SS ''Zhongshan'', formerly romanized as , was a

Chinese Chinese can refer to: * Something related to China * Chinese people, people of Chinese nationality, citizenship, and/or ethnicity **''Zhonghua minzu'', the supra-ethnic concept of the Chinese nation ** List of ethnic groups in China, people of ...

gunboat A gunboat is a naval watercraft designed for the express purpose of carrying one or more guns to bombard coastal targets, as opposed to those military craft designed for naval warfare, or for ferrying troops or supplies. History Pre-ste ...

built in Japan in 1913. It was originally known as (romanized at the time as . or ), before being renamed in 1925 in honor of Sun Yat-sen. ''Zhongshan'' was sunk by the

Imperial Japanese Navy The Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN; Kyūjitai: Shinjitai: ' 'Navy of the Greater Japanese Empire', or ''Nippon Kaigun'', 'Japanese Navy') was the navy of the Empire of Japan from 1868 to 1945, when it was dissolved following Japan's surrend ...

during the

Second Sino-Japanese War The Second Sino-Japanese War (1937–1945) or War of Resistance (Chinese term) was a military conflict that was primarily waged between the Republic of China and the Empire of Japan. The war made up the Chinese theater of the wider Pacific Th ...

, but was later raised and restored as a museum ship in

Wuhan Wuhan (, ; ; ) is the capital of Hubei Province in the People's Republic of China. It is the largest city in Hubei and the most populous city in Central China, with a population of over eleven million, the ninth-most populous Chinese city an ...

Construction

SS ''Yongfeng'' was the first of fours ordered from Mitsubishi by the Qing Empire in 1910. Under the deal signed between the Qing naval minister

Prince Rui Prince Rui may refer to any of the following princely peerages of the Qing dynasty in China: * Prince Rui (睿), created in 1636 * Prince Rui (瑞) Prince Rui of the First Rank (Manchu: ; ''hošoi sabingga cin wang''), or simply Prince Rui, was ...

, his deputy Admiral Sa Zhenbing, and the Japanese, the first two ships (including ''Yongfeng'') would be built in Japan, while the second two would be built in China at

Jiangnan Shipyard Jiangnan Shipyard () is a historic shipyard in Shanghai, China. The shipyard has been state-owned since its founding in 1865 and is now operated as Jiangnan Shipyard (Group) Co. Ltd. Before 2009, the company was south of central Shanghai at ...

with Japanese technical assistance.

Service history

''Yongfeng'' entered service as part of the

Beiyang Fleet The Beiyang Fleet (Pei-yang Fleet; , alternatively Northern Seas Fleet) was one of the four modernized Chinese navies in the late Qing dynasty. Among the four, the Beiyang Fleet was particularly sponsored by Li Hongzhang, one of the most trust ...

.. & In March 1913, it sailed to

Shanghai Shanghai (; , , Standard Mandarin pronunciation: ) is one of the four direct-administered municipalities of the People's Republic of China (PRC). The city is located on the southern estuary of the Yangtze River, with the Huangpu River flowin ...

, where it was based at Yuezhou. It sailed south with Sun Yat-sen in July 1917, subsequently forming part of the

Nationalist Nationalism is an idea and movement that holds that the nation should be congruent with the state. As a movement, nationalism tends to promote the interests of a particular nation (as in a group of people), Smith, Anthony. ''Nationalism: Th ...

navy at Canton (now known as Guangzhou). Just prior to

Ye Ju Ye Ju (1881–1925), formerly romanized as was a Chinese Nationalist general and governor of Guangdong Province. Life Ye was born in 1881. He first served under Long Jiguang. After Long's fall, he served with Chen Jiongming. After the fall o ...

's attack of the presidential palace on 16 June 1922, Sun Yat-sen fled to the Guangzhou naval yard and took refuge aboard the cruiser (then ''Hai Ch'i''). From there, he transferred to the where he was joined by Chiang Kai-shek around the 27th or 29th. ''Yongfeng'' and other ships then fought past

Pearl River The Pearl River, also known by its Chinese name Zhujiang or Zhu Jiang in Mandarin pinyin or Chu Kiang and formerly often known as the , is an extensive river system in southern China. The name "Pearl River" is also often used as a catch-a ...

fortresses controlled by Chen Jiongming while launching assaults and negotiating with the Guangzhou leadership for about 50 days. It avoided reprisals by anchoring off Huangpu, surrounded by foreign vessels Chen could not risk firing upon. Finally, Sun and Chiang left aboard a British ship to

Hong Kong Hong Kong ( (US) or (UK); , ), officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China (abbr. Hong Kong SAR or HKSAR), is a city and special administrative region of China on the eastern Pearl River Delta i ...

on 9 August,. whence they departed for

. The carried Sun and his wife to Hong Kong in November 1924. On 13 April 1925, the ship was renamed in honor of Sun Yat-sen, better known in China as "Sun Zhongshan", following his death the previous month. In November 1925, the Nationalist navy was placed under the direction of the

Soviet The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen nation ...

adviser Andrei S. Bubnov, who named the Communist Li Zhilong as its head.. The voyage of ''Zhongshan'' and ''Baobi'' from Guangzhou to Huangpu (Whampoa) on 18 March 1926 set off the

Canton Coup The Canton Coup of 20 March 1926, also known as the or the was a purge of Communist elements of the Nationalist army in Guangzhou (then romanized as "Canton") undertaken by Chiang Kai-shek. The incident solidified Chiang's power immediate ...

. She patrolled the southern coasts of China against pirates after the

Northern Expedition The Northern Expedition was a military campaign launched by the National Revolutionary Army (NRA) of the Kuomintang (KMT), also known as the "Chinese Nationalist Party", against the Beiyang government and other regional warlords in 1926. The ...

, and she rescued the steamship ''

Xinhua Xinhua News Agency (English pronunciation: )J. C. Wells: Longman Pronunciation Dictionary, 3rd ed., for both British and American English, or New China News Agency, is the official state news agency of the People's Republic of China. Xinhua ...

'' in 1928.. In the

, participated in the Battle of Wuhan. On 24 October 1938, she was bombed and sunk in the

Yangtze River The Yangtze or Yangzi ( or ; ) is the longest list of rivers of Asia, river in Asia, the list of rivers by length, third-longest in the world, and the longest in the world to flow entirely within one country. It rises at Jari Hill in th ...

by the

with 25 casualties, including Captain Sa Shijun, a nephew of Sa Zhenbing.

Recovery

Hubei Hubei (; ; alternately Hupeh) is a landlocked province of the People's Republic of China, and is part of the Central China region. The name of the province means "north of the lake", referring to its position north of Dongting Lake. The ...

's provincial cultural department received permission to plan the recovery of ''Zhongshan'' in 1986, and the wreck was salvaged from the Yangtze on 28 January 1997.. By 2001, it was restored to its appearance , except for some of the damage which it sustained when the ship was sunk in 1938. The restored ''Zhongshan'' is now located in the Zhongshan Warship Museum in Wuhan. The facility has been described as "China's first floating museum". The museum is located in Jinkou Subdistrict of Wuhan's suburban

Jiangxia District Jiangxia District () is one of 13 urban districts of the prefecture-level city of Wuhan, the capital of Hubei province, China, situated on the eastern (right) bank of the Yangtze River. Jiangxia district has an area of and a population of 680,0 ...

, some 25 km southwest of downtown

Wuchang Wuchang forms part of the urban core of and is one of 13 urban districts of the prefecture-level city of Wuhan, the capital of Hubei Province, China. It is the oldest of the three cities that merged into modern-day Wuhan, and stood on the ri ...

. In 2003, relics from the ship were also displayed at

's Museum of Coastal Defense.

Gallery

File:Zhongshan Warship Museum.jpg, Zhongshan Warship Museum in

File:Zhongshan Warship 2.jpg, The restored ''Zhongshan'' inside the museum File:Zhongshan Warship 1.jpg, ''Zhongshan'' seen from the stern File:Zhongshan Warship Hole.jpg, Damage the ship sustained during her sinking

References

Citations

Bibliography

* . * .

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Zhongshan 1912 ships

Zhongshan Zhongshan (; ) is a prefecture-level city in the south of the Pearl River Delta in Guangdong province, China. As of the 2020 census, the whole city with 4,418,060 inhabitants is now part of the Guangzhou–Shenzhen conurbation with 65,565,622 ...

Naval ships of the Republic of China Shipwrecks in rivers Gunboats of China Second Sino-Japanese War naval ships of China Maritime incidents in 1938 World War II naval ships of China Ships of the Republic of China Navy Gunboats sunk by aircraft Ships sunk by Japanese aircraft Museum ships in China National first-grade museums of China