- Chinese gunboat Chung Shan
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Career (ROC) 
Ordered: 1910 Builder: Mitsubishi Shipbuilding Nagasaki Dockyard Laid down: 1910 Launched: 1912 Commissioned: 1913 Maiden voyage: March 1913 Renamed: 1925 Fate: Sunk during the battle of Wuhan on October 24, 1938
Recovered in 1997, restored as a museum shipGeneral characteristics Class and type: Yung Feng-class gunboat Displacement: 780 tons Length: 65.873m Beam: 8.8m Draught: 3.048m Speed: 14 knots Complement: 140 Chung Shan[1] (中山艦；Zhongshan in pinyin), originally named Yung Feng (永豐艦; Yongfeng in pinyin), is a Chinese gunboat[1] built in Japan in 1913 of 830 tons and later renamed in 1925 Chung Shan in honor of Dr. Sun Yat-sen, the founder of the Republic of China.
Contents
Construction
The ship was ordered by the Qing Government in 1910 and was built by Mitsubishi.
Service
Model of the gunboat
In 1922 the Chung Shan fought its way past Pearl river forts controlled by Chen Jiongming while carrying Sun Yat Sen and Chiang Kai Shek.[2] On April 13, 1925, the ship was renamed to its current name in honor of Sun Yat-sen. The ship was also involved in the Zhongshan Warship Incident in 1926.
She patrolled the coast of South China against pirates after Northern Expedition[1].
In the Second Sino-Japanese War (1937–1945), she participated in the battle of Wuhan. She was bombed and sunk in the Yangtze River by Japanese invaders on 24 October 1938 with 25 casualties.
Aftermath
The shipwreck was salvaged from the river in January 1997. The salvaged and restored Zhong Shan gunboat is now located in its own museum in Wuhan.[3]
See also
A Liberty ship, constructed in the United States, was named Sun Yat-sen. For details see List of Liberty ships (S–Z).
Notes
- ^ a b c "Ship Sink Off Waglan.". The Hongkong Telegraph. 1929-01-16.
- ^ http://www.lcsd.gov.hk/en/ppr_release_det.php?pd=20030123&ps=04
- ^ Zhongshan Warship settled in Wuhan museum, Peoples Daily, May 28, 2008 http://english.people.com.cn/90001/90783/91300/6419821.html
- Conway's All the World's Fighting Ships, 1922–1946, P.412
- Warships for Export [1]
- Chiang Kai-Shek's Secret Past: The Memoir of His Second Wife, Ch'en Chieh-Ju. Pps. 109-110
- Cultural relics of Zhong Shan gunboat on display at Museum of Coastal Defence
External links
- China-Defense.com Forum > History Forum > After 1911 > The Restored ZhongShan Gunboat Photos of the Zhong Shan gunboat on display at the Museum of Coastal Defence
Categories:- Ships built in Japan
- Naval ships of China
- Ships damaged by aircraft
- Shipwrecks in rivers
- Gunboats of China
- 1912 ships
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