BEIJING, April 8 (Xinhua) -- High definition scanned copies of design papers for the cruiser Zhiyuan are now a collection in the Chinese People's Revolutionary Military Museum.
Zhiyuan, also known as Chih Yuen, is one of China's most heroic military vessels. Its design papers were discovered by Xinhua journalists at the Tyne & Wear Archives in Newcastle, Britain.
Following the discovery, the museum, through rounds of communication with the archives, was finally able to acquire the scanned copies.
Newcastle, located in northeast England, was once the world's leading shipbuilding locations where the cruiser Zhiyuan was built in 1887.
The cruiser was one of the advanced warships of the Beiyang Fleet.
During the Sino-Japanese war, commonly known in China as the Jiawu War in 1894, Rear Admiral and Zhiyuan's Captain, Deng Shichang, commanded the protected cruiser to ram a nearby Japanese cruiser while his ship was under siege. All but seven of the 252 crew members on board died after the ship was destroyed by an enemy shell and sank, according to Chinese records.
