The Chaoyang-class ironclad battleship of the Han Imperial Defense Force Navy and the results of ten years of development and construction

From the end of the Argentine War in 1880 to the end of 1890, the construction of the three main naval bases was completed successively, assisting the ship formation to manage 26 main warships and the rest of the small auxiliary warships, the base personnel included 5,700 officers and men of surface ships, the Marine Corps was expanded to 4,400 people, 800 frogman special operations forces, and the personnel attached to the base such as ship maintenance and garrison troops gradually increased to 8,500 people. The Navy has a scale of nearly 20,000 people, and every two years holds a comprehensive exercise involving the joint cooperation of bases, ships, and marines to enhance the comprehensive combat capability of the base and ship formations.

During this period, the old flagship "Chaoyang" large ironclad ship with a standard displacement of 6,270 tons and two other medium-sized ironclad ships with a displacement of 3,500 tons purchased from Britain in 1869 were captured in 1868 due to the aging condition of the ships and could not take on combat missions, and were officially decommissioned in June 1888 and transferred to the sequence of naval transport training miscellaneous ships. In September 1886, the army and navy had the production capacity of 155mm 35 times the diameter and below caliber land and sea guns, and the 14-inch (356mm) "brush Kaofu" blackhead torpedo introduced from Germany also had the production capacity in December 1886 after digestion and absorption, establishing a unified standard system for the long-term consideration of naval construction and development. In order to improve the quality of management and the efficiency of logistics support, the army and navy weapons were named the Han 1886 type. The Navy of the Han Imperial Defense Force has two main fleets and four sub-fleets, namely the Atlantic Fleet (including the Caribbean Fleet and the Congo Dispatch Fleet) and the Pacific Fleet (including the South Ocean Fleet and the South Pacific Fleet).

On the basis of summing up the experience and lessons of the development and construction of the Han Navy in the past 20 years, and drawing on the classification of warships in some Western countries, Li Mingyuan promulgated the "Regulations of the Navy of the Han Imperial Defense Force" on December 28, 1888, which was formally implemented, and according to the "Regulations on the Surface Combat Ships of the Navy of the Han Imperial Defense Forces", the surface ships were divided into six classes: battleships, cruisers, light cruisers, gunboats, gunboats, and torpedo boats.

Warships with a displacement of more than 8,000 tons are first-class capital battleships, 6,000 tons and 8,000 tons or less are second-class capital battleships, 4,500 tons or more to 6,000 tons are first-class main force cruisers, 3,000 tons to 4,500 tons are second-class capital cruisers, 1,000 tons or more to less than 3,000 tons are third-class light cruisers, 1,000 tons and 500 tons or more are gunboats, and the rest of the small warships are gunboats and fish (rod) mineboats.

According to the classification of warships according to the displacement, the navy of the Han Imperial Wehrmacht had a total of 26 main warships built in the ten-year plan by the end of 1890, including two "Chaoyang" class ironclad battleships with a standard displacement of 8,500 tons that were purchased from the German Volkeng shipyard in 1885.

Four "Pioneer" class armored cruisers with a standard displacement of 3,500 tons that began service at the end of 1887 were built at the Xinjing Shipyard of the Han Kingdom, two "Victory" class ironclad cruisers with a standard displacement of 3,200 tons that were commissioned at the end of 1878 were purchased from the Mediterranean Iron Works shipyard in France, and six "Yangwu" class light dome cruisers with a standard displacement of 2,400 tons that were commissioned in 1888 from the "Yongxing" class were built and improved at the Royal Shipyard of the Han Dynasty. Twelve light ironclad cruisers of the "Yongxing" class with a standard displacement of 1,350 tons, which began to be commissioned in early 1879, were built at the Xinjing Shipyard in the Han Kingdom;

In addition, 16 "Sea Lion" class gunboats with a standard displacement of 760 tons and 21 "Sea Wolf" class gunboats with a standard displacement of 200 tons were built and commissioned in 1873 at the Xinjing Shipyard of the Han Kingdom, and 16 120-ton "Sea Shark" class torpedo boats were put into service in 1885, and there were more than 60 oceanographic survey ships, communication and liaison ships, reconnaissance ships, minelaying ships, minesweepers, steamboats, tugboats, small steamers, underwater engine boats, bridge ships, water boats, Compared with other countries in the same period in the world, there are more than 100 auxiliary vessels, including coal carriers, dredgers, transport ships, supply ships, and training ships, which have begun to take shape in scale and strength in terms of quantity and quality, and also announce to the world that an important new maritime combat force has begun to appear on the stage of the magnificent era of sea power.

Xinjing Shipyard, Xinghe Shipyard and Royal Shipyard are located in Xinjing (Port Alegre, Brazil), Xinghe County (Joinvili, Brazil) and Wuzhong City (Montevideo, Uruguay), the first two shipyards were originally imported from Prussia Shipbuilding equipment were established in early 1869 and two civilian shipyards were located in Xinjing, in February 1872, the two shipyards were upgraded to military shipyards, and one shipyard was relocated from Xinjing to Xinghe County, In April 1873, the Xinjing Shipyard succeeded in building a gunboat with a displacement of 760 tons under the technical guidance of Dalman and other French shipbuilders, and three months later, the Xinghe Shipyard also built a gunboat based on the experience of the Xinjing Shipyard.

The Royal Shipyard was established at the beginning of 1879 when Li Mingyuan instructed the navy to use the shipwrights dug from the Jiangnan Shipyard to prepare for the establishment, and on March 1, 1880, after the occupation of Wuzhou (Uruguay), from the long-term consideration of naval development and construction, Wuzhong Port (Port of Montevideo, the capital of Uruguay) was formally established, and the three shipyards shared shipbuilding technology and collaborated to tackle various naval military science and technology projects and problems. It can build warships of the same specification and standard level in a unified manner, and will gradually undertake the construction and maintenance tasks of larger and larger warships with the development of the navy.

The two "Chaoyang" class ironclad battleships of the Han Imperial Wehrmacht Navy were improved from the two Dingyuan-class ironclad ships of the Beiyang Naval Division (standard displacement of 7,335 tons, full load displacement of 7,670 tons), built at the Vulcan shipyard in Stettin, Germany, on March 25, 1882, Han and Germany signed a formal contract for the purchase of ships in Berlin, and on October 1, 1882, the native ship mechanics and naval officers and sailors sent by the Han arrived in Germany, and on October 10, 1882, the two ships started construction at the same time. Launched on December 1, 1883, completed on June 9, 1885, and delivered to the shipyard after sea trials on July 1, 1885, the two ships arrived in Han on August 1, 1885 and joined the Atlantic Fleet of the Han Imperial Defense Force Navy for official service (Chaoyang served as the new flagship of the Navy and Dawn served as the flagship of the Atlantic Fleet).

The "Chaoyang" class ships are 104.5 meters long, 18.5 meters wide, 6.8 meters draft, with a standard displacement of 8,500 tons and a full load displacement of 9,100 tons. In terms of power system, it is equipped with 2 composite horizontal three-stage expansion reciprocating steam engines (horizontal compound reciprocating steam engines usually transliterated as Kangbang machines in history books) and 8 round coal-fired boilers, with twin shaft propulsion, a single propeller diameter of 5 meters, and the main engine power of the "Chaoyang and Dawn" ships was measured at 8,300 horsepower, the speed was 16 knots, and the endurance was 4,500 nautical miles/10 knots. It is equipped with a searchlight of 8,000 candles and a searchlight of 20,000 candles, and two generators provide 70 kW of electricity.

The total weight of the armor is 1761 tons, the armor of the ironclad fort is 14 inches (365mm) thick on the waterline, the armor is 12 inches (305mm) thick under the waterline, the armor of the 305 gun mount is 304mm thick, the gun shield is 15mm thick, the cannons of the open battery dome cover (the thickness is 2 inches 50.8 mm), the armor of the conning tower is 203mm thick, the normal coal load of the coal tank is 750 tons, the maximum coal load is 1050 tons, and the establishment is 400-440 people. The co-captain has the rank of colonel or lieutenant colonel.

The Chaoyang class adopted the opinions of the German Admiral Claugern, the naval adviser of the Han Imperial Wehrmacht, on the basis of the Saxony-class hull and the installation method of the Dingyuan-class main guns, the four main guns were installed in two and two in the warship's central axis bow and stern symmetrical layout of the two twin mounted gun covers (dome type, thickness of 50.8mm) exposed gun emplacement, the bottom of the twin gun mount has a set of transmission devices to turn the gun through manpower and steam assistance, ( The main gun is the latest 1885 type 305mm 35 times diameter double-mounted breech naval gun developed by the German Krupp company for the Han Imperial Wehrmacht Navy, water pressure power, body tube length 10675mm, 72 compound lines, 4364mm long, propellant combustion chamber chamber chamber gun chamber gun chamber gun barrel weight 42.5 tons, upper gun carriage weight 7.25 tons, rate of fire 3 minutes per round, each gun 50 rounds of ammunition) front and rear main guns followed by the configuration of boilers and 2 erected chimneys, In order to expand the range of firepower of the warship's mobile attack,

The main mast is located in the middle of the ironclad ship, separating the two sets of twin main guns to avoid the mutual influence of the muzzle wind, and the four main guns in the two twin main batteries can be turned to the bow and stern direction at the same time to fire within the range of 260 degrees of fire, and the gun cover is installed because the machine guns with a fairly fast rate of fire began to appear on the warships at that time, and the machine guns mounted in the mast are condescendingly high to the sailors working in the open gun emplacements with the top completely open, The Han technicians proposed to put a gun cover similar to the ship surface rotary table on the cannon in the open fort, and through several brackets, it was connected to the base of the gun and rotated with the gun, which could play a certain role in protecting the personnel inside, and in order to avoid all the weight of the gun cover from pressing on the gun mount, lay a track on the top of the thick armored wall of the open fort, and put the gun cover with wheels at the bottom on the armor wall to form a rotating dome gun cover.

The ammunition available for the Type 1885 305mm 35 times diameter main gun includes flowering shells (grenades, blasting shells), solid bullets (condensate bullets, trainer bullets), all of which are ammunition sub-packing, flowering bullets (only referring to the warhead, the same below) weighs 292 kg, the warhead is charged with 10 kg, and the largest propellant pack weighs 72 kg (the propellant pack is cylindrical, and the gunpowder tablets are wrapped in a silk bag, and the weight is marked on the outside, and the medicine bag of different weights can be selected according to the firing range); The solid bullet weighs 325 kg, the trace charge in the warhead, the largest propellant package is 72 kg, the muzzle velocity of the gun is 580 meters per second, and the effective range is 11,100 meters; The auxiliary guns are in the bow and stern of the ship, a total of 4 single-mounted Krupp 1880 type 210mm 35 times the diameter of the naval gun (the Dingyuan-class ship bow and stern each of each single 150mm auxiliary guns are dismantled and improved into two single-mounted 210mm auxiliary guns), 2 bow and stern are located on the 4-seat single-mounted gun tray and the rear is open, the gun mount is open gun platform, 7330mm long, The gun weighs 12.5 tons, the muzzle velocity of the gun is 579 meters per second, the thickness of the 2-inch (50.8mm) gun cover protects the gunner, the gun carriage adopts the original retractor, the rate of fire reaches 1 round per minute, the effective firing range is 8300 meters, and a total of 150 rounds of ammunition;

The two sides of the warship are each equipped with 8 single-mounted 8 German Krupp 1880 type 150mm 35 times diameter breech steel hoop set naval guns (converted into 8 Han domestic 1886 type 155mm 35 times diameter breech naval guns in 1889, 5425mm long, 4800mm long and compound line, 4.77 tons of barrel weight, 5.16 tons of gun carriage, available ammunition includes flowering bullets and solid bullets, the average weight is 51 kg, the largest propellant pack weighs 17 kg, the muzzle velocity of the gun is 580 m / s, and the effective firing range is 11000 meters, These 8 guns are divided into 8 gun covers on both sides of the board and are rotated and fired by manpower), the open battery mount is located in the ear mounts on both sides of the middle of the hull, using the early rearing machine gun mount, 5220mm long, 4800mm long and compound line, the barrel weight is 9930 kg, the muzzle velocity is 530 meters per second, the effective firing range is 11000 meters, the rate of fire is 1 round per minute, the gunner has 1 inch (25.4mm) of the rear open gun cover protection, the left and right firing range is very large, and it can provide sufficient fire support to the front, side and rear of the warship, a total of 300 rounds of ammunition;

It is also equipped with 8 75mm Krupp guns (similar to the Krupp camp guns equipped by the army, except that there is a set of gun mounts for installation on the ship outside the army gun mount, the gun body is 3230mm long, weighs 750 kg, and uses flowering shells, weighing 5.85 kg, this kind of artillery is mainly used by the marines after going ashore, and can also be temporarily arranged in the appropriate position on the ship if necessary), and the shells used are "single-layer flowering", "cascading flowering", "sub-munitions", and "group bullets"; 8 French 37mm five-barreled Hotchkiss rapid-fire guns (a small-caliber rapid-fire gun with a high rate of fire, generally equipped with a re-entry mechanism), the gun body is 740mm long, weighs 209 kg, the rate of fire is 60 rounds per minute, each has 24 rounds of ammunition, the firing range is 2778 meters, and the ammunition is also divided into flower bullets and solid bullets. With an average weight of 1.1 kg, it can penetrate 274mm thick steel plates at a distance of 24 meters, 2 are installed in the upper mast (combat mast) of the front and rear masts, and the remaining 4 are installed on both sides of the hull, and the gunner has 5mm gun shield protection;

The hull design of the Chaoyang class follows the German Saxon class and is appropriately lengthened and widened, while the Saxon class does not have the design of torpedo weapons, and the Han Navy is extremely favored by the cutting-edge torpedo weapons, so the Han and German technicians added three 14-inch torpedo tubes (with 21 torpedoes) on the Chaoyang class, all of which are advanced German Schwartzkopf phosphor copper blackhead torpedoes, of which two torpedo tubes are arranged in front of the warship and the port side are located in front of the ironclad fort. The other one was arranged on the center line of the stern of the warship, and the launch port was located under the stern of the warship, which was so successful that shortly after the completion of the Chaoyang class, Germany also made the same modification of the four Saxony classes as the Chaoyang class.

The two warships "Chaoyang" and "Dawn" each carry two carrier-based torpedo boats (standard displacement of 16 tons, length of 19.5 meters, speed of 15 knots, and one 14-inch torpedo tube on the left and right sides of the bow), respectively named "Chaoyi, Chao II, Li 1, Li 2", which are two torpedo boats that are hoisted and matched, and are equipped with a special boom on the rear mast (there are two front and rear poles on the rear mast of the warship, the forward one is a real boom, and the rear one is a wind lever that controls the direction of the sail when using the sail), Although the four small torpedo boats were more powerful, they could not sail long distances to the open sea for combat because of their small coal load and short range, so they could only be attached to the ships and then hoisted into the water to sail on their own because of their small coal load and short range. The Chaoyang-class ships have knife-sharp ramming angles in the bow, which are exactly the same as those used in the Saxony-class and Dingyuan-class (the ramming angles were popular in the navies of various countries after the Battle of Oyilisa, mainly used to ram enemy ships at close range); The improved Chaoyang class has 32 guns of various types (22 guns of the Dingyuan class), which has more advantages in weapon performance and quantity than the prototype ironclad ship, and has stronger attack power and lethality against enemy ships. The protection design of the Chaoyang class adopts the same ironclad fort type as the Saxony class and the Dingyuan class, the ironclad fort has a length of 43.5 meters, from the superstructure to the broadside waterline and below, with a thickness of 305~355mm steel-faced ironclad (steel-faced composite armor) tightly wrapping the hull of the warship except for the head and tail parts, with solid defense.

The critical parts of the middle of the entire warship, such as the ammunition depot and the power department, are all under the protection of the ironclad fort, the thickness of the protective ironclad and the internal layout of the hull are basically the same as those of the Dingyuan ship, and the armor under the waterline is all made of the steel armor of the Dingyuan ship, instead of being like the Zhenyuan ship when the price of raw materials rises during the construction of the Beiyang was limited to the funds Beiyang was forced to replace the steel armor under the waterline with wrought iron armor with slightly inferior defensive effect, so the excellent protective performance of the two ships of the Chaoyang class is the same; An oval-shaped bronze plaque is nailed to the wall of the captain's reception room, and the traditional Chinese Jomon pattern surrounds the Chinese character "Chaoyang"/"Dawn".

The living space of ordinary sailors is narrower than that of officers, and the resting place is basically in hammocks, and eating, sleeping, and working are all in the same place; In order to ventilate the cabin, there are 4 large ventilation cylinders and 4 small ventilation cylinders on the main deck evenly distributed on the middle side of the warship, and the air ducts on the ventilation cylinders can be turned as needed, and the 4 large ventilation cylinders are equipped with special devices inside to lift the cinders in the boiler compartment to the deck and then dump them through 2 debris cylinders on the left and right sides. In order to meet the needs of life when sailing at sea, the Chaoyang-class warship is equipped with 20 fresh water furnaces in the cabin, and the fresh water produced by the seawater desalination machine can supply more than 400 people on the ship every day, plus fresh vegetables and fruits such as bean sprouts and apples and frozen meat (the refrigeration technology introduced by the Han Kingdom from Australia in 1875) effectively guarantees the life of the officers and men of the whole ship, and for the navy, good and effective living conditions are undoubtedly one of the keys to defeating the enemy.

After five years of hard work, the Chaoyang-class ironclad ship was finally built by the Han Kingdom, which concentrated powerful firepower, speed and protection, and attracted the attention of all countries in the world when it was completed, although it was imperfect in design and construction like all warships in the exploration period, but after analyzing and comparing the advantages and disadvantages of the capital ships of the countries in the world during the same period, in terms of the level of tactics and technology at that time, this was a fairly advanced warship.