IMPERIAL CHINESE BEIYANG FLEET CRUISER "CHING YUAN" 1894

Description

The Ching Yuan was the sister ship of the Chih Yuan, and was built in 1887 at the Armstrong Whitworth & Company, Elswick shipyard. Ordered for the Chinese Peiyang Fleet she had a displacement of 2,355 tons and had a speed of 18 knots. Armament consisted of 3 x 210mm, 2 x 150mm and 8 x 57mm guns and 4 x 457mm torpedo tubes. This design was sold to China, Chile and Japan, but was not used by the Royal Navy who thought the ships to lightly protected. The two Chinese ships joined the fleet in 1887-88 and had relatively short lives. Ching Yuan and her sister ship the Chih Yuan both served in the Battle of the Yalu river on 17 September 1894 against the Imperial Japanese Navy. The Ching Yuan survived the battle and retreated to Port Arthur, then to Weihaiwai. Here the ship was destroyed by a combination of Japanese naval guns and shore based artillery. (Scale : 1/350e)