battleships and armoured cruisers in close action against well-constructed
and powerfully armed shore defences.

It was not till the summer of 1894 that at last there was another pitched
battle between fleets that included a large proportion of armoured vessels.
That action off the mouth of the Yalu River will be always remembered as
the event that heralded the coming of a new naval power.

A long rivalry between China and Japan for the control of Korea had
resulted in an outbreak of war between the two empires of the Far East. For
an island state like Japan the command of the sea was a necessary condition
for successful operations on the mainland of Asia, and for some years she
had been building up a powerful fleet, the ships being constructed in
foreign yards, as the Japanese yards were not yet in a position to turn out
large warships.

In the memory of living men the Japanese fleets had been made up of
primitive-looking war-junks. After failures to build ships in Japan on the
European model, the Government had in the middle of the nineteenth century
purchased some small steamships abroad, but it was not till 1876 that the
first Japanese armour-clad, the "Fuso," was constructed in England from
designs by the late Sir Edward Reed. Naval progress was at first very slow,
but solid foundations were laid. Young naval officers were attached to the
British and other navies for professional training, and on their return to
Japan became the educators of their fellow-countrymen in naval matters. A
serious obstacle to the acquisition of a numerous and powerful fleet was
the financial question. Japan is not a rich country. At first, therefore,
the Japanese did not venture to order battleships, but contented
themselves with protected cruisers. They thought that these would be
sufficient for the impending conflict with China, which possessed only a
fleet of weak, protected cruisers of various types and a couple of small
coast defence ironclads, that might be counted as inferior battleships.

When war broke out between China and Japan in 1894, the fleet of the latter
consisted of older ships of miscellaneous types, and a number of new
protected cruisers, some of them armed with quick-firing guns, a type of
weapon only lately introduced into the world's navies. Of these modern
cruisers most had been built and armed in French yards, but the best and
swiftest ship was a fine cruiser delivered not long before from Armstrong's
yard at