Dingyuan 1895
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Marker: recorded wreck position (Steam era).
Key facts
| Name | Dingyuan | Wikidata label |
|---|---|---|
| Year lost | 1895 | Wikidata P793 significant event, point-in-time qualifier |
| Era | Steam era | derived from year |
| Ship type | pre-dreadnought battleship | Wikidata P31 instance of |
| Cause of loss | Scuttled | Keyword match in English Wikipedia lead sentence |
| Nationality / flag | Qing dynasty | Wikidata P8047 country of registry |
| Operator | Qing dynasty | Wikidata P137 operator |
| Conflict | First Sino-Japanese War | Wikidata P607 conflict |
| Sea / ocean | Yellow Sea | Natural Earth marine areas (public domain), point-in-polygon |
| Nearest coast | China | Natural Earth (public domain); approx. 5 km from land |
| Position | 37.4983, 122.1846 | Wikidata P625 coordinate location (CC0) |
About the wreck
Dingyuan (simplified Chinese: 定远; traditional Chinese: 定遠; pinyin: Dìngyǔan; Wade–Giles: Ting Yuen or Ting Yuan, English: Everlasting Peace) 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.
Diving & visiting
The Chinese government constructed a replica of Dingyuan at Weihai to commemorate both the original vessel and the Beiyang Fleet during the war; the vessel, built on a 1:1 scale, is open as a museum ship. Work on the replica began at the end of 2003, with the main structure of the hull being completed one year later. The vessel was opened to the public at the end of April 2005.
On 2 September 2019 it was announced that the remains of Dingyuan had been located and over 150 artifacts recovered.
Location
- Recorded position: 37.4983, 122.1846 (Wikidata P625 coordinate location (CC0); may be approximate)
- Sea / ocean: Yellow Sea
- Nearest coast: China
Wreck positions on this site are for interest only and are not for navigation. Many wrecks are war graves or legally protected: never disturb human remains or remove artefacts, and check local law before diving.
Text adapted from the Wikipedia article Chinese ironclad Dingyuan (revision 1378518062), licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Changes: excerpted from the article lead section and section(s) “Replica and rediscovery”; condensed by selecting paragraphs and trimming at sentence boundaries; citations and formatting removed. No text added. This excerpt is available under the same licence.
Wreck facts from Wikidata (CC0).
Nearby wrecks
- Akatsuki 1904 · 159 km
Browse more: Asia wrecks · wrecks off China · Yellow Sea · Steam era