> Armament Sources are diverging a bit about the precise caliber of the various guns carried by the cruiser. Conway's is less precise with 5.9 in guns (150 mm) and 5-in guns (127 mm), two 3-pdr, while Navypedia is clearer by giving the calibers in millimetres: 149 mm or since its a German gun, 14.9 cm/32 RK L/35 C/80. This meant these main Krupp guns were 32 calibers long, rifled, and rear-loaded. The two guns, called 15 cm Schnelladekanone Länge 35 were brand new in 1883 as the arsenal just proposed them for export. These became very popular guns, rivalling Vickers products worldwide. In addition to China, which purchased many of these for their ships, fortresses, and land troops, the gun was also used by Austria-Hungary, Denmark, Japan, The Netherlands, The Ottoman Empire, Romania, and Spain.

Widespread among Chinese cruisers, these guns had separate loading cased charge and projectile, firing a 45.6 kg (101 lb) projectile of a 149.1 mm (5.87 in) 35 caliber. The 5.8 tonnes loading system was a horizontal sliding breech block. The gun elevation was -7° to +20° and the rate of fire was about 4-5 rpm for a well-trained crew. Muzzle velocity was 650 m/s (2,100 ft/s) with a maximum firing range of 10 km (6.2 mi) at +19°. One was placed as said above in the bow port. The gun was on rails and tracked forward to fire. Foward of it, the port was closed when not in use. The opening allowed some limited traverse, about 60-70° only. Certainly less than in a standard deck position. As said also, it could only perform well in calm weather. Splash would have obscured it completely.


A Royal Navy Hotchkiss QF 3-pdr (47 mm)

The secondary armament comprised six Krupp (presumably) 12cm/32 RK L/35 C/80 guns, all placed in side ports on the main deck. Their traverse was also limited. The first pair was just abreast the foremast, the second behind the funnel, and the third between the main and mizzen masts. In addition, the ship was equipped to deal with early torpedo boats and other close threats with two French Hotchkiss '3-pdr' also 47mm/40 Hotchkiss guns. The latter were unprotected but it is difficult to locate them on the ship, most probably in a high position, possibly on either side of the main bridge. Note: Another reference gives the cruiser a top speed of 16 knots, two 200-lb and six 70-lb guns.

Propulsion
Information is scarce about it. There was a steam reciprocating engine, driving one shaft and single propeller, rated for 1900 ihp. Navypedia is diverging completely, stating there were two HC engines instead, fed by 6 cylindrical boilers. It is perhaps related to a hypothetical refit or an error from one source. Both agree about the ratings, 1,900 ihp. Whatever the case, the ship's top speed was noted as nine knots also. This could seem laughable for a cruiser, especially today, but that that time the ship was considered as a glorified gunboat. Conway's itself classifies the Pao Min, not along with the cruisers, but with the gunboats and sloops which is telling. Sources agree that the cruiser carried 300-360 tons of coal. The range was estimated to be 3360 nautical miles at 10 knots. The complement was 200 men.

Active service of the Pao Min: 1884-1903

The Chinese cruiser was completed in October 1884, too late to be thrown into the furnace of the Sino-French war. She was part of the Nanyang Fleet (南洋水師), one of the four modernised provincial Chinese navies in the late Qing Dynasty (1870s). This fleet was crippled during the Sino-French War. Later the remainder escaped intact in the Sino-Japanese War, but the Pao Min did not survive long enough to see the fleet formally abolished in 1909. When the Pao Min entered service, the star of the fleet and the only ship really feared by the French was the semi-experimental tiny ironclad called Jinou, made at Foochow.

Admiral Li Chengmou (李成謀), a veteran of the Fujian fleet and traditional Yangtze water forces commanded the fleet. He decided to stay safely in Shanghai and Nanking in August 1884. They were closely watched at a distance from July 1884 by the French ironclad Triomphante, which maintained de facto a "blockade". Pao Min was still fitting-out in Shanghai during the war. French Admiral Amédée Courbet asked to lead an attack, which was denied by PM Jules Ferry. The French ironclad, therefore, departed with the cruiser d'Estaing for the Min River, concentrating the squadron for an attack against the Fujian Fleet and Foochow Navy Yard. The "blockade" was maintained by the cruiser Perceval which replaced both ships in-station.

Courbet's attack on the Fujian Fleet on 23 August 1884 (Battle of Fuzhou) was the starting point of the war. Therefore Admiral Li Chengmou decided to split the fleet to protect both Shanghai and the arsenal and Nanking. Staying in Shanghai were the Longxiang, Feiting, Cedian, and, Huwei. The cruisers Nanrui and Nanchen, and other ships including the Pao Min sailed out for Nanking. French cruiser Perceval did not oppose them and departed in turn. In February 1885, trying to break the French blockade of Formosa the Chinese squadron suffered defeat in the Battle of Shipu while Kaiji, Nanrui, Nanchen, Chaowu, Yuankai were trapped and blockaded in Zhenhai Bay until the end of the war. Pao Min was delivered as the war ended.

Operational records are not known directly, and she is only mentioned a few times though her known fate is becoming a hulk in 1903. Afterward she could have survived many more years in this state, one source giving 1920 as her scrapping date. Entering service shortly after the war ended, she somewhat compensated in the declining Nanyang fleet for the losses of the Yuyuan and Chengqing soon joined by the Foochow built composite cruisers Jingqing and Huantai in 1886-87.

During the interwar years (before 1894) she did not see much action and the Paomin, now a third-rank cruiser was assigned to the Chinese Nanyang gunboat fleet. The Beiyang Fleet was rebuilt at the end of the 1890s with five brand new steel cruisers made in British & German shipyards. These were second rank protected cruisers but nevertheless, this placed China on the level of the Chilean Navy, certainly at that time the elite naval power of South America.


Nanyang fleet's Frigate Dengyingzhou in construction

In 1894 during the first Sino-Japanese war, the Pao Min is absent from the Battle of Pungdo in July as only the Chinese cruiser Tsi-yuan and gunboat Kwang-yi are mentioned, plus the transport Kow-shing. During the Battle of the Yalu River (1894), Paomin was not involved as this affair concerned the Beiyang fleet. Records after the battle are not known either and the ship is supposed to have been scrapped in 1910, but probably existed as a hull in WW1. All in all, the Pao Min is just anecdotical in the Chinese naval history, missing two wars, but she was important nevertheless as one of the first domestically-built Chinese cruisers, in what is now probably the largest PLAN shipyard and arsenal.

Specifications

Specifications*
Dimensions	64.92 m x 10.97 m x 4.27 m draft (213 x 36 x 14 ft).
Displacement	1,480 tonnes standard -approx. 1,590 tonnes Fully Loaded
Crew	200
Propulsion	1 shaft reciprocating, 2 boilers, 1900 ihp.
Speed	Top speed 9 knots, 3000? nm range, about 300 tons coal.
Armament	2 x 249 mm (5.9 in), 6 x 120 mm (5 in), 2 x 47 mm QF (3 pdr).
Armor	None.

Src/Read More

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nanyang_Fleet
https://www.worldnavalships.com/chinese_navy.htm
http://oceania.pbworks.com/w/page/8450927/Chinese%20Cruisers
http://www.navypedia.org/ships/china/ch_cr_pao_min.htm
https://enacademic.com/dic.nsf/enwiki/5204442
https://www.quora.com/Why-did-China-have-no-fleet-after-the-Beiyang-fleet-s-destruction
http://docshare03.docshare.tips/files/26364/263644851.pdf
Google Books the Sino Japanese wars 1894-95
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Naval_ships_of_Qing_China
https://fr.scribd.com/document/263644851/Nanyang-Fleet
Arlington, L. C., Through the Dragon's Eyes (London, 1931)
Duboc, E., Trente cinq mois de campagne en Chine, au Tonkin (Paris, 1899)
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)
Wright, R., The Chinese Steam Navy, 1862–1945 (London, 2001)
https://wikivisually.com/wiki/Battle_of_Zhenhai
https://wikivisually.com/wiki/Battle_of_Shipu
https://wikivisually.com/wiki/Sino-French_War