Chinese gunboat Zhongshan


SS Zhongshan, formerly romanized as, was a Chinese gunboat of 780 tons. Built in Japan in 1913, it was originally known as the (romanized at the time as or before being renamed in 1925 in honor of Sun Yat-sen, better known in China as Sun Zhongshan. This ship and others of its class are frequently classified as gunboats.

Construction

SS Yongfeng was the first of four 780-ton s ordered from Mitsubishi by the Qing Empire in 1910. Under the deal signed between the Qing naval minister Prince Rui, his deputy Admiral Sa Zhenbing, and the Japanese, the first two ships were built in Japan and the second pair at Jiangnan Shipyard in China with Japanese technical help. All four ships differed slightly from one another. Due to their small size, these ships are also frequently referred as gunboats.

Service

Yongfeng entered service as part of the Beiyang Fleet. In March 1913, it sailed to Shanghai, where it was based at Yuezhou.
It sailed south with Sun Yat-sen in July 1917, subsequently forming part of the Nationalist navy at Guangzhou.
Just prior to Ye Ju's assault of the presidential palace on 16 June 1922, Sun Yat-sen fled to the Guangzhou naval yard and took refuge aboard on 18 March 1926 set off the "Canton Coup".
She patrolled the southern coasts of China against pirates after the Northern Expedition. She rescued Xinhua in 1928.
In the Second Sino-Japanese War, the Chinese theater of World War II, participated in the Battle of Wuhan. She was bombed and sunk in the Yangtze River by the Japanese on 24 October 1938 with 25 casualties, including Captain Sa Shijun, a nephew of Sa Zhenbing.

Recovery

's provincial cultural department received permission to plan the recovery of Zhongshan in 1986. The shipwreck was finally salvaged from the Yangtze on 28 January 1997. By 2001, it was restored to its appearance, except for some of the damage which sank the ship in 1938. The salvaged and restored Zhong Shan gunboat is now located in its own 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, some 25 km southwest of downtown Wuchang. In 2003, relics from the ship were also displayed at Hong Kong's Museum of Coastal Defense.

Gallery

Citations