On Second Thought: Qing-era warship contains a vital lesson for today's military tensions

The port in Dandong in Liaoning province is the busiest in northeast China. Two years ago, while dredging to expand the port, the wreck of an old warship was found. The ship was then code-named "Dandong No 1" and preserved for subsequent excavation and study.

Last week, historians from the mainland confirmed that the relics salvaged from the wreck were of the Zhiyuan, an armoured cruiser built by Armstrong Whitworth, a prominent British naval manufacturing company, some 130 years ago. The Zhiyuan was part of the Beiyang, or "northern seas", fleet of the Qing dynasty. At the time, it was Asia's largest armoured fleet by tonnage. However, during the Sino-Japanese war of 1894-95, almost the entire Beiyang fleet was lost - either sunk in battle or scuttled to avoid capture.

The warship Zhiyuan owed its fame to the courage of its captain, Deng Shichang, a Cantonese naval officer who received a Western education in Shanghai. Towards the end of a fierce naval battle off the Yalu River in which the Beiyang fleet was trapped by the Japanese, the Zhiyuan ran out of ammunition.

Deng steered the Zhiyuan towards the Imperial Japanese Navy's flagship, the Yoshino, and tried to ram it. The attempt failed as the cruiser was torpedoed and sank. Deng, refusing rescue, went down with the ship, as did most of the crew.