Battle of Zhenhai
Open-knowledge reference entry
The Battle of Zhenhai (Chinese: 鎮海之役) was a minor confrontation that took place on 1 March 1885 between Admiral Amédée Courbet's Far East Squadron (escadre de l’extrême-Orient) and Chinese warships and shore batteries near the coastal city of Zhenhai, 12 miles (19 km) downstream from Ningbo, China during the Sino-French War (August 1884 – April 1885). French and Chinese sources disagree sharply as to what happened; French sources treat the encounter as a minor incident, while Chinese sources consider it a striking defensive victory. The Battle of Zhenhai is still commemorated in China as an important Chinese victory in the Sino-French War.
Background
In early February 1885 part of Admiral Amédée Courbet's Far East Squadron left Keelung to head off a threatened attempt by part of the Chinese Nanyang Fleet (Southern Seas fleet) to break the French blockade of Formosa (Taiwan). On 11 February Courbet's task force met the cruisers Kaiji (開濟), Nanchen (南琛) and Nanrui (南瑞), three of the most modern ships in the Chinese fleet, near Shipu Bay, accompanied by the frigate Yuyuen (馭遠) and the composite sloop Chengqing (澄慶). The Chinese flotilla, under the command of Admiral Wu Ankang (吳安康), scattered as the French approached, and while the three cruisers successfully escaped, the French succeeded in trapping Yuyuen and Chengqing in Shipu Bay. On the night of 14 February, during the Battle of Shipu, a French torpedo attack crippled both ships: a French spar torpedo hit Yuyuen while shells from her guns struck Chengqing
On 25 February 1885 Admiral Courbet received instructions to implement a 'rice blockade' to prevent transport of the commodity from Shanghai to northern China. On 28 February he arrived off Zhenhai Bay, en route for Shanghai, with the ironclads Bayard and Triomphante, the unprotected cruiser Nielly and the troopship Saône. Suspecting that Kaiji, Nanchen and Nanrui had taken refuge in Zhenhai Bay, Courbet scouted the entrance to the bay at dawn on 1 March. Not only could he see the masts of the three Chinese cruisers, but was also able to identify four other Chinese warships: the composite sloop Chaowu (超武), the wooden transport Yuankai (元凱) as well as two alphabetical gunboats.
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