Shipbuilding in China.

Auckland Star, Volume XXIII, Issue 4292, 23 February 1884, Page 9 (Supplement)

Shipbuilding in China.

The Chinese Government commenced building five months ago at Shanghai and in its immediate neighbourhood, sea floating batteries for the defence of tho Yanjrtse^ Kinng, four of these batteries have been ordered from foreign builders who are established at Shanghai, while the two others are : being built at Kiang-Nan, the arsenal of .Shanghai, some three miles from the city. Two of these batteries wero launched last month, and; like the four < - there, they have wooden-hulls, with double decks, and have no masts or propellers. They are 135 feet long, by 3G feet in beam, and 5 feet deep. Upon the upper deck is a wooden turret, armed with three 12-ton Armstrong guns. The hull is divided into five compartments for the •provisions, sleeping-berths, and other supplies, the centre compartment carrying the powder and ammunition. The crew will consist of 10r> men, of whom five will be officors, 50 seamen, and 50 marines. As these batteries have ho propelling power they will have to be towed or hauled to the point selected for the defence of the Yellow River. The arsenal at King-Nan, at which these batteries have been built, has turned out several men-of-war recently, including a wooden ■ frigate which has never taken the sea. The best vessel built there was a gun-boat bearing the terrific title of The Terror of the Western Nations, but this vessel is so deep in the water that the upper deck only just clears the surface, so that she cannot leave the river. There are also at Kiang-Nana cannon foundry, a torpedo factory, and a manufactory of rifles which is said to turn out 500 Remingtons each week. The principal cannon foundry is at Shanghai, and it is under the direction of an Englishman, formerly in the Woolwich Arsenal, and muzzle - loaders of the description made at Woolwich for the English Navy-up' to the adoption of the breech-loader are manufactured there. The' Fou-tcheoii' Arsenal, said to be the best equipped in China, is busily engaged upon the arming of the cruiser launched from there a fewmonths ago. This cruiser is of 1,600 tons burden and 2,000 horse-power, and it is.tobe armed with Krupp guns of heavy calibre, to carry' several, torpedoes, and to have a speed of. 15 knots an hour.