Deng Shichang

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Deng Shichang（October 4，1849-September 17，1894）was a navy officer in the late Qing dynasty of China and was honored as“National Hero”.

Biography

Deng was a native of what is now part of Panyu District in Guangdong Province，China.He was one of the first generation of modern naval officers trained in China，having entered the Fujian Naval Academy in Mawei in 1867 where the French military advisor Prosper Giquel had supervised the Foochow Arsenal and where he caught the attention of Shen Baozhen by graduating with honors in 1874.Deng was sent to the Pescadores and to Keelung in Taiwan to reinforce the defenses of those areas after the Taiwan Expedition of 1874 by Japan.

He gradually rose through the ranks，transferred to the Beiyang Fleet in 1880

and was assigned command of the cruiser Zhiyuen in 1887.

During the First Sino-Japanese War，in the Battle of the Yalu River on 17

September 1894，he moved aggressively against the Japanese command vessel Saikyo Maru，inflicting considerable damage on it.

However，the Japanese cruisers circled Zhiyuan，which was hard for the poorly-

trained Chinese gunners to resist by their obsolete cannon.Fierce firefight causeda massive explosion，after which Zhiyuan rapidly sank.Some 245 officers and crewmen went down with the ship，including Deng.

The Qing government eulogized Deng after the battle，grantinghim a posthumous peerage title and giving large grants of gold and silver to his mother and widow.

In 1996，the People’s Liberation Army Navy named a naval training ship as Shichang in remembrance of him.His birthplace has also been preserved as a memorial museum.