The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1898-04-21
NAVAL WARFARE.
It's Probable Casualties as Shown by
the Chinese War.

New York Evening sun.
An impression generally prevails that the
casualties in a modern naval battle are
bound to be appallingly great - greater.
probably, than those recorded of the battles
between the old wooden vessels in the days
of three-deckers carrying seventy-four
smooth-boreS. The high-power gun and the
death-dealing explosive account for this i'm
preston. Plenty of statistics are furnished
by the past; the present yields comparative
ly few, and until a battle takes place be-
tween two fleets of more lighting capacity
than was displayed at the Yalu we shall
be able only to conjecture the CASUAL
ties of modern naval warfare. In the
Yalu ten Japanese and ten Chinese YES
sells were engaged. The Japanese fleet con-
sisted of cruisers ranging from $3.50 to
4277 tons displacement, the Chinese of two
battle ships, the Ting Yuen and the Chen,
Yuen, each of 1880 tons displacement and
heavily belted, and of cruisers ranging in
displacement from $500 to 1850 tons. The
cruisers of both fleets had either steel belts
carried by each of the Chinese battle ships,
besides 59-inch guns and rapid-hre bat
teries, ard the heavy armament of the
Chinese cruisers ranged from 47-inch to
8.2-inch guns A. flotilla of four torpedo
boats supported the Chinese fleet: The larg-
inch gum a powerful secondary battery of
47-inch guns besides rapid-fire and Maxim
guns. Each. therefore, was a modern fleet,
although neither was as strong as the
United States, or even Spain, could put on
In the battle the Chinese lost half their
Chinese battle ships Ting-Yuen and Chen
Yuen, and the cruisers Lai-Yuen and
Ping-Yuen caught fire from shells, the
cruiser Yang-Wei also took fire and
grounded; the cruisers King-Yuen and
Chih-Yuen were sunk; the cruiser Yang
Wei went on a reef and was subsequently
destroyed by a spar torpedo, and the
cruiser Chao-Yung was rammed and sunk.
The havoc among the Chinese ships was
terrific and yet the loss of life was not
remarkable Chinese reports made the
casualties thirty-six killed and lightweight
wounded but there is no doubt that between
six and seven hundred were drowned. An
official report gives the Japanese casualties
as ninety killed ard 204 wounded. Fifteen
per cent of the Japanese shots fired were
effective and 10 per cent of the Chinese.
Torpedoes fired by the Chinese flotilla con-
Stantly missed the mark. The gunners of
neither fleet can, therefore, be considered
better than third rate.
The battle of the Ya1u is naturally not re-
garded by experts as a test of the lighting
capacity of modern fleets, nor can it form a
basis for estimates of casualties. At Traf-
algar the allied French and Spanish lost in
killed and wounded, according to a French
report between six and seven thousand Qt
was probably more), and the English l5S.
Out of CAB men on board the French snip
Redoubtable alone 300 were killed and 222
wounded At the battle of the Nile 5225
Frenchmen persisted, according to Southey;
the British loss was S95 in killed and wound
ed Only 3105 of the French, many OF
whom were wounded, survived. The loss
of the French in the engagement between
Rodney and De Grasse in the West In
dies, in 1880 was more than 5000 in killed
and wounded.