page_title: Chinese corvette Yangwu
section_title: Construction and career
hierarchical_section_title: Chinese corvette Yangwu / Construction and career
caption_attribution_description: Yangwu sailors
context_page_description: Yangwu was a wooden corvette built for the Imperial Chinese Navy. She was built in 1872 at the Foochow Arsenal, and was the largest ship built there from the shipbuilding programme of 1868–75. During her early career, she was used as a training ship and under the command of English captains. She later saw action in the Battle of Fuzhou in 1884, the opening action of the Sino-French War, where she acted as the flagship of the Fujian Fleet. Shortly after the start of the battle, she was damaged by a spar torpedo, causing a large explosion and the loss of the majority of her crew; she was sunk shortly afterwards by enemy fire.
context_section_description: Yangwu was a wooden corvette, built at the Foochow Navy Yard and launched on April 23, 1872. She was the seventh vessel built as part of a larger shipbuilding program at the Foochow Arsenal, and cost 254,000 taels (353,000 silver dollars) for her construction. She was the largest warship built between 1868–75 out of the 19 vessels planned. The shipyard was overseen by Imperial commissioner Shen Baozhen but led by staff from Western nations, who advised the Chinese to continue building wooden-hulled ships despite them being made obsolete by the construction of ironclads by those nations. Chinese officials would later unfairly blame the French, in particular Prosper Giquel, for purposely providing them with out-of-date equipment and designs.
  After being launched in 1872, she served as a training vessel from 1875 in the South China Sea, making at least one journey to Japan. Yangwu was equipped with a classroom for the training of Chinese midshipmen and officers. At the time of a report in the Shanghai Courier in June 1876, there were 30 such sailors under tuition. She had been recently commanded by the Captain Tracey, an Englishman, but he had been recalled to the Royal Navy and promoted to Post-captain. He was replaced with his fellow countryman, Captain Luxmore. There were two further English members of the crew, both officers, while the rest were Chinese.
  During the summer of 1876, Yangwu visited the Australian colonies, and later in the year the Chinese ambassadors to Great Britain, Kwoh Song Tao and Liu-Si-hung, visited Yangwu via mail steamer in December while she was in Singapore. Following the visit, she sailed to Manila. When she arrived in February 1877, an accident occurred as the crew were preparing a gun salute for her entrance to the harbour. As the crewman loaded the charge into one of the guns, it detonated, throwing him from the ship and killing him. The crewman was subsequently buried in the city. Yangwu proved to be a spectacle for the inhabitants of the city, particularly the Chinese, some of whom had sailed out to greet her arrival in small boats and others who watched her from the mound on which the lighthouse sat overlooking the bay.
  On June 23, 1884, as tensions were rising between the French Empire and Imperial China, Yangwu was part of the Chinese fleet at Chefoo (now known as Yantai) which met with a French squadron comprising two cruisers and a sloop. During the course of the meeting, the French demonstrated the firepower of their cruisers, which were nearly two and a half times the size of Yangwu, which in turn was the largest of the Chinese vessels. During the demonstration, the French showed they could hit targets more than 4,000 metres (4,400 yd) away. Afterwards, Yangwu headed to the naval yard at Foochow (now Fuzhou), while the remaining Chinese ships steamed to the port of Tianjin.
caption: Chinese sailors on the deck of Yangwu
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