CHINA AS A NAVAL POWER.

Otago Witness, Issue 1932, 30 November 1888, Page 11 (Supplement)

CHINA AS A NAVAL POWER.

(From a Standard Correspondent.) In these days of almost universal warlike reparations, when the chief energies of the reat Powers of Europe, and of the small, jo, are directed to ' the multiplication of rmies and the fitting out of great fleets, and rhen the war cloud seems to hover over all com St. Petersburg to Portsmouth, it may erhaps be useful to turn our eyes further asfcward for a little, and see what the great lations of Asia are doing in the game of ;etting ready for the day of reckoning. In uch a survey, China, with her almost countess millions, naturally, comes first amongst he nations of the Orient who are quite inlependent of European interference and con,rol. Except the army of the north, and vhich, alter all, forms but a small portion of ;he military strength of the empire, in point )f numbers at least, very little precise or reliable information is in the possession jf foreigners, or, for the matter of that, is known to the people of China herself, Ihe army which the Grand Secretary. Li Hung Chang, has grown, so to speak, since the days of the Taiping rebellion is, however, the best drilled, equipped, anc officered in the empire, and its morale h higher than that of any other portion of the defensive forces of China. But it is th( naval and not the land forces that at th( present time are brought the more promi nently into notice by reason of the raor< important series or manoeuvres which hav< been in progress in the neighbourhood o: Port Arthur, and in which the full strengtl of the "Pieyang," or Northern Fleet tool part. A great number of people at Homi almost invariably connect the idea o countless flotillas of quaintly-shaped am picturesque-looking, but piratical craft witl the idea of the naval forces of the Celestia Empire. In the pictures of the war wit! China in 1854, when Admiral Seymou destroyed so many of these junks in th Bogue waters around Hong Kong, where th blue expanse is now ploughed up all da; long by the incessant movements o the masses of shipping, this associate of ideas was perfectly correct. But in th 30 odd years which have elapsed since the: a great many changes have come to pass even in this slowly-moving old empire where they count centuries for our decades. The most striking revolution which thes thirty odd years have brought about is, uc doubtedly, that in the naval forces of th empire. It may rather astonish people a Home to hear that the Chinese squadron is, a far as material and armament at least g< quite a match for, if not superior to, th British fleet in Chinese waters. The subjec is one worthy of serious attention when w consider in connection with it the fact thz it is only 34 years since the naval strengt of China was a thing that only provoked th risible faculties of bur naval men who ha practical acquaintance with the subjec But I can assure you that Tit the present da a very different opinion is entertained by h< Majesty's naval officers respecting the nay; strength of the power in whose waters the are stationed. Her Majesty's squadron i Chinese and Japanese waters includes son 21 war ships, varying in size from tl Imperieuse, of 8500 (not yet arrived), to tl Tweed, twin-screw iron gunboat, of 364 ton By the addition of the Imperieuse, no dciut the British naval force in Chinese wate will be greatly improved ; for her predecessc the Audacious, has grown too much behir the age in armament and speed to be of ar great use in actual warfare. The retirir flagship would make a very good guardshi] ?!-■ —sh — viiiH-aa oo .t.ha t Sannhire,, Constanc ot her class, albeit she is a little oosol " , now. She is of the first-class ironclad frig, i s type, and is in all points very similar to I ■j German man-o'-war Sachsen. Her drivi ' power is furnished by a twin screw, w )f engines of (5200-horse power nominal; 1 t _ displacement is 7430 tons; her engin jj boilers, and magazines are well protect „ with vertical armour 14in in thickness, English steel and iron. Her armament cc ? sists of four breech-loading Krupp gu c capable of throwing a shell of 7251b. The s formidable engines of destruction are mount ' upon two echeloned turrets, covered wi ;. 12-inch iron plates. Such is Li Hung Chanj flagship, and the Chen- Yuen, the second b ship of the fleet, is exactly similar every point. True, their speed is not an ;_ thing like that of ships of recent co struction, like the Impevieuse, but it is ful _ up to that of the Audacious, and the draught of water is lighter, while their co carrying capacity is greater. Next in impor ance come the two new Armstrong cruiser the Ching-Yuen and the Chi- Yuen, built la: j. year by the famous constructors whose nan: they bear. They are probably the most fo: midable vessels of their class afloat, havin had expended upon them the best labour c the most skilful naval arahifcects. They ar built of the best steel, have a draught c 17ft aft. with 2300 tons displacement; s that they are specially adapted for navigat ing the dangerous and shoaling Chines waters. They are each driven by two set of horizontal triple expansion screw engines by Humphreys, Tennant, and Co., London capable of working to 6500-horse power These were sufficient to give nearly ll r t knots during the manoeuvres, in which quick, sudden movements were necessary Comparing' this speed with that of hei Majesty's ship Leander, the British warship nearest to their class in these waters, we find that the Armstrong Chinese cruisers can give nearly four knots an hour to the Leander, which is quite a greyhound in comparison to the Cordelia, Sapphire, Constance, Satellite, and most of her Majesty's ships on the station of about the same displacement. In fact, unless the Imperieuse fulfils the expectations held concerning her steaming powers, there is not a single British "warship in the waters of the Far East that could touch either the Ching-Yunn or her sister the Chi- Yuen. With a European crew and officers these two vessels would give a good account of themselves in an engagement with the best of her Sftijesty's ships here, perhaps, excepting the Itoperieuse, and even with a well-trained Chinese crew, like that now working in them, and with such an experienced command eras Captain ¥ih Choo Kwei, who commands the Ohing-Yuen, and ! who served for three years in the Black Prince and Invincible, if she met an enemy she was afraid to tackle, she could show a clean pair of heels to almost any British ship j east of Singapore. Nor are the two new Stettin cruisers, the Lai- Yuan and the King- Yuan, much less formidable. They are somewhat heavier in tonnage and lighter in guns $h#n their English

barbette of 3in steel ; two 15 cm. bin 4£-ton guns, mounted on carriages, forward amidships. They also, on account of their small draught, could be navigated where only such vessels as the Heroine and Mutine, screw composite sloops of only 1130 tons and 1120-horse I power, with a considerably weaker armament, could be successfully manoeuvred. Each of these four cruisers, which were brought out from Europe a few months ago by Admiral Lang, have many features of great uiility in wartime which are alone possessed by them, as far as the Chinese waters are concerned. In addition to these six very formidable ships there is the Chi-Yuen, a fine unrigged cruiser, of over 4000 tons, built in Stettin in I 1883, and partially armoured. Her average I speed, however, is only about 12 knots. I She carries two Krupp guns, 21cm., equalling B.2£in English, and firing a shell of 3081b, with a oharge of 991b of powder, attaining a velocity of 1657 ft. She is also furnished with four large-sized torpedo tubes, and is altogether a very respect-able-looking monster of her class. Then I there are two Armstrong steel cruisers, Yang1 Wen and Chin-Yuen, of an older pattern, but still eminently useful vessels, and fast enough for the work they are intended to do. I had almost forgotten about the famous torpedo boat Yarrow, which the Chinese" naval authorities are going to take for their I model in a number of torpedo boats they are I about to construct in their own dockyard afi Foochow. A flotilla of 10 gunboats, some of them lightly armed and capable of steaming 12 knots, others of that slower class known as the " Alphabetical." and armed with one 35-ton gun, with the Kang-Chi, gunnery ship, and the Wei-Yuen, training ship, made I up the squadron, from which it will be seen that Li Hung Chang's fleet is not a thing to be treated lightly ; and although some of its I ships are armed with the obsolete muzzleloading guns, it would, if properly handled and manned, be found a very dangerous I enemy for even our eastern fleet to attack in I its present condition. It must be recollected that the Peiyang j squadron only forms a portion of China's I naval resources, and that though th( 1 Canton or Southern, and that having its ! j headquarters at Foochow, are still in £ : transitory stage, they are, too, growing, anc ■ j that by-and-by when the three fleets ar< : j brought under the same system and control : J the maritime strength of the empire will bi ; I greatly increased. As to the British fleet ii eastern waters, it is necessary to observ j that there always has to be a certain numbe of ships detached for the Japanese waters 1 and the Peiyang squadron only has to visi ; the seas north of Shanghai, while the Britis I fleet's domain ranges from Signapore up t J Vladistock.