike the other Chinese fleets, the Beiyang Fleet consisted mostly of battleships imported from Germany and Great Britain. When the flagships and were purchased from Germany, the superiority in strength of the Beiyang Fleet became evident, as Germany was the emerging world power, rivalling Britain in new naval construction.
The Qing Chinese navy at its peak consisted of 78 ships, with a total tonnage of 83,900 tons. However, construction of new ships almost completely stopped in 1888 owing to the Qing dynasty's high expenditures in other fields. Grand Tutor Weng Tonghe advised the Guangxu Emperor to cut all funding to the navy and army, because he did not see Japan as a true threat, and there were several natural disasters during the early 1890s which the emperor thought to be more pressing to expend funds on. Because of the lack of funding, the training of the fleet and personnel essentially came to a standstill, which eventually contributed to its defeat in the Battle of the Yalu River against Japan. Much of the diverted funding was re-directed to the renovation and repairs of the New Summer Palace and construction of a marble boat; a total of $12mil was diverted from the naval fund between 1889 and 1894.
Prior to 1888 the budget of the Beiyang fleet was two million taels. However, in 1888 the Beiyang fleet was formally subordinated to the Navy Yamen. This saw the budget reduced to 1.3 million taels and in 1891 the Hubu recommended against the purchasing of large guns for the navy and in favour of the reduction of naval personnel. This made any effort of modernisation or even maintenance extremely difficult and meant that many of the Chinese ships went into action in the first Sino-Japanese war in a state of disrepair and unmodernised. The state of disrepair was so acute that when the Dingyuan fired its 10-inch guns at the beginning of the battle of the Yellow Sea its flying bridge flew sending Admiral Ding and Tyler flying along with it.
The British naval officer Captain William Lang was recruited by Hart and Li Hongzhi in 1882 to advise the Chinese in naval matters.
Other foreign officers hired included:
- Constantin von Hanneken, a German gunnery training expert. He was the highest ranked foreign advisor within the fleet who also designed the Weihaiwei and Port Arthur coastal defences. He was appointed co-admiral of the fleet alongside Ding Ruchang.
- William Ferdinand Tyler, a former sub-lieutenant in the Royal Navy Reserves and an official within the Imperial Maritime customs service. Initially an advisor following his volunteering for service he was appointed co-captain of the Dingyuan.
- Philo Norton McGiffin, an American graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy who volunteered for service in China in 1885 as an advisor. Initially an instructor at the Tianjin Naval academy he was appointed superintendent of the new Weihaiwei naval academy in 1890. During the First Sino-Japanese War he was appointed co-captain of the Zhenyuan.
Personnel
Senior command of the fleet went to Ding Ruchang, an army officer without any formal training. who was noted for his courage and capability in land affairs. William Lang was appointed as Chief Inspector of the Beiyang navy in 1882 and re-appointed for another term in 1885. Lang resigned following the Flag-hoisting incident, where Beiyang officers refused to hoist the Admiral's flag due to Ding Ruchang's absence. Lang felt insulted when Li did not support him, and resigned in anger.
Naval bases
It was necessary for a modern fleet to possess fortified dockyards and bases for the maintenance and repair of ships of that navy. Li Hongzhang endeavoured therefore to create the necessary support needed for the fleet. The remit of the Beiyang fleet was the protection of the coastal waters between the mouth of the Yalu river and the bay of Jiaozhou a large section of the coastline and an important one as it guarded the Bohai bay and therefore the approaches to Tianjin and the capital Beijing. Li decided to fortify the ports of Lushunkou, Weihaiwei and Tianjin that formed a triangle within the Bohai bay.Tianjin/Dagu
This port at the mouth of the Hai river and the port city of the capital Beijing was strategically important and was also the headquarters of the entirety of the Beiyang fleet. The base also hosted the Dagu shipyards, the Tianjin Arsenal, the Tianjin Naval college, the Beiyang Military Academy. The base at Tianjin hosted the telegraph office and academy of the fleet making it important for communication as well as a medical academy and a hospital for naval personnel the torpedo and mining detachments also had their headquarters based in the base.Weihaiwei
This city sits at the Northeastern tip of the Shandong Peninsula and guarded the southern entrance to the Bohai Bay. The harbour of Weihai was guarded by Liugong Island and had excellent deep waters for the basing of large warships. The naval base was established in 1887 due to the limited budget of the fleet soon the harbour was fortified, with an arsenal including a torpedo factory being constructed too, other facilities included an ammunition depot and coaling facilities important for the fleet.Lushunkou
This base sat at the southeastern tip of the Liaodong Peninsula and guarded the northern entrance to the Bohai Bay. Construction of the base was given particular priority, and a French syndicate constructed most of the facilities; the construction ran from 1880 to 1890 and cost approximately three million taels. The port also hosted torpedo and mining facilities and hosted a large dockyard the only one capable of repairing the Dingyuan class battleships. Port Arthur was of particular importance that the Navy Regulations stipulated half the year must be spent there by senior officers of the fleet. However, there is controversy over the decision to adopt Lushunkou as the primary base given its relative isolation something that proved particularly important in the First Sino-Japanese war, this was explained as being necessary as Li as the limited budget of the fleet meant that despite Qingdao being the superior naval base with a larger and more amenable bay the financial capacity to establish a base was not sufficient.Sino-French War
The Beiyang Fleet took good care to stay out of range of Admiral Amédée Courbet's Far East Squadron during the Sino-French War. Nevertheless, it featured prominently in the calculations of the French government between 1883 and 1885. The Beiyang Fleet was due to take delivery in early 1884 of, and, three modern warships then building in German shipyards. In December 1883, as war with China seemed increasingly likely, the French persuaded the German government to delay the release of these three ships. They did not reach China until the autumn of 1885, after the end of the Sino-French War.In late June 1884, when the news of the Bắc Lệ ambush broke, the French admiral Sébastien Lespès, commander of the Far East naval division, was cruising off Che-foo in the Gulf of Petchili with the French warships,, Volta and Lutin, while the Beiyang Fleet lay at anchor in Che-foo harbour. Although war was clearly imminent, France and China remained technically at peace, and Lespès was forbidden to attack the Beiyang Fleet pending the outcome of diplomatic efforts to resolve the crisis. On 3 July 1884 the Beiyang Fleet's commander, Admiral Ding Ruchang, withdrew his ships from Che-foo to Pei-ho, where a strong bar across the harbour protected them from the French ships. The fleet remained at Pei-ho in almost complete idleness throughout the Sino-French War.
In February 1885 the Beiyang Fleet reluctantly released two of its ships, and, to join a sortie launched by a number of ships of the Nanyang Fleet to break the French blockade of Formosa. The two ships set sail for Shanghai to join the Nanyang vessels, but were almost immediately recalled by Li Hongzhang, who claimed that they were needed to watch the Japanese in Korea. The result was the loss of two Chinese warships from the Nanyang Fleet at the Battle of Shipu. Li's selfish attitude was neither forgotten nor forgiven, and in the First Sino-Japanese War the Nanyang Fleet made little attempt to help the Beiyang Fleet.