Chinese ironclad Dingyuan

Dingyuan early in her career
History
China
Name	Dingyuan
Ordered	1880
Builder	Stettiner AG Vulcan, Stettin, Germany
Laid down	March 1881
Launched	28 December 1881
Completed	May 1883
Commissioned	November 1885
Fate	Scuttled, 10 February 1895
General characteristics
Class and type	Dingyuan-class ironclad
Displacement	Normal: 7,220 long tons (7,340 t) Full load: 7,670 long tons (7,790 t)
Length	308 ft (94 m)
Beam	59 ft (18 m)
Draft	20 ft (6.1 m)
Installed power	8 fire-tube boilers 7,200 ihp (5,400 kW)
Propulsion	2 compound steam engines 2 × screw propellers
Speed	15.4 knots (28.5 km/h; 17.7 mph)
Range	4,500 nmi (8,300 km; 5,200 mi) at 10 knots (19 km/h; 12 mph)
Complement	350
Armament	4 × 305 mm (12 in) L/25 breech-loading guns 2 × 5.9 in (150 mm) breech-loading guns 2 × 47 mm (1.9 in) Hotchkiss revolver cannon 6 × 37 mm (1.5 in) Maxim-Nordenfelt quick-firing guns 3 × 14 in (356 mm) torpedo tubes
Armor	Belt: 14 in Deck: 3 in (76 mm) Barbettes: 12–14 in Conning tower: 8 in (203 mm)

Dingyuan (simplified Chinese: 定远; traditional Chinese: 定遠; pinyin: Dìngyǔan; Wade–Giles: Ting Yuen or Ting Yuan, English: Everlasting Peace^[1]) was an ironclad battleship and the flagship of the Chinese Beiyang Fleet. She was the lead ship of the Dingyuan class, which included one other vessel, Zhenyuan, both of which were built in Germany in the early 1880s. Delivery of the two ironclads was delayed by the Sino-French War of 1884–1885. The ships were armed with a main battery of four 12 in (305 mm) guns in a pair of gun turrets, making them the most powerful warships in East Asian waters at the time.

Dingyuan served as the flagship of Admiral Ding Ruchang during her active career. In the 1880s and early 1890s, the Beiyang Fleet conducted a routine of training exercises and cruises abroad, with emphasis placed on visits to Japan to intimidate the country. The latter resulted in the Nagasaki Incident in 1886 and contributed to a rise in hostility between the two countries that culminated in the First Sino-Japanese War in 1894. She led the Chinese fleet during the Battle of the Yalu River on 17 September, where the Japanese Combined Fleet sank much of the Beiyang Fleet, though both Dingyuan and Zhenyuan survived despite numerous hits, thanks to their heavy armor. The survivors then retreated to Port Arthur for repairs, but after that city was threatened by the Japanese Army, fled to Weihaiwei.

As the Japanese continued to advance, they laid siege to Weihaiwei in late January 1895. On 5 February, a Japanese torpedo boat slipped into the port and hit Dingyuan with a torpedo, inflicting serious damage. The Chinese crew were forced to beach the vessel to avoid sinking, and for the next week, Dingyuan was used as a stationary artillery battery. Japanese ground forces seized the city's coastal fortifications on 9 February, allowing their artillery to shell the ships in the harbor, which prompted Ding to surrender. Dingyuan was scuttled in the harbor on 10 February. A full-scale replica of the ship was built in Weihai in 2003 as a museum ship and in 2019, the Chinese government announced that an underwater survey had located the original vessel's wreck.