The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1884-09-13 00:00:00

FRANCE AND CHINA.

A telegram has been received at the Admiralty
from Vice-Admiral Dowell, at Foochow, reporting
that two shells were fired at her Majesty's gun-boat
Zephyr on the 6th inst., when coining up the Min
River, from the Chinese forts, under a misapprehen-
sion.

A further telegram dated Monday reports that the
Chinese authorities have offered an apology and
reparation. An officer and a man were wounded;
both are doing well.
A Reuter's telegram from Foochow, dated Sept. 7,
says :—The Kinpai forts have fired upon her
Majesty's gun-boat Zephyr, severely wounding one of
her officers and several sailors. The houses of the
foreign residents at the Pagoda anchorage have been
pillaged by the Chinese soldiers. The plunderers
made no distinction of nationality.

Her Majesty's ship Zephyr, which has becn fired
upon by the Kinpai forts, at the mouth of the river
MM, upon which Foo-chow and its arsenal stand, is a
small gunboat of about 465 tons, carrying four guns,
with sixty officers and men. She is one of the nine
vessels of the same size and equipment, which are
employed on what is called the China station, over
which Admiral Sir William Lowell commands in
chief. The corresponding command in the East
Indies is held by Admiral Sir William Hewett. It
is supposed that the Zephyr may have been fired upon
by mistake—that, in other words, the Chinese took
her for a French ship, perhaps of the same fleet
which only the other day destroyed the Chinese
junks and war-ships near Foo-chow, and bombarded
the Kinpai forts themselves. There are at the
present time twenty - three English war-ships of
various sizes in the China seas. Of these, however,
fifteen are of a small size, armed with from four to
six guns each. Moreover, one of them—a turret
ship—is "laid up" at Hong-Kong. A second is
merely a despatch vessel and two gun-boats are
described as being deficient in crews. The principal
vessels of the English fleet on the China station are
the Audacious, which is the admiral's flagship; the
four corvettes, Champion, Cleopatra, Curacoa, and
Sapphire; the Daring, and the Albatross. The last-
named has only four guns. The Audacious has four-
teen. Though she is the fastest vessel in the fleet, she
can steam only twelve knots an hour. The French,
on the other hand, have twenty-eight ships on the
China station, and four more are either on the way
to join Admiral Courbet, or in preparation for
service. Of these twenty-eight vessels eleven are very
small, carrying only one gun, or two, each. But in
other respects the French ships are mostly large,
strongly built, capitally equipped, and fast sailors.
Admiral Courbet's flagship, La Victorieuse, is heavily
armoured, and her guts are breechloaders. Indeed,
the French ships appear to carry nothing else but
breech-loaders, supplemented by machine guns. The
English armament, on the other hand, consists of
muzzle-loaders. Three of Admiral Courbet's ships
can steam from 14 up to 15.4 knots an hour. If the
war continues, the French fleet will soon be reinforced
by the four vessels to which we have already referred.
and which carry from eight to fifteen guns.