As of the evening of September 25, the underwater archaeological survey of the Jingyuan ship carried out in the waters of the Zhuang River in Dalian, Liaoning Province, has come to an end. On the afternoon of the same day, the archaeological team protected the name plate of the "Jingyuan" ship, and then backfilled the exposed hull parts and restored them to the original site.
In view of the cultural relics that have been salvaged from the long-distance ships, Wang Jihua, vice president of the Sino-Japanese War Museum, said in an interview with the surging news (www.thepaper.cn) that after the cultural relics come out of the water, they should be desalinated and other technical treatments immediately to facilitate future protection and preservation. "Since the ship was submerged in silt in a short time after being sunk upside down, the clothing of the sailors in the cabin should be better preserved."
Earlier, on September 21, the State Administration of Cultural Heritage confirmed the discovery of the wreckage of the Beiyang Fleet's "Jingyuan Ship" in the Sino-Japanese War in the waters of the ZhuangHe River in Dalian. This is also another major achievement in the underwater archaeology of the remains of the Sino-Japanese War in China after the "Zhiyuan Ship".
Museum: Lin Yongsheng's descendants have not yet been found
With the approval of the State Administration of Cultural Heritage, from July to September 2018, the Underwater Cultural Heritage Protection Center of the State Administration of Cultural Heritage, the Liaoning Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology, and the Dalian Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology jointly formed a team to carry out underwater archaeological investigation in the waters of the Dalian Zhuang River in Liaoning Province, and searched, discovered and confirmed the sinking ship of the Beiyang Marine Division in the Sino-Japanese Naval Battle - "Jingyuan Ship".
Wang Jihua, vice president of the Sino-Japanese War Museum, said in an interview with The Paper that a few years before the Sino-Japanese War, the Long-range Ship and four other ships came to China by sea from Britain and Germany, but there is not much information about its situation during its service in the Beiyang Navy.
According to the official website of the Underwater Cultural Heritage Protection Center of the State Administration of Cultural Heritage, the "Jingyuan Ship" was built by the German vulkan Shipyard, and at the end of 1887, as a wingman of the "Zhiyuan Ship", it was included in the Beiyang Marine Division. The famous generals Deng Shichang and Lin Yongsheng served as the pipe belt (captain) of the two ships. In September 1894, the Sino-Japanese Sino-Japanese Naval Battle broke out in the dadonggou area north of the Yellow Sea, and the Beiyang Marine Division was defeated, losing a total of four warships. Among them, the "Jingyuan Ship" was besieged by four Japanese ships, and the officers and men of the whole ship bravely engaged in battle without fear of a strong enemy until they finally sank. Only 16 people survived the ship, and Lin Yongsheng and more than 200 officers and men sacrificed their lives to martyrdom.
"The study of the character of Lin Yongsheng is now only based on the draft history of the Qing Dynasty, the historical materials of the Navy at the end of the Qing Dynasty, and some Japanese records of the naval battles of the Jingyuan warships." Wang Jihua said that after Lin Yongsheng was martyred, the Qing government gave him a very high name, second only to Deng Shichang. But for many years, it is a pity that Lin Yongsheng's descendants have not been found.
The Sino-Japanese War Museum (Courtyard) is a special management and protection institution for the Sino-Japanese War Memorial Site. It is understood that the museum (courtyard) is located in the former Beiyang Naval Admiralty Office on Liugong Island, Weihai, Shandong, and currently contains more than 1,000 historical photos, more than 200 cultural relics of the Beiyang Navy and the Sino-Japanese War, and more than 300 salvaged ship cultural relics.
Expert: The sailor costume in the cabin may be better preserved
Team leader Zhou Chunshui previously introduced in the surging news live broadcast "Salvage of The Shipwreck of the Distant Ship" that the underwater archaeological investigation of the Long-distance Ship is divided into two stages. On September 15, archaeologists found a wooden gold "Jingyuan" ship name plate hanging on the outer wall of the ship's side 5 meters below the seabed, thus confirming that the sunken ship was a Jingyuan ship; a wooden sign with the word "Jingyuan" in the clear book was found.
During the archaeological process, it was found that the front end of the hull of the far ship preserved the remains of bows, anchor chains, port plates and other remains, and a large number of scattered hull components were found on the periphery. Underwater archaeology has cleared out more than 500 specimens of various relics of iron, wood, copper, lead, glass, ceramics, leather and other materials, with a wide variety of types, including boilers, slant trusses, portholes, hatches, ironclad fort linings and other hull structures, Mauser rifle bullets, revolver bullets, 37 mm shells, 47 mm shells and other weapons and equipment, as well as filers, wrenches, spin handles and other shipboard tools.
How should these water artifacts be protected? Wang Jihua explained that after the cultural relics come out of the water, they should immediately soak it with distilled or pure water that does not contain chloride ions, and slowly remove the salt inside it. Since the ship was submerged in silt in a short time after sinking upside down, the sailors' costumes in the cabin should be well preserved.
"Although at this stage, China's protection technology for silk fabrics and wool materials has been very mature, but if further archaeological work is carried out later, how to better preserve the 'water clothing' is an inevitable problem." Wang Jihua said.
Wang Jihua analyzed the surging news and said that the Jingyuan ship was submerged in the form of an inverted buckle, and if the comprehensive archaeological investigation work continued, more cultural relics would be salvaged out of the water.