Battle of Foochow
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The naval Battle of Foochow (馬尾海戰, lit. Naval battle of Mawei) occurred on 23 August 1884 during the Sino-French War. The Fukien Fleet, recently built by the Chinese, was utterly destroyed while at anchor by a French fleet commanded by Admiral Courbet, which opened fire without a declaration of war. The Qing commander fled in fear without his boat, and the Fukien Fleet panicked in the chaos without the commander. The Fukien Fleet was disarmed in a brief battle lasting a little over thirty minutes.
The battle heralded a change in the balance of power in the region, and revealed the many inefficiencies that existed in the Chinese government and military at that time.
On the Chinese side the Ting Yuen (7,144 tons, 14,5 kts, 4x 305mm cannons, 3x 150 cannons, 355mm armour), a very powerful ship and vastly superior to any of the French ships, had recently been ordered from Germany, and could have been able to participate in the conflict. The French however, successfully enjoined Germany to delay the delivery of the ship until the end of the war [Source] (Japanese).
Ships involved
- Volta (1323t), flagship
- Bayard (5,915t)
- La Galissonniere (4585t)
- Triomphante (4585t)
- Duguay-Trouin (3479t)
- Villars (2363t)
- d'Estaing (2363t)
- Aspic (465t)
- Lynx (465t)
- Vipere (465t)
- ? (torpedo launch)
- ? (torpedo launch)
- Yang Wu (flag) (1393t)
- Fei Yun (c.1393t)
- Chi An (1200t)
- i Hsin (small wooden gunboat/launch) - Sunk
- Chien Sheng - Sunk
- Fu Hsing (wooden gunboat, 3 guns) - Sunk
- Chen Wei (wooden paddle gunboat, c.650t, 6 guns)
- Fu Sheng (gunboat, 265t) - Sunk
- Yung Pao - Sunk in dock
- Fu Po (1258t)
Notes
See also
External links
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