Chinese cruiser Jingyuen (1886)

The Chinese cruiser Jingyuen in August 1887 while in the Solent near Portsmouth
History
Imperial China
Name:	Jingyuen
Ordered:	October 1885
Builder:	Armstrong Whitworth, Elswick, England
Laid down:	20 October 1885
Launched:	14 December 1886
Completed:	9 July 1887
Fate:	Sunk in shallow water and scuttled, 9 February 1895
General characteristics
Type:	Zhiyuen-class protected cruiser
Displacement:	2,300 long tons (2,300 t)
Length:	268 ft (82 m)
Beam:	38 ft (12 m)
Draft:	15 ft (4.6 m)
Propulsion:	Compound-expansion steam engine, two screws 4 x boilers
Speed:	18 kn (33 km/h; 21 mph)
Capacity:	510 tons of coal
Complement:	204–260 officers and men
Armament:	3 × 8-inch (20 cm) Krupp guns 2 × 6-inch (15 cm) Armstrong guns 8 × QF 6-pounder Hotchkiss guns 2 x QF 3-pounder Hotchkiss guns 8 x 1-pounder guns 6 x gatling guns 4 × above water torpedo tubes
Armor:	Deck armour: 4 in (10 cm) (flat), 3 in (7.6 cm) (slope) Gun shields: 2 in (5.1 cm)

Jingyuen (Chinese: 靖遠; pinyin: Jingyuan; Wade–Giles: Ching Yuen) was a cruiser built for the Imperial Chinese Navy. She was built by Armstrong Whitworth in Elswick, England. She was one of two Zhiyuen-class protected cruisers built, alongside her sister ship Zhiyuen. Jingyuan was one of the first protected cruisers built with a larger number of smaller sized naval guns, as opposed to an smaller number of larger guns.

Both ships were assigned to the Beiyang Fleet. Jingyuen was part of a flotilla which toured ports during the summer of 1889. Jingyuan first saw action during the First Sino-Japanese War. At the Battle of the Yalu River on 17 September 1894, she was one of the surviving Chinese cruisers, although suffered fire damage. She was sunk the following February during the Battle of Weihaiwei from a shot fired from a captured Chinese fort. She sank upright in shallow water, and Admiral Ding Ruchang gave orders for her to be destroyed by a naval mine. She was raised the follow year for scrap.

At the time that Jingyuen was ordered in October 1885, there was a debate in naval circles over the differences between armored cruisers and protected cruisers. Viceroy of Zhili province, Li Hongzhang, was in Europe to order ships from builders in Western nations. He was unable to decide between the two types, so in an experiment, he placed orders for two vessels of each type. The order for the two Zhiyuen-class cruiser protected cruisers was given to Armstrong Whitworth in Elswick, England, known as the leading builder of these type of vessels during this period.