Opening engagement of the Sino-French War 
The Battle of Fuzhou, or Battle of Foochow, also known as the Battle of the Pagoda Anchorage (French: Combat naval de Fou-Tchéou, Chinese: 馬江海戰, 馬江之役 or 馬尾海戰, literally Battle of Mawei), was the opening engagement of the 16-month Sino-French War (December 1883 – April 1885). The battle was fought on 23 August 1884 off the Pagoda Anchorage in Mawei () harbour, to the southeast of the city of Fuzhou (Foochow). During the battle Admiral Amédée Courbet's Far East Squadron virtually destroyed the Fujian Fleet, one of China's four regional fleets.
Background.
On 11 May 1884 French and Chinese negotiators concluded the Tientsin Accord, an agreement designed to end several months of undeclared hostilities between France and China in Tonkin. On 23 June 1884, French troops advancing to occupy Lạng Sơn, in accordance with the terms of this agreement, clashed near the small town of Bắc Lệ with a detachment of the Chinese Guangxi Army. The Chinese opened fire on the advancing French, precipitating a two-day battle in which the French column was seriously mauled. This incident, the Bắc Lệ ambush, was the proximate cause of the Sino-French War.
When news of the Bắc Lệ ambush reached Paris, there was fury at what was perceived as blatant Chinese treachery. Jules Ferry's government demanded an apology, an indemnity, and the immediate implementation of the terms of the Tianjin Accord. The Chinese government agreed to negotiate, but refused to apologise or pay an indemnity. The mood in France was against compromise, and although negotiations continued throughout July, Admiral Courbet was ordered to take his squadron to Fuzhou (Foochow).
Courbet was instructed to prepare to destroy the Foochow Navy Yard, downriver from Fuzhou at Mawei, and to attack the Chinese fleet in Mawei harbour. Ironically, the Foochow Navy Yard represented a substantial French investment in China's future, having been built several years earlier under the direction of the French administrator Prosper Giquel. During the second half of July and the first half of August Courbet gradually concentrated his squadron in Mawei harbour, at the Pagoda Anchorage—named for a conspicuous Chinese pagoda, the Luoxingta (), which stood on a hill above the harbour.
Negotiations between France and China broke down in mid-August, and on the evening of 22 August Courbet was authorised by the French government to commence hostilities. He duly notified the foreign consuls, the governor-general of Fujian and Zhejiang, and the commanders of several neutral warships moored at the Pagoda Anchorage (the British gunboats , and and the American corvette ).
Order of battle.
Only a fraction of the Far East squadron was present off the Pagoda Anchorage on the morning of 23 August. In particular, none of the Far East squadron's four ironclads was immediately available. "Bayard", Courbet's flagship, was at Sharp Peak near the island of Matsu, guarding a vital telegraph station. "Atalante" was hunting down pirate ships in the Gulf of Tonkin. Courbet had summoned the ironclads "Triomphante" from Shanghai and "La Galissonnière" from Keelung to join him off Fuzhou, but "La Galissonnière" had been detained at Keelung by bad weather, and although "Triomphante" was approaching the Min River, it was not clear whether she would be able to cross the bar at its entrance.
Courbet had under his immediate command the first-class cruisers "Duguay-Trouin", "Villars" and "d'Estaing", the third-class cruiser "Volta" (which he chose as his flagship during the engagement), the gunboats "Lynx", "Aspic" and "Vipère" and Torpedo Boats No. 45 and No. 46. The second-class cruiser "Châteaurenault" and the troopship "Saône" had been left at the Jinpai pass, at the entrance to the Min River, to stop the Chinese from laying a barrage to prevent the squadron's escape.
The Chinese Fujian fleet consisted of the wooden corvette "Yangwu" (the flagship), the scout-transports "Chenhang", "Yongbao", "Fupo", "Feiyun" and "Ji'an", the paddle steamer "Yixin", the wooden gunboats "Zhenwei" and , and the Rendel flatiron gunboats "Fusheng" and "Jiansheng". Twelve large junks were nearby, but did not take part in the battle. The French squadron displaced 14,500 tons and included 1,780 men, while the eleven warships in the Chinese fleet displaced 8,000 tons, and included 1,040 men. The French squadron was much better-led and better-armed than the Chinese fleet. Only a few of the Chinese ships were capable of offering serious resistance to Courbet's attack. The Chinese defence was under the command of the imperial commissioner Zhang Peilun (), one of the leading members of China's war party.
Fleet deployments.
The Chinese fleet was deployed into a northern group of eight ships and a southern group of three ships, with the French squadron lying in between. The wooden corvette "Yangwu", the wooden gunboat "Fuxing", the armed transport "Fupo", the Rendel flatiron gunboats "Jiansheng" and "Fusheng" and the small paddle steamer "Yixin" were deployed on the northwest curve of the river, between the French ships and the Foochow Navy Yard. A little behind them lay the unarmed transports "Yongbao" and "Chenhang", anchored just off the dockyard. The role of this northern group of ships was obviously to prevent the French from attacking the Navy Yard. Meanwhile, the armed wooden transports "Ji'an" and "Feiyun" and the wooden gunboat "Zhenwei" lay downstream of the French squadron, dangerously isolated on the southwesterly leg of the river, in front of the Customs building. Their job seems to have been to protect the Customs building and to block Courbet's exit from the Min River.
Courbet's plan provided for overwhelming firepower to be deployed against the Chinese fleet. He had noticed that the Chinese ships swung with the tide, and determined to make his attack just before the top of the tide at 2:00 pm on the following afternoon, Saturday 23 August, when with luck the Chinese ships would have swung away from the French ships and would be presenting their vulnerable sterns to the attackers. This timing was also important for another reason. If "Triomphante" successfully ascended the Min River, it was about then that she would be making her appearance.
Assuming that the Chinese fleet did not change its position, Courbet's orders provided for the French ships to be at action stations at 1:45 pm and to go into action at around 2:00 pm, on his signal. The battle would begin with an attack by Torpedo Boats No. 45 and No. 46 on "Yangwu" and "Fupo". This attack would be supported by cannon and rifle fire from "Volta". "Volta" would then concentrate on destroying a line of war junks and fireships drawn up just to the west of Losing Island. Once the attack by the torpedo boats had cleared the way, the gunboats "Aspic", "Vipère" and "Lynx" would sail upriver towards the Navy Yard and take on the other ships of the Chinese northern group. Four steam launches under the command of "lieutenant de vaisseau" Augustin Boué de Lapeyrère, the future French admiral, were given the job of protecting "Volta" and the three French gunboats from attack by the Chinese mineboats. To the east "Duguay-Trouin", "Villars" and "d'Estaing" were to reduce the three ships of the Chinese southern group, to engage the war junks from the flank, and to engage a battery armed with three Krupp cannon near the Pagoda, and three other batteries armed with Krupp cannon which protected the Arsenal. Their launches would be deployed to give protection against Chinese torpedo attacks.
The battle of Fuzhou.
On the morning of Saturday 23 August, although the Chinese commanders knew that the French would launch their attack at around 2:00 pm, the sailors in both fleets went about their routine business. The ships of the Fujian Fleet made no attempt to redeploy or to anticipate the French attack by opening fire first. The French crews went to their action stations at 1:30 pm, after eating their midday meal. The Chinese did not react to this obvious threat, and at 1:45 pm the flurry of activity aboard the French ships died down. For the next ten minutes the tension grew aboard the French ships as the minutes ticked away towards 2:00 pm. At 1:55 pm a Chinese mineboat advanced towards the French squadron. Courbet immediately ordered the attack to begin, only five minutes short of his original timetable.
At the outset of the battle the Chinese flagship "Yangwu" was successfully attacked with a spar torpedo by Torpedo Boat No.46 ("lieutenant de vaisseau" Douzans) and grounded. The French torpedo boat suffered damage to her boiler during this attack. The despatch vessel "Fupo" was attacked less successfully by Torpedo Boat No.45 ("lieutenant de vaisseau" Latour), and was subsequently crippled by "Volta"'s torpedo launch and carried by boarding by Boué de Lapeyrère's sailors. She had already been set alight by French shellfire, and was eventually abandoned by the French prize crew and sank in the middle of the Min River.
Their spar torpedoes expended, the two French torpedo boats drifted downriver after making their attack, towards the anchorage of the neutral vessels off Losing Island. Lieutenant Latour had been seriously wounded in the eye during the attack, but he refused an offer of medical assistance from American officers on "Enterprise", explaining that he could not leave his post while the battle was still in progress.
Meanwhile, the French cruisers and the ironclad "Triomphante", which joined the French squadron only minutes before the battle began, were making short work of the rest of the Chinese fleet. "Chenhang", "Yongbao", "Feiyun", "Ji'an", "Fusheng" and "Jiansheng" were either sunk or set alight by shellfire from the cruisers "Duguay-Trouin", "Villars" and "d'Estaing". Only "Fupo" and "Yixin" survived the battle without serious damage, by escaping upriver before the gunboats "Lynx", "Aspic" and "Vipère" had a chance to engage them. "Zhenwei" was blown up by a single shell from "Triomphante".
Before they were put out of action the outgunned Chinese vessels concentrated their fire on the French flagship "Volta", hoping to kill Courbet and the officers of his entourage. Several sailors aboard the French cruiser were killed or wounded, and shortly after the start of the battle a roundshot ploughed through Courbet's command group on the flagship's bridge, killing the British pilot Thomas and only narrowly missing "capitaine de frégate" Gigon, "Volta"'s captain. A few minutes later splinters from an exploding Chinese shell wounded "lieutenant de vaisseau" Ravel, Courbet's aide-de-camp.
The fighting ended at 5:00pm, but during the night of 23August the Chinese made a number of unsuccessful attacks with fireships on the French warships, obliging some of them to shift their anchorages to evade them.
Bombardment of the Foochow Navy Yard.
On the morning of 24 August Courbet issued orders for his ships' landing companies to go ashore with the naval engineers to destroy the Foochow Navy Yard. Preparations were made for a landing, but Courbet then changed his mind, after observing that the Navy Yard was defended by organised groups of Chinese infantry. The attack was cancelled as the French sailors were on the point of climbing into their launches.
Instead, the French bombarded the Foochow Navy Yard, damaging a number of outbuildings and holing the sloop "Henghai" ("Heng-hai", 橫海), still under construction and lying on the slips. A certain amount of damage was inflicted, but without the support of the heavy guns of "Triomphante" and "Duguay-Trouin" or the slightly lighter guns of the cruisers "Villars" and "d'Estaing", which drew too much water to enter the shallows off the Navy Yard except around high tide, Courbet was unable to destroy the Yard completely. He himself admitted in his official report that the damage done 'was not as much as I had hoped for'.
The French squadron remained off Fuzhou during the night of 24 August. Once again the Chinese tried to make a night attack. At 4:00 am two Chinese torpedo launches tried to attack the gunboat "Vipère", anchored at the head of the French line. Both launches were lit up by searchlights on the French ships and attacked with Hotchkiss fire by "Duguay-Trouin". One launch was sunk instantly, while the crew of the other abandoned ship and swam for the shore.
Descent of the Min River.
On 25 August, after receiving the congratulations of the captains of the neutral warships on the professionalism displayed by the French squadron during the action of 23 August, Courbet began to lead his ships back down the Min River. The squadron's two heaviest ships, "Triomphante" and "Duguay-Trouin", led the way.
On 25 and 26 August the French bombarded the Tianluowan () and Min'an () batteries, two Chinese