Following the orders for the two protected cruisers by Hongzhang in October 1885,
Jingyuan was
laid down later on 20 October. Construction continued throughout the majority of 1886, with the ship
launched on 14 December. She was officially completed on 9 July 1887. Both
Jingyuan and her
sister ship was were laid down at the same time, but despite
Zhiyuen being launched six weeks earlier than
Jingyuan, she was completed two weeks later than her sister. Following completion, both ships, along with the two armored cruisers and , as well as a newly built Chinese
torpedo boat, converged in the
solent near
Portsmouth in August 1887. Imperial Chinese Admiral William M. Lang, formerly of the
Royal Navy, was sent back to Europe to take command of the squadron as they travelled to China. With the exception of a handful of Western advisors, the ships were manned by Chinese crews.
Jingyuan was under the command of Captain Yeh Tsu-kuei. While in the Solent, they were inspected by Hongzhang. It had been anticipated that they would immediately be underway for the passage to China, but following the loss of an
anchor and some urgent repairs, they left on 12 September. They arrived in Amoy (now
Xiamen) in November, where they remained during the winter before joining up with the
Beiyang Fleet in
Shanghai in the spring. During 1888,
Jingyuan was repainted along with the rest of the Chinese Navy, changing from the all grey scheme she had sailed from England with, to a combination of a black
hull, white above the
waterline and
buff coloured
funnels, typical of the
Victorian era. In May 1889,
Jingyuan and the Beiyang Fleet were moved to fortify Weihaiwei (now
Weihai). During the summer of that year, she was part of the flotilla led by Admiral
Ding Ruchang, which travelled to Chefoo (now
Yantai), Chemlupo (now
Incheon, South Korea), and the
Imperial Russian Navy base of
Vladivostok. On the return leg of the journey, they stopped at Fusan (now
Busan, South Korea).
The Sino-Japanese War Jingyuan first saw action during one of the opening engagements of the First Sino-Japanese War, in the
Battle of the Yalu River on 17 September 1894. Each Chinese ship was paired with another in a supporting role in case of a signalling failure, with
Jingyuan and the armored cruiser
Laiyuan grouped together. Shortly after the start of the battle, Admiral Ruchang's signalling mast aboard the
ironclad warship was disabled by its own weapons. This meant that the entire Chinese fleet operated in these pairs throughout the battle without any central organisation. While
Jingyuan and
Laiyuan did not come under such heavy fire as other Chinese vessels, they each caught fire with extensive damage to
Laiyuan. Along with the other ships of the Chinese fleet,
Jingyuan made her way to Port Arthur (now
Lüshunkou District) after the battle. During the battle,
Jingyuans sister ship,
Zhiyuen was one of the Chinese cruisers sunk by the Japanese. Once the fleet was repaired, they sailed out on 20 October to Weihaiwei. While in the harbour, they found themselves under attack by the
Imperial Japanese Army in January 1895 as the
Battle of Weihaiwei commenced. As Japanese forces took control of the sea forts on either side of the harbour, the fleet found itself under bombardment during the day and torpedo boat attack during the night. One such attack during the night of 5 February saw
Laiyuan sunk by a torpedo and capsized.
Jingyuan was undamaged, but underwent a near-miss by a
torpedo. On 9 February, while
Jingyuan was operating in the eastern part of the harbour, was struck below the waterline and sank upright in shallow water. The shot was fired from one of the captured Chinese forts. To avoid eventual capture by the Japanese, Ruchang ordered for a
naval mine to be placed below decks on
Jingyuan and detonated later that day, destroying her. She was raised and scrapped the following year. == Annotations ==