Pre-Dreadnought Preservation
Odds & Ends

This page is a list of links to "other stuff" which don't quite fit into the Pre-Dreadnought Preservation web site elsewhere. These naval links are mostly concerned with the Pre-Dreadnought period, give or take a decade or so.

Full Scale Replicas


The full scale replica of the Ting Yuen & Chen Yuen.
Source: Ting Yuen & Chen Yuen Web Site
This is almost unbelievable. A floating full scale replica of the German-built Imperial Chinese battleships Ting Yuen & Chen Yuen. The page will take a long time to load so click on it and go get yourself something to drink while you wait. It will be worth it. The site is written in Chinese.

The Ting Yuen ("Eternal Peace") was laid down on March 31, 1881 and launched December 28, 1881. Her sea trials began May 2, 1883. Her near identical sister ship, the Chen Yuen ("Striking From Far Away") was laid down in March 1882 and launched November 28, 1882. Her sea trial began in March 1884. Both ships displaced 7,670 tons fully loaded. Each had four 12 in guns in two barbettes as their main armament. These guns had a light gun shield giving the appearance of a turret. Single 5.9 inch guns in turrets at the bow and stern were the ships' largest secondary armament. The ships were only protected by armor in the citadel style with 14 inches of compound armor protecting amidships. The secondary turrets fore and aft were protected by 3 inch armor.

Both battleships took center stage in the naval battles of the Sino-Japanese War of 1894-1895 with the Ting Yuen acting as Admiral Ting's flagship at the Battle of the Yalu in 1894. Though hit hundreds of times by Japanese shells during the battle, both ships remained afloat to fight off the Japanese. By the war's end, the Ting Yuen had been hit by a Japanese torpedo and beached as a total wreck. The Chen Yuen was surrendered to the Japanese who took her into their own navy. Don't let those Japanese woodblock prints fool you, these Chinese battleships were very good warships.


"Illustration of Our Naval Forces (Japan's) in the Yellow Sea Firing at and Sinking Chinese Warships, 1894" woodblock print by Kobayashi Kiyochika.
Source: Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
See the Wikipedia entry for the Ting Yuen

. Most of the information above on the Ting Yuen & Chen Yuen was taken from The Chinese Steam Navy 1862-1945 by Richard Wright. It is the best source of information on this period in the history of the Chinese navy. The book provides much more information on the specifications and operational histories of the Ting Yuen & Chen Yuen than I have provided here.

An excellent book on the Sino-Japanese War is The Sino-Japanese War of 1894-1895 by S. C. M. Paine.

The Museum of Fine Arts, Boston has an small collection of Japanese woodblock prints regarding the Sino-Japanese War which they have graciously shared online. Several of these represent naval themes and are well worth a look.

For an interesting web site related to the Japanese and Chinese Pre-Dreadnought fleets and their conflict in the Sino-Japanese War, see Aaron Hamilton's diagram of the 1894 Battle of the Yalu.

See also the Chinese Naval Historical Institute. This web site is in Chinese.

Naval History

Navies in Transition - Phil Russell's excellent web site on the world's navies during the period 1837 to 1914.

Queen Victoria's Navy - Steve Johnson's wonderful gallery of images of the Royal navy in the pre-dreadnought age.

The Loss of the Battleship Victoria - June 22, 1893. An excellent discussion of the loss of H.M.S. Victoria which was rammed by H.M.S. Camperdown during fleet maneuvers off Tripoli.

The Battle off Helgoland in 1864 when the Danish fleet clashed with a combined Austro-Prussian fleet. An excellent summary with pictures and a plan of the battle from the War of 1864 web site.

The Melik Society is restoring and preserving the Anglo-Sudanese river gunboat Melik and the paddle steamer Bordein.

Wargaming

Check out this 3-D PC game called Distant Guns: The Russo-Japanese War at Sea. It is expected to be released in 2006.

Battlefleet Minature Wargame Rules for the Pre-Dreadnought period from the War Times Journal. Also, the minature 1/6000 scale ships to game with.

A review of wargaming rules for "Simplified Naval Miniatures Rules for the Period 1890-1920". The review includes ordering information.

Historical Miniatures Wargaming Group of Kitsap County, Washington has some excellent pictures of Pre-Dreadnought Era miniatures used for wargaming.

Sovereign Seas Lite is a downloadable wargame for the early Pre-Dreadnought period.

Iron & Fire is a set of miniature wargame rules for the early Pre-Dreadnought period.

Also see the Naval Wargames Society whose members wargame in all naval periods, including the Pre-Dreadnought Era.

The Great White Fleet

Detailed information about turn-of-the-century display of American naval might can be found at Cheryl Morris' Great White Fleet web site. This site includes a map of the Fleet's route, descriptions of various legs of the journey, and it is decorated with picture postcards of the Fleet and its ports of call from the Myers Collection.

See also Ron Branson's Great White Fleet web site.

In addition, the Naval Historical Center has a Frequently Asked Questions page on the Great White Fleet which includes a list of ships which participated and their itinerary.

Ian MacFarlane has a website dedicated to the Great White Fleet's visit to Australia.

See also James Reckner's book Teddy Roosevelt's Great White Fleet available from Amazon.com

The Wrecks at Scapa Flow

One of the largest collections of Dreadnought era battlehships rests at the bottom of Scapa Flow in the Orkney Islands. Excellent web sites for Scapa Flow include Scapa Flow and its Wrecks and the Scapa Flow Scuttling of the German High Seas Fleet.

Uniforms & Insignia

See the History of U.S. Naval Uniforms & Insignia for graphics regarding the insignia worn by the U.S. Navy during the Pre-Dreadnought Era. Of particular interest are the pages and links regarding Officer shoulder straps, Officer sleeve ranks, and Enlisted rating badges. See also Historic Naval Regulations & Uniforms and U.S. Navy Uniforms which has more detail on the Pre-Dreadnought period.

From the History of the Royal Navy, a brief discussion of uniform changes in the Royal Navy with photographs of current rig.

Re-enactment

See the The Navy & Marine Living History Association.

Return to the Pre-Dreadnought Preservation main page.