Qualla: Chinese Ironclad Pingyuan

Chinese Ironclad Pingyuan: Introduction

Sat, 14 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

She was the first ironclad warship China ever built, and she served two empires before the sea took her. Originally named Longwei, then Pingyuan, the coastal battleship was constructed at the Mawei Navy Yard near Fuzhou -- a ship born from China's urgent effort to modernize its navy in the late 19th century. Armed with a 263-millimeter Krupp main gun, two 15-centimeter secondary guns, eight quick-firing weapons, and four torpedo tubes, she was formidable by the standards of the 1880s. But the wars she fought would expose the limits of those standards.

Chinese Ironclad Pingyuan: Made in China, Modeled on France

Sat, 14 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

The Mawei Navy Yard, also known as the Foochow Arsenal, had been established with French technical assistance in the 1860s as part of the Qing government's Self-Strengthening Movement. Pingyuan represented a milestone: she was the first ironclad built entirely at a Chinese shipya...

Chinese Ironclad Pingyuan: Blood on the Yalu River

Sat, 14 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Pingyuan's moment of trial came on September 17, 1894, at the Battle of the Yalu River, the largest naval engagement of the First Sino-Japanese War. In the chaotic fighting, she managed to damage the Japanese flagship -- no small feat given the overall disarray of the Chinese fle...

Chinese Ironclad Pingyuan: Captured and Renamed

Sat, 14 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

When Japanese forces besieged Weihaiwei in January and February 1895, Pingyuan was among the ships captured as prizes of war. The Imperial Japanese Navy wasted no time: by March 16, 1895, she was in active combat service under the name Pingyuan-go. In 1898, the Japanese redesigna...

Chinese Ironclad Pingyuan: A Mine in Pigeon Bay

Sat, 14 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Heien's final chapter played out during the Russo-Japanese War. Assigned to the 3rd Squadron, she joined the Japanese blockading force at Port Arthur, where the Imperial Russian Navy was bottled up. On September 18, 1904, while operating in Pigeon Bay west of Port Arthur, Heien s...