First Chinese-built armored ship
, originally known as Pingyuan (), was an ironclad coastal battleship that served with the Imperial Chinese Beiyang Fleet and later the Imperial Japanese Navy. It was built by the Mawei Navy Yard near Fuzhou. Previous transliterations of its Chinese name include "Ping Yuen" and "Ping Yuan", and an alternative transliteration of its Japanese name was "Heiyen".
Characteristics.
Shortly after launch, Pingyuan was armed with one 263 mm Krupp rifled breechloading main gun. The secondary battery consisted of two 15 cm Krupp guns. There were 8 quick firing guns and facilities to launch 4 torpedoes.
Service record.
Beiyang Fleet.
As part of the Beiyang Fleet, "Pingyuan" was at the Battle of the Yellow Sea/Yalu River during the First Sino-Japanese War. It was a Chinese armored cruiser built by the Mawei Navy Yard, modelled on the French . "Pingyuan" was firstly named "Longwei" (), and was the first Chinese-built ironclad, though some of its components were imported from abroad. "Pingyuan" was part of the Beiyang Fleet.
"Pingyuan" fought in the Battle of the Yalu River, damaging the Japanese flagship , and was later captured as a prize of war in the siege of Weihaiwei.
Imperial Japanese Navy.
After its capture in February 1895, by the Imperial Japanese Navy, "Pingyuan" was placed into active combat service as Pingyuan-go on 16 March 1895 and served with the Japanese fleet through the remainder of the First Sino-Japanese War. On 21 March 1898, she was re-designated as a first-class gunboat and was officially renamed Heien in 1900 based on the Japanese language pronunciation of its original Chinese name.
During the Russo-Japanese War, "Heien" was assigned to the 3rd Squadron and was part of the blockading force against the Imperial Russian Navy at the Battle of Port Arthur. "Heien" was disabled by a naval mine at Pigeon Bay (Piegen Bay), located to the west of Port Arthur on 18 September 1904 and foundered in heavy weather later that day. It was struck from the navy list on 21 May 1905.
References.
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