View source for Battle of Fuzhou

{{Short description|Opening engagement of the Sino-French War}}
{{for|the battle during the Five Dynasties period|Battle of Fuzhou (Five Dynasties period)}}
{{multiple issues|
{{Primary sources|date=September 2022}}
{{more citations needed|date=September 2023}}
}}
{{Infobox military conflict
| conflict          = Battle of Fuzhou<br>Combat naval de Fou-Tchéou<br>馬江海戰
| partof            = the [[Sino-French War]]
| image             = BattleFoochow.jpg
| image_size        = 300
| caption           = The Battle of Fuzhou, 23 August 1884, from [[The Graphic]]
| date              = 23–26 August 1884
| place             = Mawei Harbour, [[Fuzhou]], China
| result            = French victory
| combatant1        = {{flagicon|Qing dynasty}} [[Qing dynasty]]
| combatant2        = {{flagcountry|French Third Republic}}
| commander1        = {{flagicon|Qing dynasty}} [[Zhang Peilun]]
| commander2        = {{flagicon|French Third Republic}} [[Amédée Courbet]]
| units1            = [[Fujian Fleet]]
| units2            = [[Far East Squadron]]
| strength1         = 22 ships<br><small>(11 Western-style ships, the rest [[Junk (sailing)|Chinese junks]])</small>
| strength2         = 13 ships
| casualties1       = 796 killed<br>150 wounded<br>51 missing<br>9 ships sunk<br>10+ ships damaged
| casualties2       = 10 killed<br>48 wounded<br>2 ships damaged
| notes             = French casualties include all casualties from 23 to 31 August 1884 (i.e. both at Fuzhou and during the descent of the Min River)<br>The total number of Chinese casualties stands at 2,000 or 3,000 for the entire battle (i.e. including the descent of the Min River){{sfn|Clodfelter|2008|p=257}}
| campaignbox       = {{Campaignbox Sino-French War}}
}}

The '''Battle of Fuzhou''', or '''Battle of Foochow''', also known as the '''Battle of the Pagoda Anchorage''' (French: Combat naval de Fou-Tchéou, Chinese: {{linktext|馬|江|海|戰}}, 馬江之役 or 馬尾海戰, literally '''Battle of Mawei'''), was the opening engagement of the 16-month [[Sino-French War]] (December 1883 – April 1885). The battle was fought on 23 August 1884 off the Pagoda Anchorage in [[Mawei]] ({{lang|zh|馬尾}}) harbour, {{convert|15|km}} to the southeast of the city of [[Fuzhou]] (Foochow). During the battle Admiral [[Amédée Courbet]]'s [[Far East Squadron]] virtually destroyed the [[Fujian Fleet]], one of the [[Qing dynasty]]'s four regional fleets.

==Background==
[[File:Foochow arsenal in Mawei.jpg|thumb|left|The [[Foochow Navy Yard]], built under the direction of the French administrator [[Prosper Giquel]]]]

On 11 May 1884 French and Qing negotiators concluded the [[Tientsin Accord]], an agreement designed to end several months of undeclared hostilities between France and the Qing in Tonkin. On 23 June 1884, French troops advancing to occupy Lạng Sơn, in accordance with the terms of this agreement, clashed near the small town of Bắc Lệ with a detachment of the Qing Guangxi Army. The Qing opened fire on the advancing French, precipitating a two-day battle in which the French column was seriously mauled. This incident, the [[Bắc Lệ ambush]], was the proximate cause of the Sino-French War.

When news of the Bắc Lệ ambush reached Paris, there was fury at what was perceived as blatant Qing treachery. [[Jules Ferry]]'s government demanded an apology, an indemnity, and the immediate implementation of the terms of the Tianjin Accord. The Qing government agreed to negotiate, but refused to apologise or pay an indemnity. The mood in France was against compromise, and although negotiations continued throughout July, Admiral Courbet was ordered to take his squadron to Fuzhou (Foochow).

Courbet was instructed to prepare to destroy the [[Foochow Arsenal|Foochow Navy Yard]], {{convert|15|km}} downriver from Fuzhou at Mawei, and to attack the Qing fleet in Mawei harbour. Ironically, the Foochow Navy Yard represented a substantial French investment in China's future, having been built several years earlier under the direction of the French administrator [[Prosper Giquel]]. During the second half of July and the first half of August Courbet gradually concentrated his squadron in Mawei harbour, at the Pagoda Anchorage—named for a conspicuous Chinese pagoda, the Luoxingta ({{lang|zh|羅星塔}}), which stood on a hill above the harbour.<ref>Thomazi, 205–6</ref>

Negotiations between France and the Qing broke down in mid-August, and on the evening of 22 August Courbet was authorised by the French government to commence hostilities. He duly notified the foreign consuls, the governor-general of Fujian and Zhejiang, and the commanders of several neutral warships moored at the Pagoda Anchorage (the British gunboats {{HMS|Vigilant|1871|6}}, {{HMS|Champion|1878|2}} and {{HMS|Sapphire|1874|2}} and the American corvette {{USS|Enterprise|1874|6}}).<ref>Loir, 123</ref>

==Order of battle==
[[File:Admiral Courbet drawing.jpg|thumb|Admiral Anatole-Amédée-Prosper Courbet (1827–85)]]
[[File:Zhang Peilun.jpg|thumb|Zhang Peilun (1843–1903), the Chinese commander at Fuzhou]]
Only a fraction of the Far East squadron was present off the Pagoda Anchorage on the morning of 23 August. In particular, none of the Far East squadron's four ironclads was immediately available. ''[[French battleship Bayard (1880)|Bayard]]'', Courbet's flagship, was at Sharp Peak near the island of Matsu, guarding a vital telegraph station. ''Atalante'' was hunting down pirate ships in the Gulf of Tonkin. Courbet had summoned the ironclads ''Triomphante'' from Shanghai and ''La Galissonnière'' from Keelung to join him off Fuzhou, but ''La Galissonnière'' had been detained at Keelung by bad weather, and although ''Triomphante'' was approaching the [[Min River (Fujian)|Min River]], it was not clear whether she would be able to cross the bar at its entrance.

Courbet had under his immediate command the first-class cruisers ''Duguay-Trouin'', ''Villars'' and ''d'Estaing'', the third-class cruiser ''Volta'' (which he chose as his flagship during the engagement), the gunboats ''Lynx'', ''Aspic'' and ''Vipère'' and [[Torpedo Boats]] No. 45 and No. 46.<ref>These were two 27 meters torpedo boats built in Forges et Chantiers de la Mediterranée (Graville – [[Le Havre]])</ref> The second-class cruiser ''Châteaurenault'' and the troopship ''Saône'' had been left at the Jinpai pass, at the entrance to the Min River, to stop the Chinese from laying a barrage to prevent the squadron's escape.<ref>Loir, 118–19</ref>

The Chinese [[Fujian fleet]] consisted of the wooden corvette ''[[Chinese corvette Yangwu|Yangwu]]'' (the flagship), the scout-transports ''Chenhang'', ''Yongbao'', [[Chinese transport Fu Po|''Fupo'']], ''Feiyun'' and ''Ji'an'', the paddle steamer ''Yixin'', the wooden gunboats ''Zhenwei'' and {{ship|Chinese gunboat|Fuxing||2}}, and the Rendel flatiron gunboats ''Fusheng'' and ''Jiansheng''. Twelve large junks were nearby, but did not take part in the battle. The French squadron displaced 14,500 tons and included 1,780 men, while the eleven warships in the Chinese fleet displaced 8,000 tons, and included 1,040 men. The French squadron was much better-led and better-armed than the Chinese fleet. Only a few of the Chinese ships were capable of offering serious resistance to Courbet's attack. The Chinese defence was under the command of the imperial commissioner [[Zhang Peilun]] ({{lang|zh|張佩綸}}), one of the leading members of China's war party.<ref>Loir, 117–18; Lung Chang, 286</ref>

===French squadron===

{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Name
! Type
! Specifications
! Construction
! Captain
|-
| [[French ironclad Triomphante|''Triomphante'']]
| station ironclad (''cuirassé de croisière'')
| 4,585 tons
| 1879, Rochefort
| ''capitaine de vaisseau'' Baux
|-
| [[French ironclad La Galissonnière|''La Galissonnière'']]
| station ironclad (''cuirassé de croisière'')
| 4,645 tons
| 1874, Brest
| ''capitaine de vaisseau'' Fleuriais
|-
| {{ship|French cruiser|Duguay-Trouin|1877|2}}
| 1st class iron cruiser
| 3,479 tons
| 1879, Cherbourg
| ''capitaine de vaisseau'' Desnouy
|-
| {{ship|French cruiser|Villars||2}}
| 1st class cruiser
| 2,363 tons
| 1881, Cherbourg
| ''capitaine de vaisseau'' Vivielle
|-
| {{ship|French cruiser|d'Estaing||2}}
| 1st class cruiser
| 2,363 tons
| 1881, Brest
| ''capitaine de vaisseau'' Coulombeaud
|-
| {{ship|French cruiser|Châteaurenault|1868|2}}
| 2nd class wooden cruiser
| 1,820 tons
| 1869, Normand
| ''capitaine de frégate'' Le Pontois
|-
| {{ship|French cruiser|Volta||2}}
| 3rd class wooden cruiser
| 1,323 tons
| 1869, Cherbourg
| ''capitaine de frégate'' Gigon
|-
| ''Saône''
| transport
| 1,575 tons
| 1880, Toulon
| ''capitaine de frégate'' Monin
|-
| ''Lynx''
| composite gunboat
| 465 tons
| ~1870s, Cherbourg
| ''lieutenant de vaisseau'' Bonaire
|-
| ''Aspic''
| composite gunboat
| 465 tons
| ~1870s, Rochefort
| ''lieutenant de vaisseau'' de Fauque de Jonquières
|-
| ''Vipère''
| composite gunboat
| 465 tons
| ~1870s, Rochefort
| ''lieutenant de vaisseau'' Picard Destelan
|-
| Torpedo Boat No. 45
| torpedo boat
| 30,58 tons
| ~1879, Le Havre
| ''lieutenant de vaisseau'' Latour
|-
| Torpedo Boat No. 46
| torpedo boat
| 30,58 tons
| ~1879, Le Havre
| ''lieutenant de vaisseau'' Douzans
|}

===Chinese squadron===

{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Name (pinyin)
! Name (Wade Giles)
! Characters
! Type
! Construction
! Specifications
! Captain
|-
| [[Chinese corvette Yangwu|''Yangwu'']]
| ''Yang wu''
| 揚武
| wooden corvette
| 1872, Foochow Navy Yard
| 1,393 tons, 15 knots, 13 British muzzle-loaders
| Chang Ch'eng
|-
| ''Yongbao''
| ''Yung-pao''
| 永保
| scout-transport
| 1873, Foochow Navy Yard
| 1,391 tons, 3 guns
| (in dock)
|-
| ''Chenhang''
| ''Ch'en-hang''
| 琛航
| scout-transport
| 1874, Foochow Navy Yard
| 1,391 tons, 3 guns
| (in dock)
|-
| [[Chinese transport Fu Po|''Fupo'']]
| ''Fu-p'o''
| 伏波
| scout-transport
| 1870, Foochow Navy Yard
| 1,258 tons, 5 guns
| Lü Wen-ying
|-
| ''Feiyun''
| ''Fei-yun''
| 飛雲
| scout-transport
| 1872, Foochow Navy Yard
| 1,258 tons, 13 knots, 5 Prussian breechloaders
| Kao Teng-yün
|-
| ''Ji'an''
| ''Chi-an''
| 濟安
| scout-transport
| 1873, Foochow Navy Yard
| 1,258 tons, 12 knots, 5 guns
| ?
|-
| ''Zhenwei''
| ''Chen-wei''
| 振威
| wooden gunboat
| 1872, Foochow Navy Yard
| 572.5 tons, 10 knots, 6 guns
| Hsü Shou-shen
|-
| {{ship|Chinese gunboat|Fuxing||2}}
| ''Fu-hsing''
| 福星
| wooden gunboat
| 1870, Foochow Navy Yard
| 515 tons, 3 guns
| Ch'en Ying
|-
| ''Fusheng''
| ''Fu-sheng''
| 福勝
| Rendel flatiron gunboat
| 1875, Laird, Birkenhead
| 280 tons
| Yeh Chen
|-
| ''Jiansheng''
| ''Chien-sheng''
| 建勝
| Rendel flatiron gunboat
| 1875, Laird, Birkenhead
| 250 tons
| Lin Sen-lin
|-
| ''Yixin''
| ''I-hsin''
| 藝新
| river patrol boat
| 1876, Foochow Navy Yard
| No details available
| Lin Tse-yu
|}
{| class="wikitable"
|+Qing Forts and their armaments on the Min River<ref>{{Cite book |last=Olender |first=Piotr |title=Sino-French Naval War 1884-1885 |date=2012 |isbn=978-83-61421-53-5 |location=Sandomierz |publisher=Mushroom Model Publications |oclc=776777660}}</ref>
!Location
!210mm
!203mm
!178mm
!150mm-177mm
!120mm
!Smoothbore
guns
!total
|-
|Couding island
(and vicinity)
|1
|
|
|
|
|14
|15
|-
|Mingan Pass
|1
|
|3
|
|
|39 
|43
|-
|Fork of the Min 
River
|
|1
|6
|3
|
|8
|18
|-
|Couding and 
Mingan region
|
|
|
|
|
|19
|19
|-
|Northern Fork of 
the Min River
|
|1
|4
|
|2
|15
|22
|-
|Wufou island
|
|
|2
|5
|
|15
|22
|-
|Total
|2
|2
|15
|8
|2
|110
|140
|}

==Fleet deployments==
[[Image:Chinese fleet at anchor the night before the battle of Fuzhou 1884.jpg|thumb|300px|left|The Chinese flagship ''Yangwu'' and the gunboat ''Fuxing'' at anchor off the [[Foochow Navy Yard]] on the eve of the battle]]
The Chinese fleet was deployed into a northern group of eight ships and a southern group of three ships, with the French squadron lying in between. The wooden corvette ''Yangwu'', the wooden gunboat ''Fuxing'', the armed transport ''Fupo'', the Rendel flatiron gunboats ''Jiansheng'' and ''Fusheng'' and the small paddle steamer ''Yixin'' were deployed on the northwest curve of the river, between the French ships and the Foochow Navy Yard. A little behind them lay the unarmed transports ''Yongbao'' and ''Chenhang'', anchored just off the dockyard. The role of this northern group of ships was obviously to prevent the French from attacking the Navy Yard. Meanwhile, the armed wooden transports ''Ji'an'' and ''Feiyun'' and the wooden gunboat ''Zhenwei'' lay downstream of the French squadron, dangerously isolated on the southwesterly leg of the river, in front of the Customs building. Their job seems to have been to protect the Customs building and to block Courbet's exit from the Min River.<ref>Loir, 119–20</ref>

Courbet's plan provided for overwhelming firepower to be deployed against the Chinese fleet. He had noticed that the Chinese ships swung with the tide, and determined to make his attack just before the top of the tide at 2:00 pm on the following afternoon, Saturday 23 August, when with luck the Chinese ships would have swung away from the French ships and would be presenting their vulnerable sterns to the attackers. This timing was also important for another reason. If ''Triomphante'' successfully ascended the Min River, it was about then that she would be making her appearance.

<!-- Deleted image removed: [[Image:Battle of Fuzhou.jpg|thumb|right|300px|Fleet positions off the Pagoda Anchorage]] -->
Assuming that the Chinese fleet did not change its position, Courbet's orders provided for the French ships to be at action stations at 1:45 pm and to go into action at around 2:00 pm, on his signal. The battle would begin with an attack by Torpedo Boats No. 45 and No. 46 on ''Yangwu'' and ''Fupo''. This attack would be supported by cannon and rifle fire from ''Volta''. ''Volta'' would then concentrate on destroying a line of war junks and fireships drawn up just to the west of Losing Island. Once the attack by the torpedo boats had cleared the way, the gunboats ''Aspic'', ''Vipère'' and ''Lynx'' would sail upriver towards the Navy Yard and take on the other ships of the Chinese northern group. Four steam launches under the command of ''lieutenant de vaisseau'' [[Augustin Boué de Lapeyrère]], the future French admiral, were given the job of protecting ''Volta'' and the three French gunboats from attack by the Chinese mineboats. To the east ''Duguay-Trouin'', ''Villars'' and ''d'Estaing'' were to reduce the three ships of the Chinese southern group, to engage the war junks from the flank, and to engage a battery armed with three Krupp cannon near the Pagoda, and three other batteries armed with Krupp cannon which protected the Arsenal. Their launches would be deployed to give protection against Chinese torpedo attacks.<ref>Courbet, 18-19</ref><ref>Loir, 121–3</ref>

==The battle of Fuzhou==
[[File:Bombardment of foutcheou.jpg|thumb|The Chinese flagship ''Yangwu'' and the armed transport ''Fupo'' under attack by French [[torpedo boat]]s No. 46 and No. 45. ''Combat naval de Fou-Tchéou'' ('The naval battle at Foochow'), by [[Charles Kuwasseg]], 1885]]

On the morning of Saturday 23 August, although the Chinese commanders knew that the French would launch their attack at around 2:00 pm, the sailors in both fleets went about their routine business. The ships of the Fujian Fleet made no attempt to redeploy or to anticipate the French attack by opening fire first. The French crews went to their action stations at 1:30 pm, after eating their midday meal. The Chinese did not react to this obvious threat, and at 1:45 pm the flurry of activity aboard the French ships died down. For the next ten minutes the tension grew aboard the French ships as the minutes ticked away towards 2:00 pm. At 1:55 pm a Chinese mineboat advanced towards the French squadron. Courbet immediately ordered the attack to begin, only five minutes short of his original timetable.

At the outset of the battle the Chinese flagship ''Yangwu'' was successfully attacked with a [[spar torpedo]] by Torpedo Boat No.{{nbsp}}46 (''lieutenant de vaisseau'' Douzans) and grounded. The French torpedo boat suffered damage to her boiler during this attack. The despatch vessel ''Fupo'' was attacked less successfully by Torpedo Boat No.{{nbsp}}45 (''lieutenant de vaisseau'' Latour), and was subsequently crippled by ''Volta'''s torpedo launch and carried by boarding by Boué de Lapeyrère's sailors. She had already been set alight by French shellfire, and was eventually abandoned by the French prize crew and sank in the middle of the Min River.

Their spar torpedoes expended, the two French torpedo boats drifted downriver after making their attack, towards the anchorage of the neutral vessels off Losing Island. Lieutenant Latour had been seriously wounded in the eye during the attack, but he refused an offer of medical assistance from American officers on ''Enterprise'', explaining that he could not leave his post while the battle was still in progress.

Meanwhile, the French cruisers and the ironclad ''Triomphante'', which joined the French squadron only minutes before the battle began, were making short work of the rest of the Chinese fleet. ''Chenhang'', ''Yongbao'', ''Feiyun'', ''Ji'an'', ''Fusheng'' and ''Jiansheng'' were either sunk or set alight by shellfire from the cruisers ''Duguay-Trouin'', ''Villars'' and ''d'Estaing''. Only ''Fupo'' and ''Yixin'' survived the battle without serious damage, by escaping upriver before the gunboats ''Lynx'', ''Aspic'' and ''Vipère'' had a chance to engage them. ''Zhenwei'' was blown up by a single shell from ''Triomphante''.

Before they were put out of action the outgunned Chinese vessels concentrated their fire on the French flagship ''Volta'', hoping to kill Courbet and the officers of his entourage. Several sailors aboard the French cruiser were killed or wounded, and shortly after the start of the battle a roundshot ploughed through Courbet's command group on the flagship's bridge, killing the British pilot Thomas and only narrowly missing ''capitaine de frégate'' Gigon, ''Volta'''s captain. A few minutes later splinters from an exploding Chinese shell wounded ''lieutenant de vaisseau'' Ravel, Courbet's aide-de-camp.

The fighting ended at 5:00{{nbsp}}pm, but during the night of 23{{nbsp}}August the Chinese made a number of unsuccessful attacks with fireships on the French warships, obliging some of them to shift their anchorages to evade them.

==Bombardment of the Foochow Navy Yard==
[[File:Bombardment of Foochow Arsenal.jpg|thumb|right|Bombardment of the Foochow Navy Yard, 24 August 1884]]

On the morning of 24 August Courbet issued orders for his ships' landing companies to go ashore with the naval engineers to destroy the [[Foochow Navy Yard]]. Preparations were made for a landing, but Courbet then changed his mind, after observing that the Navy Yard was defended by organised groups of Chinese infantry. The attack was cancelled as the French sailors were on the point of climbing into their launches.

Instead, the French bombarded the Foochow Navy Yard, damaging a number of outbuildings and holing the sloop ''Henghai'' (''Heng-hai'', 橫海), still under construction and lying on the slips. A certain amount of damage was inflicted, but without the support of the heavy guns of ''Triomphante'' and ''Duguay-Trouin'' or the slightly lighter guns of the cruisers ''Villars'' and ''d'Estaing'', which drew too much water to enter the shallows off the Navy Yard except around high tide, Courbet was unable to destroy the Yard completely. He himself admitted in his official report that the damage done 'was not as much as I had hoped for'.<ref>Duboc, 252–5; Ferrero, 65–8; Huard, 382–403; Loir, 124–41; Rollet de l'Isle, 171–85; Thomazi, 207–9; Wright, 62–3</ref>

The French squadron remained off Fuzhou during the night of 24 August. Once again the Chinese tried to make a night attack. At 4:00 am two Chinese torpedo launches tried to attack the gunboat ''Vipère'', anchored at the head of the French line. Both launches were lit up by searchlights on the French ships and attacked with [[Hotchkiss et Cie|Hotchkiss]] fire by ''Duguay-Trouin''. One launch was sunk instantly, while the crew of the other abandoned ship and swam for the shore.

==Descent of the Min River==
[[File:French fleet down the Min river 27 August 1884.jpg|thumb|The French cruiser ''Duguay-Trouin'' leads the way into the Min'an pass, followed by the ironclad ''Triomphante'']]

On 25 August, after receiving the congratulations of the captains of the neutral warships on the professionalism displayed by the French squadron during the action of 23 August, Courbet began to lead his ships back down the Min River. The squadron's two heaviest ships, ''Triomphante'' and ''Duguay-Trouin'', led the way.

On 25 and 26 August the French bombarded the Tianluowan ({{lang|zh|田螺灣}}) and Min'an ({{lang|zh|閩安}}) batteries, two Chinese shore batteries covering the approach to Fuzhou through the narrow Min'an Pass. The Chinese batteries, built to fire only on enemy ships approaching from the mouth of the river, were taken in reverse and destroyed by ''Duguay-Trouin'' and ''Triomphante''.

On 27 and 28 August the French squadron bombarded and destroyed the Chinese defences at the Jinpai pass near the entrance to the Min River. The Jinpai ({{lang|zh|金牌}}) and Changmen ({{lang|zh|長門}}) batteries, known to the French as Fort Kimpai and the White Fort (Fort Blanc), were put out of action, and the French also inflicted heavy casualties on a number of Chinese field batteries and infantry formations. However, before its guns were destroyed the White Fort was able to inflict moderate damage on the French ironclad ''La Galissonnière'', which had sailed up from Keelung to join Courbet's squadron and attempted unsuccessfully to fight its way into the Min River. Chinese infantry at the Jinpai pass also killed and wounded several French sailors aboard the gunboat ''Vipère'' on 27 August.<ref>Duboc, 255–60; Loir, 145–68; Lung Chang, 280–1; Rollet de l'Isle, 186–200; Thomazi, 209–12</ref>

==Losses==
[[File:Sunken Yangwu.jpg|thumb|left|The wreckage of the Chinese flagship ''Yangwu'']]

The losses of the French squadron in the course of the operations before Fuzhou and in the Min River were relatively light (10 dead and 48 wounded). Most of these casualties were inflicted not by shellfire during the engagement of 23 August but by sniper fire from Chinese infantry during the squadron's descent of the Min River. The French dead included ''lieutenant de vaisseau'' Bouët-Willaumez, second-in-command of the gunboat ''Vipère'' and son of the noted French admiral Louis-Édouard Bouët-Willaumez (1809–71), who was shot dead on ''Vipère'''s bridge during an exchange of fire with the defenders of Fort Kimpai on 27 August. With the exception of ''La Galissonnière'' and Torpedo Boat No. 46, none of Courbet's vessels suffered serious damage.

The Chinese lost nine of the eleven ships of the Fujian Fleet. Some of the Chinese ships foundered where they were struck, sinking off the Pagoda anchorage and the Foochow Navy Yard. Others drifted downriver and either ran aground or sank between Losing Island and the Min'an pass. French officers aboard ''Châteaurenault'', anchored near the entrance to the Min River, saw three Chinese warships drifting downriver on the evening of 23 August, abandoned by their crews and blazing from stem to stern. One of the Chinese ships exploded in front of their eyes.<ref>Duboc, 252–4</ref>

Courbet estimated Chinese casualties at between 2,000 and 3,000 dead.<ref>Claude Farrère, ''L'Amiral Courbet, vainqueur des mers de Chine'', Edition Française d'Amsterdam, 1953</ref> The commemorative tablets in a shrine erected shortly after the war at the Pagoda Anchorage to honour the Chinese dead list the names of 831 sailors and soldiers killed on 23 August, but this list does not include the hundreds of Chinese soldiers killed by the French during their descent of the Min River.

The Chinese imperial commissioner Zhang Peilun, who made no serious attempt to coordinate the resistance of the Fujian fleet, was degraded after the battle and replaced by the veteran general [[Zuo Zongtang]] ({{lang|zh|左宗棠}}). He Jing ({{lang|zh|何璟}}), the governor-general of Fujian and Zhejiang, Zhang Zhaotong ({{lang|zh|張兆棟}}), the governor of Fujian, and He Ruzhang ({{lang|zh|何如璋}}), the director-general of the Foochow Navy Yard, were also degraded. The [[Manchu]] General of [[Fuzhou]] Mutušan ({{lang|zh|穆圖善}}), who had directed the defence of the Jinpai pass on 27 and 28 August with skill and energy, kept his job.<ref>Lung Chang, 281</ref>

The Cantonese naval officer Zhang Cheng ({{lang|zh|張成}}), a graduate of the Foochow naval college and captain of the Chinese flagship ''Yangwu'', abandoned ship as soon as the battle started and was later beheaded for cowardice.<ref>Rawlinson, 119 and 263</ref>

==Factors in the French victory==
[[File:Chinese image of the battle of Fuzhou.jpg|thumb|right|A Chinese lithograph of the Battle of Fuzhou]]

One of the factors in the French victory at Fuzhou was that the French squadron had sailed up the Min River in time of peace. The Chinese claimed after the battle, with some justification, that the French would never have been able to ascend the river if the two countries had been at war. A second important factor was the absence from the battle of the modern battleships ''[[Chinese turret ship Dingyuan|Dingyuan]]'' and ''[[Chinese turret ship Zhenyuan|Zhenyuan]]'', which had recently been completed in Germany for China's [[Beiyang Fleet]] (Northern Seas fleet). The Chinese battleships were more powerful than any of the ships under Courbet's command, and in December 1883, foreseeing that war with China was imminent, the French persuaded the German government to detain them in the event of hostilities. The German government invented a number of plausible excuses for keeping the two battleships in port, and they remained in Germany for the duration of the Sino-French War. They were finally released in July 1885, and joined the Northern Seas fleet in October of the same year.<ref>Wright, 51–4 and 66</ref>

Some Chinese historians have asserted that disunity in the Chinese command structure was an important factor in the Chinese defeat. The Chinese regional fleets and armies represented a considerable 'personal' investment of revenue and prestige that was used to leverage influence at court, and the respective fleet commanders were often loath to see these important assets diminished by war damage. The result, at Fuzhou, was that the [[Fujian Fleet]] received little help from China's three other regional fleets. Despite appeals from Zhang Peilun and direct orders from the [[Empress Dowager Cixi]], the commanders of the Beiyang Fleet, the [[Nanyang Fleet]] and the [[Guangdong Fleet]] declined to send ships to reinforce the Fujian Fleet. ''Feiyun'' and ''Ji'an'', two Fujian vessels which had been loaned to the Guangdong Fleet in 1882 to observe French movements in the Gulf of Tonkin, were sent back to Fuzhou in early August by [[Zhang Zhidong]], the governor-general of the two Guangs, arriving just in time to share the fate of their comrades in the forthcoming battle. However, Zhang did not release any of his own Guangdong ships. [[Li Hongzhang]] defied an order to send two ships from the Beiyang Fleet to Fuzhou, and the Zhejiang governor Liu Bingzhang ({{lang|zh|劉秉璋}}) refused to release the Nanyang ship ''Chaowu''.<ref>Rawlinson, 113–16; Wright, 61</ref>

==Ships involved in the Min River actions==
[[Image:Flag of France.svg|25px]] '''[[French Third Republic|France]]:'''

<gallery>
Image:Triomphante.jpg|''Triomphante''
Image:Galissonniere.jpg|''La Galissonnière''
Image:Duguay-trouin.jpg|''Duguay-Trouin''
Image:Le_Volta_(1867-1892).jpg|''Volta''
Image:Combat Naval de Fou-Tcheou Torpedo Boats 46 et 45.jpg|[[Torpedo boats]] No.46 and No.45.
</gallery>

{{flagicon|Qing dynasty|25px}} '''[[Qing dynasty|China]]:'''

<gallery>
Image:ChineseFu-po.jpg|''Fupo'' ({{lang|zh|伏波}})
Image:Fuxing.jpg|''Fuxing'' ({{lang|zh|福星}})
Image:Chien-sheng gunboat.jpg|''Jiansheng'' ({{lang|zh|建勝}})
Image:Yixin Chinese patrol boat.jpg|''Yixin'' ({{lang|zh|藝新}})
</gallery>

==French naval uniforms, 1884==
<gallery>
<!-- Deleted image removed: File:capitaine de fregate.jpg|French naval captain -->

File:French sailor, 1880s.jpg|French sailor
File:Branlebas de combat.jpg|'Going into battle'
</gallery>

==The battlefield today==
<gallery>
File:Majiang 1.JPG
File:Majiang 2.JPG
File:Majiang 3.JPG
File:Majiang 4.JPG
File:Majiang 5.JPG
</gallery>

==Notes==
{{Reflist|2}}

==References==
{{Commons category|Battle of Fuzhou}}
* {{cite book | first=Amédée |last=Courbet | title=''Information from abroad. Papers on Naval Operations''| volume=General information series No. 4| date=July 1885|chapter=''REPORT OF VICE-ADMIRAL COURBET, COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF OF THE SQUADRON OF THE EXTREME EAST, TO THE MINISTER OF MARINE AND THE COLONIES, Matsu, September 11, 1884'' |chapter-url=https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015073462874&view=1up&seq=232 |pages=18–24頁| location=Washington D.C. | publisher=General Printing Office | editor=United States Office of Naval Intelligence | editor-link=United States Office of Naval Intelligence }}
* {{cite book|last=Clodfelter|first=M.|title=Warfare and armed conflicts : a statistical encyclopedia of casualty and other figures, 1494-2007|publisher=McFarland|location=Jefferson, North Carolina|year=2008|isbn=978-0786433193}}
* Destelan, P., ''Annam et Tonkin: Notes de voyage d'un marin'' (Paris, 1892)
* Duboc, E., ''Trente cinq mois de campagne en Chine, au Tonkin'' (Paris, 1899)
* Ferrero, S., ''Formose, vue par un marin français du XIX<sup>e</sup> siècle'' (Paris, 2005)
* Huard, ''La guerre du Tonkin'' (Paris, 1887)
* Loir, M., ''L'escadre de l'amiral Courbet'' (Paris, 1886)
* Lung Chang [龍章], ''Yueh-nan yu Chung-fa chan-cheng'' [越南與中法戰爭, Vietnam and the Sino-French War] (Taipei, 1993)
* Rawlinson, J., ''China's Struggle for Naval Development, 1839–1895'' (Harvard, 1967)
* Rollet de l'Isle, M., ''Au Tonkin et dans les mers de Chine'' (Paris, 1886)
* Thomazi, A., ''La conquête de l'Indochine'' (Paris, 1934)
* Vienet, R., 'Devant le champ de bataille de Mawei (Chine)', ''La Géographie'', 1525 (June 2007), 31–53
* Wright, R., ''The Chinese Steam Navy, 1862–1945'' (London, 2001)
* {{cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/frenchatfoochow00rochrich|title=The French at Foochow|author=James F. Roche, L. L. Cowen|year=1884|publisher=Printed at the "Celestial Empire" Office|pages=[https://archive.org/details/frenchatfoochow00rochrich/page/49 49]|access-date=2011-07-06}}

{{Sino-French war}}
{{Former French colonies}}

{{Coord|25|58|37|N|119|27|04|E|source:kolossus-plwiki|display=title}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=March 2017}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Battle Of Fuzhou}}
[[Category:Conflicts in 1884|Fuzhou]]
[[Category:Naval battles of the Sino-French War|Fuzhou 1884]]
[[Category:Military history of Fujian]]
[[Category:1884 in France]]
[[Category:1884 in China]]
[[Category:August 1884]]