Chinese cruiser Hai Tien

Hai Tien was the second ship of the Hai Chi class of protected cruisers and one of the last warships built for the Manchu Qing dynasty. The envoy Li Hongzhang ordered her and her sister Hai Chi from Armstrong Whitworth of Newcastle upon Tyne in October 1896, after his tour of European dockyards, on an improved version of the Buenos Aires design that the firm had built for Argentina, adapted to Chinese dimensions. She was laid down on 16 February 1897 and launched on 25 November 1897, and although she was begun later than her sister she was finished a month sooner. A contract crew brought both ships to China, where they were handed to the Beiyang Fleet in August 1899. Her career was short and quiet. After the Boxer Rebellion began she was sent south with the remaining Beiyang ships to Shanghai and Jiangyin, and on 25 April 1904 she overshot the mouth of the Yangtze in fog and struck a rock off the Shengsi Islands. The crew was rescued but the ship could not be salvaged, and only her guns were recovered.