The Chinese flagship was an ironclad of 7000 tons displacement, the
Ting Yuen. The first thing that hit her was a big ricochet which flew
up and knocked the mast, carried it over the side, and killed all the
men in the fighting-top. She was peppered all over by the Japanese, and
hit something like 300 times, the result of the 300 hits being 14 men
killed and 25 wounded. She was set on fire practically continuously all
through the action. As soon as one fire was put out she was set on fire
again in another place; but the Chinese managed to get these fires out
without any bother, and no harm was done to her that way.
The second principal Chinese ship was the Chen Yuen. She was hit 400
times. The photograph of her in dock is how she appeared shortly after
the battle. The funnel was peppered over everywhere. All the men in
the fighting-tops were killed. The fore 6-in. turret was hit; it is
only about an inch thick, and this shell went through and killed or
wounded the gun’s crew, but did not hurt the gun. The only gun that was
disabled at all in the battle was one of the 12-in., and it appears to
have been disabled by something very big—probably one of the Japanese
12.6-in. shell hit the barbette of the ship, and the concussion upset
the training gear of the guns in some way. Nothing could be done with
them for about ten minutes. After that they were got in working order
and fired again: This ship was also set on fire all over the place, but
was perfectly able to fight when the battle was over.
The Chen Yuen had on board her the famous Captain McGiffin, who wrote a
great deal about his adventures in the fight. He was an American, who
was usually described as commander of the ship and as having fought the
battle. He was photographed against the hits in a desperately wounded
condition, but afterwards it was surmised that he was not blind to
dramatic effect. His narratives can hardly be accepted as historical
evidence, save in a general way.
The next ship of interest at the battle of Yalu was the Elswick
cruiser, Chih Yuen. She is described in most accounts of the Yalu as
having very gallantly charged the entire Japanese fleet, attempting
to ram; a tremendous fire was poured into her till she went down, and
there was an end of her. According to Japanese officers, what really
happened was that at an early stage in the action her steering-gear got
disabled; she was simply wandering about unable to do anything. She was
simply a cloud of white smoke drifting along. The Takachiho, one of the
Japanese cruisers, had a 10-in. gun. She waited until the Chih Yuen was
within something like 400 yards, when they could not miss, then let
drive with this 10-in. They did not attempt to pick out any particular
part of the Chih Yuen; they simply fired “into the brown.” They hit her
somewhere rather high up near the funnel; there was a tremendous cloud
of white smoke, which became red, and when that cloud went the ship was
gone. There is no idea that any magazine was hit, or that there was any
ammunition on deck to account for it, and the favourite theory of the
Japanese officers is that this particular hit upset her stability in
some way and did the finishing touch, and thus caused her to capsize.
[Illustration: [_Sketch by a Japanese Officer._