Ch 28 - The Sino-Japanese War

The Fight

The Japan's Imperial Navy soundly defeated China's Beiyang Fleet at the Battle of the Yalu River.

The buildup for a land war in Korea continued. In early September 1894, some thirty heavily-loaded transport ships left Japan for the Taedong River in north Korea. The long van carried artillery, ammunition, food, equipment, supplies and 14,000 reinforcing troops from Japan's First Army. Japanese warships under the command of Vice Admiral Ito Sukeyuki provided an armed escort northward across the Yellow Sea unhindered by any threat of Chinese interference. Tokyo feared that Russia might intervene on China's behalf, which would pit the Imperial Japanese Navy against both the Chinese Fleet in the Yellow Sea and the Russian Asiatic Fleet operating out of Vladivostok. Russia, however, remained uncommitted for the time being.

The Japanese convoy arrived at Chinnampo (modern Nampo) off the mouth of the Taedong River on September 14 and began unloading its military cargo. The following morning at 10:00 a.m., China's Beiyang Squadron, under the command of Admiral Ting Ju-Chang, arrived in the Talienwan roadstead, 40 miles east of Port Arthur on the east side of the Liaotung Peninsula. The composite fleet spent the day taking on coal and embarking 4,000 Chinese troops aboard five chartered merchant ships to resupply the Huai Army troops being driven north by General Yamagata Aritomo's First Army.

In Beijing, China's government continued to insist that Korea was a tributary of China and accused Japan of commencing hostilities and violating treaties and international law. On September 15, 1894, they backed up their accusations with a declaration of war against Japan .

Early in the evening on September 15, another chartered steamer arrived in the Talienwan roadstead carrying 80 Krupp field guns, 400 horses and 500 more artillerymen from Port Arthur. The embarkation finished around midnight. At about 1:00 a.m., the Beiyang Fleet, consisting of eleven warships, four gunboats and six torpedo-boats, weighed anchor and set course for Korea. The convoy arrived without incident at the mouth of the Yalu River in the early afternoon of September 16. Admiral Ting anchored his main battle fleet outside the river bar, while the four gunboats and four smallest torpedo-boats escorted the transport ships across the river bar and nearly fifteen miles upriver, where 4,500 Chinese troops began disembarking with all their equipment. To the south, Japanese troops began to accelerate the defeat of China's Huai Army in Korea.

The same day Chinese troops began loading aboard ships at Talienwan, 12,000 troops of the Japanese First Army under the command of Lieutenant General Nozu Michitsura marched in force to attack nearly 14,000 Huai Army troops well-entrenched in a strong position near Pyongyang. At both Asan and Pyongyang, Japanese infantry tactics followed the teachings of their German mentor, Major General Klemens Wilhelm Meckel, who helped organize the Japanese Military Academy in the late 1880s. General Nozu's infantry advanced concentrically with the objective of enveloping the Chinese and destroying them. With virtually no cover, the Japanese assaulted the city from the north and southeast. During two days of ferocious fighting, General Nozu repeatedly forced the Chinese to fall back by enveloping one of their flanks. Late in the afternoon of September 15, the Chinese raised the white flag and fighting came to a halt.

Taking advantage of the darkness and a heavy rain, Huai Army troops marched out of Pyongyang around 8:00 p.m. and headed northeast towards the coast and the city of Uiju. Chinese losses were estimated at 2,000 killed and about twice that many wounded. Among the dead was Chinese General Zuo Baogui, reputedly one of China's bravest commanders. He died leading a group of 3,500 troops defending the Xuanwu Gate on Mudantai Hill at the northern entrance to the city. Japan's First Army entered Pyongyang on the morning of September 16, having sustained 102 killed, 433 wounded, and 33 missing. In Japan, the Emperor and Japan's military headquarters moved from Tokyo to Hiroshima to better attend to military matters.

Although Korea is connected to China along the landward frontier of the Yalu River, the overland routes that followed pitiful roads and caravan trails were next to useless for the dispatch of either reinforcements or supplies. Li Hongzhang did not understand the crucial fact that fighting a war on a peninsula demanded secure sea routes for resupply. While Li stalled and made excuses for his inadequate ships, he made no effort to gain control of the Yellow Sea. The twenty-five ships of Admiral Ting's Beiyang Fleet represented the only active naval force in the Yellow Sea;  the Nanyang Fleet and two other provincial squadrons at Canton and Foochow were held in reserve and remained "neutral" for self-preservation.

In the early 1890s, the Beiyang Fleet was a very efficient fighting force under the able guidance of British Navy Captain W.M. Lang. Unfortunately, jealousy of Europeans was a common flaw among Chinese officials and it soon began to assert itself. In time, petty jealousies made the position of the foreign advisors so difficult that Captain Lang and virtually all of his commissioned officers left. Following their departure, the Beiyang Fleet reverted to its old incompetent ways and deteriorated rapidly. Even if the Beiyang Fleet had remained at sea for another year, the situation would not have changed, since the responsibility for the neglect lay in Tientsin.

In the wake of the August 10 Japanese raid at Weihaiwei, a number of Chinese newspapers charged Admiral Ting Ju-Chang with cowardice for not steaming out to engage the Japanese. In addition, soon after that raid, the Zongli Yamen issued a direct order to Admiral Ting stating that under no circumstances was he to steam eastward of a line drawn between the Shantung lighthouse and the mouth of the Yalu River. With that order, the Chinese government effectively constrained the one force that might have had a significant impact on the outcome of the war. Admiral Ting deeply resented the order, yet he could not disobey it. The fleet went into action as well prepared as it could have been, handicapped as it was by official corruption and treachery ashore.

After Vice Admiral Ito Sukeyuki completed his escort mission to Chinnampo, he followed up on an unconfirmed report of Chinese troops and equipment landing near the mouth of the Yalu River, about 100 miles to the north across Korea Bay. Vice Admiral Ito commanded an imposing force well-equipped to handle most any challenge it faced. The Main Squadron included his flagship, the 4,277-ton cruiser Matsushima, which carried one 12.5-inch and eleven 4.7-inch guns, as did her sister ships the Itsukushima and Hashidate. The 3,718-ton battleship Fuso carried two 10.2-inch and six 5.9-inch guns. The 2,200-ton cruiser Hiei mounted one 10.2-inch and two 5.9-inch guns and the 2,450-ton cruiser Chiyoda carried ten 4.7-inch guns.

Rear Admiral Tsuboi's Flying Squadron steamed in the lead with the cruisers Yoshino (his flagship), Naniwa and Akitsushima, and the 3,650-ton battleship Takachiho, armed with two 10.2-inch and six 5.9-inch guns. The rest of Vice Admiral Ito's group included the gunboat Akagi, a flotilla of torpedo boats and the 1,650-ton armed merchantman Saikio Maru, which carried Japan's Navy Chief of Staff, Admiral Kabayama Sukenori, who was on an inspection tour.

The immaculate paintwork on each of Admiral Ito's warships gleamed in the bright sunlight as thick black smoke from coal-fired boilers trailed skyward from their funnels. With the exception of a few old-style guns, all of the Japanese ships carried rapid firing guns, but none of the ships were armored. Nine of the warships were less than five years old and although each was capable of speeds in excess of twenty knots, the entire fleet crawled northward at a mere 10 knots, the Saikio Maru's maximum speed.

When Admiral Ting Ju-Chang's Beiyang Fleet arrived at the Yalu River, the main fleet anchored just outside the river mouth to provide protection for the transport ships unloading troops and equipment some fifteen miles upriver. Admiral Ting's large and formidable fleet included two battleships, nine cruisers, four gunboats and six torpedo boats. His flagship, the 7,430-ton German-built battleship Ting Yuen carried four 12-inch and four 6-inch guns mounted on armor-protected raised deck platforms. Her sister ship, the battleship Chen Yuen, under the command of Captain Lin Taizeng and his American advisor Captain Philo Norton McGiffin, anchored close by.

The three 2,850-ton heavy cruisers Ching Yuen under Captain Lin Yongsheng, Lai Yuen and Ping Yuen mounted 8-inch and 6-inch guns as did the two 2,300-ton light cruisers Tsi Yuen and Chi Yuen, under Captain Deng Shichang. Four 1,300-ton armed sloops, the Kwang Chia, Kwang Ping, Yang Wei and Chao Yung, were armed with an odd assortment of 10-inch and 4.7-inch guns. None of the Chinese ships could exceed speeds of fifteen or sixteen knots. None of the fleet's larger guns were capable of rapid fire.

The Chinese learned a number of valuable lessons from their last encounter with Vice Admiral Ito's Flying Squadron back on July 25 in Asan Bay. Enemy gunfire shattered the cruiser Tsi Yuen's lifeboats and set them ablaze almost immediately. It wasted a lot of manpower and time to extinguish the fires. This time, each ship in the fleet carried a single six-oared boat. None carried a lifeboat. The Chinese intended to give no quarter and expected none. The ship and its crew would suffer the same fate.

The Chinese ironclads had no steel gun shields protecting their big Krupp guns. Besides being too thin to protect against anything larger than rifle and machine gun rounds, the heavy, cumbersome shields posed a potential problem when aiming the big guns. They kept the shields protecting the 6-inch guns from the gun blast of larger guns firing ahead or astern. The crews removed all unneeded woodwork, handrails, ladders, and rigging, replacing them with rope or wire lifelines whenever possible. They removed the glass from all portholes above the main decks, stacked sandbags about three feet deep and four feet high along the rails and used heavy bags of coal for added deck protection.

At daybreak on Monday morning, September 17, 1894, Vice Admiral Ito's fleet arrived in the vicinity of Haiyang Island in Korea Bay, about 100 miles east of China's main naval base at Port Arthur. All Japanese lookouts were on heightened alert through the pale gray light of dawn as the first rays of sunlight illuminated the mountain peaks on Haiyang, just 35 miles off the Chinese coast. No one saw any sign of the Chinese fleet. The gunboat Akagi steamed ahead to investigate the deep-water anchorage on Haiyang's western coast, but found nothing.

The Japanese fleet turned northeast and set a course for the mouth of the Yalu River, some 70 miles distant. For the next three and a half hours, as the sun climbed higher into a clear blue sky, the great fleet steamed at full speed, leaving Haiyang Island and the slow-moving Akagi and Saikio Maru in its wake. Sailors enthusiastically stoked their boilers with coal, sending huge columns of thick black smoke into the calm air. Trapped by an inversion layer, the black smoke flattened into a huge dark umbrella under a cloudless sky that could be seen for miles.

As the Beiyang Fleet rode gently at anchor that morning in a light breeze, the disembarkation of troops and equipment neared completion miles inland on the Yalu River. Normal shipboard routines ended abruptly at 9:15 a.m. when the daily call to general quarters sounded. Every ship in the fleet cleared for action and spent the next hour drilling their gun crews, completely unaware that a final examination would begin before lunch.

The crew aboard the battleship Chen Yuen resumed its normal routine as cooks busily prepared midday meals. At around 10.30 a.m., lookouts atop the ship's masthead spotted a large black smoke cloud on the western horizon. Almost simultaneously, lookouts on other ships sighted the smoke. Within moments, bugles throughout the fleet began sounding the call for action.

Admiral Ting Ju-Chang sat at a disadvantage and had few options. If he stayed in his anchorage to protect the troop ships, he would give up maneuverability and risk running aground on the numerous shoals off the river entrance. If he got up steam, weighed anchor and moved out to meet the Japanese fleet, he risked letting some of the enemy's smaller ships slip through his line to attack the transports. After briefly considering his choices, Admiral Ting ordered his fleet to "weigh immediately." Throughout the fleet, deck crews busily raised anchors and ships slowly got underway beneath columns of billowing dense black smoke. Below decks, coal stokers choked the boilers to build up the heat needed to sustain a heavy demand for steam in the coming fight.

About forty minutes after the initial signal order to get underway, the Beiyang Fleet managed to move a few miles out to sea and into a ragged line abreast battle formation across the entrance to the Yalu River. Up river, behind the fleet, troop transports suspended landing operations, weighed anchor and headed for the protection of shallower water. The aging cruisers Chao Yung and Yang Wei, always slow to weigh anchor, took so much time getting underway that by the time they reached their station at the right end of the line, the fleet appeared to be taking on a rough wedge-shaped formation.

The two rival fleets had had no contact with each other for six weeks following Japan's declaration of war on August 1. At 11:40 a.m. on the morning of September 17, the Japanese and Chinese fleets came within sight of each other, creating perhaps the greatest concentration of naval artillery since the Battle of Trafalgar. The two forces were closely matched in terms of firepower, but the outcome would be decided by the men behind the guns. Vice-Admiral Ito Sukeyuki, who was about to force the first major naval contest between China and Japan, had no doubts about the outcome.

Captain Togo Heihachiro, standing on the neat, orderly bridge of the cruiser Naniwa, steaming third in line with the Flying Squadron, had one advantage over Vice-Admiral Ito. He had inspected a number of the Chinese ships during their courtesy visit to Yokohama before the war. The casual attitude of Chinese officers, the general lack of discipline among the crews and the slipshod condition of the ships amazed him. His experience against the Chinese in the Gulf of Asan earlier in the summer proved they were reluctant fighters. Togo saw nothing to fear. .

The outwardly smart-looking, well-painted Chinese fleet presented a stunning, formidable sight as it steamed south from the mouth of the Yalu River. Admiral Ting's two great battleships, the Ting Yuen and Chen Yuen took position at the center of the line abreast formation. The cruiser Tsi Yuen held behind the main line on Admiral Ting's left wing and did not move on station. The remainder of the fleet stretched across the water in an indented line formation resembling a large sawtooth blade. Admiral Ying had learned the first letter of the naval tactician's alphabet ( "A" is for attack) more or less, but that was all, and it was worse than learning nothing.

To the southeast, smoke columns increased in volume as Admiral Ito maneuvered his ships into two parallel lines ahead, with Admiral Tsuboi's Flying Squadron ahead and slightly left of the Main Squadron. At the time, China's sixty-five-ship fleet, ranked as the eighth largest navy in the world, faced Japan's eleventh ranked twenty-one-ship navy, a well-trained, highly skilled naval force equipped with modern naval weaponry. Aboard Ito's flagship, the Matsushima, Japan's Imperial Standard, emblazoned with a gold chrysanthemum on a deep red background, whipped defiantly in the breeze from the yardarm.

To the Japanese, Admiral Ting's ragged battle line appeared to lack coherence and its advance seemed to lack enthusiasm. Apprehensive crews stood at the ready on both sides as the two fleets closed on each other about midday. With the exception of the men aboard Admiral Tsuboi's Flying Squadron and the foreign advisers aboard the Chinese ships, most of the men had yet to hear a shot fired in anger. As the two fleets steamed slowly towards each other across a silver sea, aboard the Ting Yuen, sailors hoisted Admiral Ting's battle flag up the main truck along with an immense yellow national ensign. Almost simultaneously, every other ship hoisted its own yellow ensign. Tension mounted aboard each of the twenty-two freshly painted ships. Each side understood that in the high stakes contest about to begin, the penalty for the loser would be certain death and destruction. The Chinese had been eagerly anticipating avenging the loss of the Tsao-kiang and the Kowshing for weeks. This would not be a friendly meeting.

Sand had been sprinkled across the decks to prevent slipping. Below decks, crews manned the engine rooms and ammunition hoists. Men lay on the decks with fifty pound powder charges, ready to pass it on to the gunners when it was needed. Fire hoses were charged with high pressure water and ready for immediate use. Men clustered in small groups along the decks impatiently waiting to kill or be killed.

Now just four miles apart, the opposing fleets closed on each other rapidly. Vice Admiral Ito spotted his chance and steamed diagonally across the bows of the Chinese ships at full speed, attempting to reach the northern end of the Admiral Ting's line and get behind him. From the military foretop aboard the battleship Chen Yuen, a young lieutenant constantly signaled the range to target to the gunners, who adjusted their sights accordingly. At 12:20 p.m., the battleship Ting Yuen broke the tension when it fired a ranging shot from one of its big 12-inch guns at a range of 5,300 meters (5,800 yards). The shell burst raised a huge column of white water half a mile short of the Japanese cruiser Yoshino.

When the German Navy took the Ting Yuen out for gun trials in 1883, they discovered that the main gun should never be fired directly over the bow. Doing so could destroy the flying bridge. The thunderous blast from the Ting Yuen's first shot caused a violent recoil that collapsed the flying bridge, wounding both Admiral Ting and his British adviser, Sub-Lieutenant Taylor and terrifying Captain Liu Buchan. Worse, the incident also took down the battleship's signaling mast, which caused some confusion among the Chinese ships. In anticipation of the possible loss of signaling ability, the Chinese fleet formed into three pairs of mutually supporting ships to continue the battle.

The Japanese confidently pressed the attack and held their fire for another five minutes as they rapidly closed the distance to the Chinese fleet. Once the Japanese reached the correct range, signal flags from the Matsushima's yardarm ordered the entire fleet into a left turn that exposed their full starboard broadsides to the Chinese. In the rising cacophony of incessant gunfire from Chinese quick-firing Hotchkiss and Maxim-Nordenfelt 3-pound and 6-pound guns, Admiral Ito's flagship signaled the command to commence firing in unison. The great naval battle had begun.

The first Japanese salvo fell short, but it had an interesting effect. No sooner had the shells hit the water than the faint-hearted Captain Fong aboard the torpedo cruiser Tsi Yuen turned his ship southwest and set a course for Port Arthur. The corvette Kwan Chia quickly followed suit, quickly reducing the Beiyang fleet to only eight ships .

None of the Chinese shells found their mark as Admiral Tsuboi's Flying Squadron led the attack northward, crossing Admiral Ting's front from left to right at a speed of 14 knots, about twice the speed of the Chinese ships. The Chen Yuen quickly fired at the Japanese column and the rest of the Chinese fleet joined the fight. The cruiser Matsushima took a hit from a 12-inch shell in the opening gunfire. Fortunately, it was one of many shells manufactured at Tientsin that had been filled with cement, not high explosives.

The Chinese fleet held its indented line formation during the opening engagement and maintained intervals fairly well, steaming at about 6 knots. The sudden departure of the torpedo cruiser Tsi Yuen and the corvette Kwan Chia opened an unexpected chance for the Japanese to break through the right flank and attack the Chinese from the rear. Vice Admiral Ito signaled the cruisers Yoshino and Akitsushima through the gap with three torpedo boats to provide support.

The cruisers of Admiral Tsuboi's Flying Squadron made the turn around the right flank of the disintegrating Chinese battle line at a range of about 3,000 yards and opened fire with full broadsides. Vice Admiral Ito's Main Squadron made the turn at closer range and unleashed a heavy cross-fire into the extreme right wing. The aging cruisers Chao Yung and Yang Wei, still out of station on the extreme right, took the brunt of the attack.

The fore and aft 10-inch gun mounts on both ships were connected by two passageways that ran between the ship's two superstructures. The highly varnished and oiled wood partitions and bulkheads along the passageways caught fire early in the fighting and the induced draft turned them into alleys of roaring flame. The deadly fires made the upper decks untenable and the overhead machine guns useless. Worse, fires cut off the fore and aft 10-inch guns from each other and their powder magazines. Within minutes, the Japanese mortally wounded two of Admiral Ting's cruisers and set them burning from stem to stern. In the growing confusion, both ships headed for the nearest land and ran aground, where they were reduced to burning hulks.

A sense of panic broke out among the Chinese fleet. Aboard the flagship Ting Yuen, Captain Liu Buchan suddenly ordered a change of formation, placing his ship and the battleship Chen Yuen at the rear of an inverted wedge. The Chen Yuen had already taken several hits above and below the waterline and its 12-inch guns were out of action. She continued the fight to some effect using only her smaller guns. Captain Philo Norton McGiffin, the American advisor aboard, had already taken command of the ship from Captain Lin Taizeng, who deserted the battleship's bridge in a panic during the opening engagement.

Four torpedo boats emerged from the mouth of the Yalu River to join the battle. The Ping Yuen, Kwang Ping and Tso Yih, trailed by the Foo Lung under the command of Captain Choy, set course for the Japanese fleet some five or six miles away. Just after 2:00 p.m., the American-educated Captain Choy turned with the Ping Yuen and set out for the Japanese ships between them and the Chinese fleet. At about 1,000 meters, the Ping Yuen and Kwang Ping opened fire.

Through the smoke and haze of battle, the two torpedo boats spotted the armed merchantman Saikio Maru cutting across their bows towards the armed sloop Yang Wei, which was aground and burning west southwest of Ta Lu Tau island. Chinese cruisers fired at the transport from long range and hit her with at least four 10-inch shells. At closer range, the torpedo boat Ping Yuen and the armed sloop Kwang Ping fired at the Saikio Maru with their Hotchkiss guns and Gatling guns.

The flagship Matsushima signaled the Flying Squadron to maneuver to assist the Akagi and Saikio Maru. With ships heeling about, Captain Tang Shi Chang turned the Ching Yuen boldly, if somewhat foolhardily, into the Flying Squadron's line, in what appeared to be an attack on the two wounded ships. The Chinese cruiser took a hard hit below the waterline and began to list heavily as it took on water.

Captain Tang, in a final act of avenging himself, decided to inflict some damage on the enemy while he still could. Calling out for full speed, which wasn't much, Captain Tang picked his target and set course to ram it. Unfortunately, he picked the 23-knot cruiser Yoshino, the fastest ship in Admiral Tsuboi's Flying Squadron. The Yoshino easily avoided the limping heavy cruiser and opened fire on her with all guns at close range. Ships of the Flying Squadron rapidly trained their guns on the badly damaged Ching Yuen and raked her from stem to stern with heavy shells and machine gun fire. Just before Captain Tang's dying vessel reached his intended victim, the cruiser rolled over and plunged bow first beneath the waves. Seven of the crew clung to a circular life buoy and rode with the tide toward the Korean coast, where they were later rescued by a junk.

Survivors recounted the story of Captain Tang Shi Chang's fate that day. The captain owned a large dog with a well-deserved and vicious temper. After the Ching Yuen went down, Captain Tang, who could not swim, managed to grab a piece of floating wood. It would've been sufficient to support him if it weren't for the fact his dog swam up to the captain and, after climbing over him to get on the wood, forced him to let go. Captain Tang drowned, followed soon after by his ill-tempered dog. It was a rare instance of a man being drowned by his own dog.

Vice Admiral Ito's Main Squadron continued to circle the Chinese a range of between about 1,000 and 2,800 meters. At about 3:00 p.m., the flagship Matsushima closed on the battleship Chen Yuen. At a range of about 1700 meters, Chinese gunners opened fire and hit the Japanese cruiser's 13-inch Canet gun mount with a steel shell from a 12-inch gun and detonated several powder charges stacked on the deck. The resulting blast instantly killed forty-nine officers and men and wounded some fifty others. Soon after the Matsushima was hit, the Japanese Main Squadron turned southeast, followed by the two Chinese battleships. After steaming about two or three miles, the Main Squadron turned again, circled the two battleships and unleashed the most destructive barrage of the day for nearly thirty minutes.

By this time, the gunboat Akagi, which courageously attacked the Chinese from very close range, was in serious trouble. The ship steered wildly about, its mainmast gone, its captain and a large number of the crew dead and its guns disabled. Captain Choy steered the Foo Lung directly for the Saikio Maru, which was still returning gunfire, and launched a torpedo from just over 100 meters range. The torpedo missed its mark to the right as the transport turned hard to avoid being hit. A second torpedo, also fired at close range, missed. Harassed by Captain Choy and the other torpedo boats, the Saikio Maru finally changed course away from the Yang Wei. It was now between 3:30 and 4:00 P.M.

Meanwhile, Vice Admiral Ito's flagship Matsushima led the Main Squadron around Admiral Ting's right wing. As they steamed an opposite course behind the Chinese position, they shelled Admiral Ting's remaining six capital ships from the rear without mercy. As the Japanese fleet made the flanking turn, the burning Japanese cruiser Hiei, trailing the Main Squadron, crossed the Ting Yuen's bow, having just been fired upon by the heavy cruiser Ching Yuen. The older, slower Hiei could not maintain its trail position.

The Hiei's captain, presumably doubting the ship's ability to withstand a shelling from two Chinese battleships and the heavy cruisers Ching Yuen and Lai Yuen, boldly ordered his ship into a hard right turn. As he furiously steamed between the Ting Yuen and Chen Yuen, Chinese gunners opened fire on the Hiei at point-blank range. It was virtually impossible to miss her, and they didn't. Fortunately, the years of corruption and shortsightedness at the Tientsin Arsenal provided some relief, since many of the shells that bored holes through the cruiser's hull and superstructure never exploded.

The Hiei's sudden maneuver broke the Chinese fleet formation. Only the Ting Yuen and Chen Yuen held their relative positions as the Japanese caught the fleet in a murderous cross fire. The Chen Yuen bravely provided covering fire for Admiral Ting's flagship as Vice Admiral Ito's Main Squadron concentrated fire on the two large ironclads and set off numerous fires aboard both ships.

The Chinese fleet disintegrated in complete chaos. Ships steamed in random directions, either trying to get into position to return fire or flee the fight. The Chinese ships began to bunch up, masking each other's line of fire. The dense funnel smoke and the smoke from hundreds of naval guns blanketed the area and made it difficult to see the action. In the ensuing melee, the heavy cruiser Ching Yuen passed behind the battleship Chen Yuen and joined up with the heavy cruiser Lai Yuen and the surviving ships on the Chinese right flank. Crewmen aboard the heavy cruiser tried to control fiercely burning fires along the quarterdeck and aft. Far below decks in the darkened engine room, Chinese engineers stayed on duty for hours controlling fires in heat that reached nearly 200°. Despite suffering horrible burns and disfiguring injuries, not one deserted his post.

The Ting Yuen and Chen Yuen, now critically low on ammunition, fired their last shots at about 5:30 p.m. as Vice Admiral Ito disengaged and withdrew his ships from the area. Had they remained for just another fifteen to thirty minutes, the Chinese would have been out of ammunition and completely defenseless.

The two Chinese ironclads turned back and set out to recover the surviving ships of the Beiyang Fleet, each of which had been badly damaged by the Flying Squadron. After providing covering fire for the Saikio Maru, Hiei, and Akagi, the Flying Squadron turned against the armored cruiser King Yuen, which had been ablaze for most of the afternoon. The Yoshino engaged the King Yuen at less than 2,000 meters and inflicted tremendous damage from her three 6-inch quick-firing guns. With shells tearing up the upper structure, the battleship veered wildly, capsized and sank.

The nearly five-hour-long sea battle left Admiral Ting Ju-Chang in serious trouble. The Japanese sank five of his warships and severely damaged three more, killing about 850 Chinese sailors and wounding another 500. The Ting Yuen suffered the worst casualties;  14 dead and 25 wounded.

With the sun setting below the western horizon, Admiral Ito signaled the Flying Squadron to join up with his ships and withdraw from the fight. At the time they pulled away, most of the Chinese ships were extremely low on ammunition, if not out of it altogether. The battleship Chen Yuen had only twenty rounds of 10-inch ammunition left and no ammunition for its smaller guns. The battleships Ting Yuen and Chen Yuen, the armored cruiser Lai Yuen, still desperately battling fires that threatened to devour her, the light cruiser Ching Yuen, the armed sloop Kwang Ping, and the torpedo boat Ping Yuen regrouped and set course for the naval base at Port Arthur.

Admiral Ting found himself trapped between Ito's Main Squadron to his east and Tsuboi's Flying Squadron to the northwest. As darkness cloaked the battlefield, flames from the burning cruiser Chao Yung reflected across the calm, empty moonlit sea. Vice Admiral Ito's Main Squadron kept watch over the departing Chinese ships until after dark, but made no effort to reengage. Instead, Admiral Ito decided to disengage and wait until dawn to finish off the Chinese.

Both sides fought the Battle of the Yalu River to a standstill and sailors on both sides fought bravely and with all they had to give. The Japanese had better ships, better and larger supplies of ammunition and better officers. Evenly matched at the outset of the fight, the torpedo cruiser Tsi Yuen and the corvette Kwan Chia fled almost immediately without firing a shot, and the aging cruisers Chao Yung and Yang Wei went up in flames before they had time to do much of anything.

The Japanese did not get through the Battle of the Yalu totally unscathed. Japanese losses were put at 294 killed and wounded, with 107 of the deaths occurring aboard Vice Admiral Ito's flagship, the Matsushima, which had been hit with two Chinese 12-inch shells and one 10.2-inch shell. Remarkably, the cruiser Chiyoda, sailing directly behind the Matsushima, was untouched. The severely damaged cruiser Hiei retired from the fight early. The gunboat Akagi suffered heavy damage and heavy casualties. The merchantman Saikio Maru, urged on by Admiral Kabayama, steamed virtually out of control. The rest of the fleet sustained no more than cosmetic damage.

The Japanese repaired the damage as best they could at sea, putting painted canvas over gaping holes and avoiding the prying eyes of foreign observers. The Chinese however, made no attempt to hide their wounds. With the exception of the wrecked torpedo cruiser Tsi Yuen, which lay in the western basin, all of the ships being repaired at Port Arthur were made available for visitors to examine.

On the morning of September 18, Japanese ships steamed near the mouth of the Yalu to reconnoiter the field of battle. While there, one of the ships fired a torpedo at the stranded, fire-gutted wreck of the cruiser Yang Wei. No effort was made to go after the Chinese troop transports and four gunboats that had remained up river during the battle. Some five days later, these ships arrived safely back in port at Taku and Port Arthur.

Interested foreign observers, especially the Europeans, gave the victory to China, because the Japanese failed to achieve the primary goal of the attack;  to stop the landing of Chinese troops and equipment. The British and Germans, who built many of the ships and guns involved, were particularly interested in the outcome. The Battle of the Yalu River represented the first major engagement between ironclads using large-bore breech-loading guns and a proving ground for European naval architecture and ordnance design.

Admiral Ting reached Port Arthur with his most important ships still intact, thereby preserving at least the core of a fleet. This meant the Japanese could never relax their vigilance in the area. It also meant the next objective for Japanese Army planners was the destruction of China's naval bases and the destruction of its main fleet. Nevertheless, the Battle of the Yalu River left such an impression on the Chinese they never again dared to face the Japanese on the open sea. In that sense, the Japanese could rightfully claim a victory. After dominating the Chinese navy and taking control of the Yellow Sea, the Japanese came to view a land victory in Korea as a certainty.

Japanese successes against the Chinese in Korea received scant attention from the rest of the world, but their startling success at the Battle of the Yalu River immediately focused the attention of the world on the island empire. The exploits of Admiral Ito's battleships and cruisers, then among the most modern scientific machines ever built by man, became a matter of great interest among the Western powers. That interest was intensified by the realization that not only were these two nations equipped with such modern weapons, but that one of them obviously understood how to use them effectively. The Battle of the Yalu River also showed the Japanese for the first time the possibilities for their own place in the world. As a recruiting tool, it sparked a strong and ambitious drive in many young Japanese men to serve in the navy.