The Minquan class was a class of gunboats originally built for the Republic of China Navy. The class of ships consisted a pair of semi-sister ships and served in the Second Sino-Japanese War and the Chinese Civil War.
The inauguration of Chiang Kai-shek as Chairman of the National Government of China on 10 October 1927 in Nanjing brought about a new era of centralization not seen in China since the Qing Dynasty. This also finally allowed the government to finally reinvest in China's derelict and poorly maintained navy, that had seen decades of infighting and mutinies throughout the previous Warlord Era. After a contract for new gunboats from Mitsubishi in Japan was turned down, on the grounds of the China Arms Embargo Agreement of 1919, the Kuomintang government turned to the domestic Jiangnan Shipyard. The Jiangnan Shipyard had recently successfully completed an order of six river gunboats for the United States Navy and an order, for a 418-ton gunboat based on the previously built American designs was placed with the Shanghai based shipyard.[1] [2] Over the next several years, a steady order of five new gunboats was placed with Jiangnan, as well as many additional navy orders for modifications and refurbishment. The third and fifth of this series of ships were two semi-sister ships called the and the .[3] These ships were named after two of the Three Principles of the People of Dr. Sun Yat-Sen, the father of the Republic.
The two ships Minquan and Minsheng were based on the 1920s American Yangtze Patrol gunboat designs by Superintending Engineer Robert Buchanan Mauchan of Jiangnan Shipyards. These ships were built by Jiangnan from 1913 to 1928.[4] The new series of Chinese gunboats were designed by the succeeding Superintending engineer. Yi Zaifu (叶在馥), who had helped work on the original US Navy designs and expanded on them.[5] The two ships of the Minquan class were shallow draught gunboats with sea-going capabilities but expressly built for riverine service and designed to be capable of sailing up the Upper Yangtze River, all the way to Chongqing. The first ship of the class, Minquan was laid down 16 January 1929, in the same month as the completion of the gunboat Xianning and the launching of the gunboat Yongsui. Of intermediate size and displacement of the two other gunboats, Minquan had a full displacement of 6000NaN0, an overall length of 59.9m (196.5feet) and notably a draught of only 1.8m (05.9feet). The ship was powered by two vertical triple expansion engines, pushing two propellers at 2600-2NaN-2 with two cylindrical boilers that were coal fired rather than oil fired like the American gunboats. Minquan was able to reach 17.5kn and carried 2800NaN0 of coal. She was planned to be completed in only eleven months and construction went swiftly, with a launching by 21 September 1929 and completion on New Years Day, 1930.[6] The second ship of the class was Minsheng which was laid down in January 1931, a year after Minquan was completed. Minsheng was built to a modified design of Minquan, with lessons learned from the construction of the light cruiser Yat Sen, which was built between the two ships in 1930, applied to the Minsheng and making her a semi-sister ship to Minquan rather than being an exact copy. These changes led to a small increase in displacement by 500NaN0 and increase in length by 4m (13feet). The draught was also increased slightly to 2m (07feet) which would still allow the Upper Yangtze up to Chongqing but not further to Yibin. The engine layout remained the same, but with an engine output of 3600-2NaN-2, increasing the overall top speed to 18.5kn.[7]
Armament was also another area of variation between the two semi-sister ships. Generally both ships had the same main and secondary armament, but tertiary and anti-aircraft armament were mounted, dismounted or swapped out often on ROCN ships in the 30s. The main armament of both ships consisted of a single bow mounted 120abbr=onNaNabbr=on/45 and a single 100abbr=onNaNabbr=on/45 mounted on the stern. Minquan and Minsheng at various times were also armed with a single high-angle 76abbr=onNaNabbr=on/40 mounted in front of the bridge, two or three 57abbr=onNaNabbr=on/40, six 7.92abbr=onNaNabbr=on machine guns and/or one 20abbr=onNaNabbr=on/65 anti-aircraft gun.[8] [9]
Both ships avoided much of the ongoing turmoil of the early 1930s, with neither ship reportedly being assigned to any of the ROCN's four squadrons in 1933.[10] By the time of the Marco Polo Bridge incident in 1937 Minsheng was located at Wuhan and Minquan at Chongqing. While Minquan guarded the temporary capital of the Republic after Battle of Nanking and avoiding the major battles of the war. Minsheng would see heavy fighting in Wuhan and would eventually be scuttled, raised by the Japanese and rebuilt as a repair ship, scuttled again in an accident, raised again, and then finally sunk again by 1944. Minquan would be captured by advancing People's Liberation Army forces.[11]
| Name | Builder | Laid | Launched | Completed | Notes | Fate |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Minquan (民權) | Jiangnan Shipyard | 16 January 1929 | 21 September 1929 | 1 January 1930 | Served out war at Chongqing. Captured by People's Liberation Army on 1 December 1949. | Renamed Xianning (咸宁) on 1 December 1949. 1950 renamed Chángjiāng (长江). 1978 converted to a museum ship. Scrapped July 1981. |
| Minsheng (民生) | Jiangnan Shipyard | January 1931 | 5 May 1931 | 12 November 1931 | Heavily damaged at Yuezhou on 10 October 1938 during the battle of Battle of Wuhan by Japanese aircraft. Scuttled 27 October 1938. | Salvaged and recommissioned as the repair ship Hitonose (飛渡瀬) in 1939. Sunk in collision with the hulk of at Shanghai on 21 December 1944. Salvaged again. Sunk shortly after by naval mines. |