Whilst thumbing through one of my reference books looking for some information about a particular early ironclad, I came across an entry about the Chinese ironclad Pingyuan. She has the distinction of being the first ironclad warship built in a Chinese shipyard and although she is by no means a copy of the Danish Tordenskjold, she looks like a cutdown version of her.
She was built at the Foochow Arsenal, Mawei, China, and launched on 29th January 1888. She was in commission by 1890, fought in the Battle of the Yalu River, and was captured by the Japanese at Weihaiwei on 17th February 1895.
She was incorporated into the Imperial Japanese Nay as the armoured gunboat Ping Yuen Go and renamed Heien in 1900. She was part of the force blockading Port Arthur during the Russo-Japanese War and sank after hitting a mine in Piegen Bay (Pigeon Bay) on 18th September 1904.
Her characteristics were:
- Displacement: 2,150 tons
- Dimensions:
- Length: 60.96m (200ft)
- Beam: 12.19m (40ft)
- Draught: 4.19m (13ft 9in)
- Propulsion: 2 boilers providing steam to 2 reciprocating triple-expansion steam engines, each of which was connected to a propeller shaft
- Speed: 10.5 knots
- Range: -
- Complement: 202
- Armament: 1 × 260mm (10-inch) gun; 2 × 150mm (6-inch) guns: 2 × 57mm (2-inch) guns: 2 × 47mm (2-inch) guns; 4 × 37.5mm (1.5-inch) guns; 3 × 457mm (18-inch) torpedo tubes
- Armour:
- Belt: 203mm (8-inch)
- Deck: 50mm (2inch)
- Turret: 203mm (8-inch)
- Conning tower: 127mm (5-inch)
Now that is an enticing beast. Despite my colonial games being set in the pacific and involving Chinese pirates, I hadn't considered a Chinese ironclad before. I'm going to have to do a bit a research and see what might come of it.
ReplyDeleteIrishserb,
DeleteI thought that it might appeal to you!
I understand that the design was based on the one used for the French Acheron-class armoured gunboats. (See https://www.navypedia.org/ships/france/fr_bb_acheron.htm and https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Achéron_class_gunboat_-_Brassey%27s_1887.png)
All the best,
Bob
You are definintely throwing kindling on the fire. Thanks for sharing the links. I tend to model what I think of as caricatures of the actual ships, and she's just small enough that I think that I could pull it off for 28mm.
DeleteIrishserb,
DeleteSorry to put temptation into your path!
You might want to consider building a flatiron gunboat, which is a similar but smaller type of warship.
I look forward to seeing whatever model you decide to build.
All the best,
Bob
Interesting gunboat. I am having a couple War of the Pacific ships printed at work this week, there is an interesting ruleset in Featherstone's Naval Wargames I want to try and this ship would fit in too.
ReplyDeleteJennifer,
DeleteIt was intended to be a small battleship or armoured cruiser, but ended up as a coastal defence armoured gunboat.
The rules in Donald Featherstone’s NAVAL WAR GAMES book should give you an excellent tabletop battle. I used them many years ago and had great fun using them.
All the best,
Bob
That is a nice bit of Colonial flavour as a naval asset
ReplyDeleteGeordie an Exiled FoG,
DeleteIt certainly does … and cries out to be modelled.
All the best,
Bob