Battle of Zhenhai - Background

Background

In early February 1885 part of Admiral 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 Yuyuan (馭遠) and the composite sloop Chengqing (澄慶). The Chinese flotilla, under the command of Admiral Wu Ankang (吳安康), scattered at the French approach, and while the three cruisers successfully made their escape, the French succeeded in trapping Yuyuan and Chengqing in Shipu Bay. On the night of 14 February, in the Battle of Shipu, both ships were crippled in a daring French torpedo attack, Yuyuan by a French spar torpedo and Chengqing by Yuyuan's fire.

On 25 February 1885 Admiral Courbet was instructed to implement a 'rice blockade', to prevent ships carrying rice from leaving Shanghai for northern China. On 28 February he arrived off Zhenhai Bay, en route for Shanghai, with the ironclads Bayard and Triomphante, the 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 he was also able to identify four other Chinese warships: the composite sloop Chaowu (超武), the wooden transport Yuankai (元凱), and two 'alphabetical' gunboats. The entrance to the bay had been blocked by a barrage of sunken junks by the Chinese authorities, and was also defended by two recently-built forts.