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Sébastien Lespès
Sébastien-Nicolas-Joachim Lespès (13 March 1828 – 24 August 1897) was a French admiral who played an important role in naval operations during the Sino-French War (August 1884–April 1885), as second-in-command of Admiral Amédée Courbet's Far East Squadron. Early career Sébastien Lespès was born on 13 March 1828 at Bayonne ( Basses-Pyrénées). He attended the École Navale, passing out as a midshipman (''aspirant'') on 1 August 1846. In 1850, after serving successively on the warships ''Inflexible'', ''Friedland'', ''Océan'' and ''Psyché'' with the escadre d'évolution, he took part in the Senegal campaign aboard the brig ''Aigle''. He received his promotion to ''enseigne de vaisseau'' during the course of this campaign, on 26 October 1850. During the Crimean War (1854-6) he saw service aboard the warship ''Valmy'' in the Black Sea, and also distinguished himself ashore with the French naval batteries at the Siege of Sebastopol. He was promoted ''lieutenant de ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
France
France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pacific and Indian Oceans. Its Metropolitan France, metropolitan area extends from the Rhine to the Atlantic Ocean and from the Mediterranean Sea to the English Channel and the North Sea; overseas territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the North Atlantic, the French West Indies, and many islands in Oceania and the Indian Ocean. Due to its several coastal territories, France has the largest exclusive economic zone in the world. France borders Belgium, Luxembourg, Germany, Switzerland, Monaco, Italy, Andorra, and Spain in continental Europe, as well as the Kingdom of the Netherlands, Netherlands, Suriname, and Brazil in the Americas via its overseas territories in French Guiana and Saint Martin (island), ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Legion Of Honour
The National Order of the Legion of Honour (french: Ordre national de la Légion d'honneur), formerly the Royal Order of the Legion of Honour ('), is the highest French order of merit, both military and civil. Established in 1802 by Napoleon, Napoleon Bonaparte, it has been retained (with occasional slight alterations) by all later French governments and regimes. The order's motto is ' ("Honour and Fatherland"); its Seat (legal entity), seat is the Palais de la Légion d'Honneur next to the Musée d'Orsay, on the left bank of the Seine in Paris. The order is divided into five degrees of increasing distinction: ' (Knight), ' (Officer), ' (Commander (order), Commander), ' (Grand Officer) and ' (Grand Cross). History Consulate During the French Revolution, all of the French Order of chivalry, orders of chivalry were abolished and replaced with Weapons of Honour. It was the wish of Napoleon, Napoleon Bonaparte, the French Consulate, First Consul, to create a reward to commend c ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jules Ferry
Jules François Camille Ferry (; 5 April 183217 March 1893) was a French statesman and republican philosopher. He was one of the leaders of the Moderate Republicans and served as Prime Minister of France from 1880 to 1881 and 1883 to 1885. He was a promoter of laicism and colonial expansion. Under the Third Republic, Ferry made primary education free and compulsory through several new laws. However, he was forced to resign following the Sino-French War in 1885 due to his unpopularity and public opinion against the war. Biography Early life and family Ferry was born Saint-Dié, in the Vosges department, to Charles-Édouard Ferry, a lawyer from a family that had established itself in Saint-Dié as bellmakers, and Adélaïde Jamelet. His paternal grandfather, François-Joseph Ferry, was mayor of Saint-Dié through the Consulate and the First Empire. He studied law, and was called to the bar at Paris in 1854, but soon went into politics, contributing to various newspapers, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
George Leslie Mackay
George Leslie Mackay 偕瑞理 or 馬偕 ''Má-kai'' (21 March 1844 – 2 June 1901) was a Canadian Presbyterian missionary. He was the first Presbyterian missionary to northern Taiwan (then Formosa), serving with the Canadian Presbyterian Mission. Mackay is among the best known Westerners to have lived in Taiwan. Early life George Leslie Mackay was born on March 21, 1844, the youngest of six children to a pioneering Scottish family in Embro, Zorra Township, Oxford County, Canada West (now Ontario), Canada. His family was part of the Zorra Pioneers, refugees from the Sutherland Clearances in northern Scotland, who arrived in Zorra in 1830. The Zorra pioneers were Evangelical Presbyterians, for whom their church, led by lay elders, was the centre of their collective life. Growing up on oatmeal and the Scottish Catechism in this community, Mackay acquired many of the traits and skills that contributed to his success as a missionary in Taiwan. A fervent and rational evang ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pescadores Campaign (1885)
The Pescadores campaign which took place in late March, 1885, was one of the last campaigns of the Sino-French War (August 1884–April 1885). It was fought to capture the Pescadores, a strategically important archipelago off the western coast of Formosa (Taiwan). Admiral Amédée Courbet, with part of the French Far East Squadron, bombarded the Chinese coastal defences around the principal town of Makung (馬公) on Penghu Island (澎湖島) and landed a battalion of marine infantry which routed the Chinese defenders and occupied Makung. The Pescadores were occupied by the French until July 1885 and Admiral Courbet, by then a national hero in France, died aboard his flagship ''Bayard'' in Makung harbour during the occupation. Background The Pescadores Islands, also known from their Chinese name as P'eng-hu (澎湖), were an important transit stop for reinforcements to the Chinese army under the command of Liu Ming-ch'uan (劉銘傳) confronting the French in northern ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Battle Of Zhenhai
The Battle of Zhenhai () was a minor confrontation that took place on 1March 1885 between Admiral Amédée Courbet's Far East Squadron (''escadre de l’extrême-Orient'') and Chinese warships and shore batteries near the coastal city of Zhenhai, downstream from Ningbo, China during the Sino-French War (August 1884April 1885). French and Chinese sources disagree sharply as to what happened; French sources treat the encounter as a minor incident, while Chinese sources consider it a striking defensive victory. The Battle of Zhenhai is still commemorated in China as an important Chinese victory in the Sino-French War. Background In early February 1885 part of Admiral Courbet's Far East Squadron left Keelung to head off a threatened attempt by part of the Chinese Nanyang Fleet (Southern Seas fleet) to break the French blockade of Formosa (Taiwan). On 11February Courbet's task force met the cruisers ''Kaiji'' (開濟), ''Nanchen'' (南琛) and ''Nanrui'' (南瑞), three of the m ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Battle Of Shipu
The Battle of Shipu () was a French naval victory during the Sino-French War (August 1884–April 1885). The battle took place on the night of 14 February 1885 in Shipu Bay (石浦灣), near Ningbo, China. Background The battle arose from an attempt by part of the Chinese Nanyang Fleet (Southern Seas fleet) to relieve the French blockade of Formosa (Taiwan). On 18 January 1885 the Chinese cruisers '' Nanchen'' (南琛), ''Nanrui'' (南瑞) and ''Kaiji'' (開濟) left Shanghai, accompanied by the frigate '' Yuyuan'' (馭遠) and the composite sloop ''Chengqing'' (澄慶), and sailed towards Formosa. The Chinese flotilla was under the command of Admiral Wu Ankang (吳安康). The Nanyang ships were originally to have been accompanied by '' Chaoyong'' (超勇) and '' Yangwei'' (揚威), two relatively modern cruisers from the Beiyang Fleet, under the command of the German 'guest-admiral' Siebelin, but Li Hongzhang diverted these two Beiyang ships to Korean waters. (Tension b ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Nanyang Fleet
The Nanyang Fleet () was one of the four modernised Chinese naval fleets in the late Qing Dynasty. Established in the 1870s, the fleet suffered losses in the Sino-French War, escaped intact in the Sino-Japanese War, and was formally abolished in 1909. Composition, 1884 Before 1885 the Southern Seas (Nanyang) Fleet, based at Shanghai, was the largest of China's four regional fleets. In the early 1880s its best ships were the modern composite cruiser ''Kaiji'', completed in 1884 at the Foochow Navy Yard, the composite sloops ''Kangji'' and ''Chengching'', also recent products of the Foochow Navy Yard (1878 and 1880), and the 2,630-ton wooden steam frigate ''Yuyuan'', built at the Kiangnan Arsenal in 1873. The fleet was originally to have had the four steel Rendel gunboats ''Zhendong'', ''Zhenxi'', ''Zhennan'' and ''Zhenbei'', completed in 1879, but Li Hongzhang was so impressed by them that he took them over for the Beiyang Fleet, compensating the Nanyang Fleet with ''Longxiang'', ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Battle Of Fuzhou
The Battle of Fuzhou, or Battle of Foochow, also known as the Battle of the Pagoda Anchorage (French: Combat naval de Fou-Tchéou, Chinese: , 馬江之役 or 馬尾海戰, literally Battle of Mawei), was the opening engagement of the 16-month Sino-French War (December 1883 – April 1885). The battle was fought on 23 August 1884 off the Pagoda Anchorage in Mawei () harbour, to the southeast of the city of Fuzhou (Foochow). During the battle Admiral Amédée Courbet's Far East Squadron virtually destroyed the Fujian Fleet, one of China's four regional fleets. Background On 11 May 1884 French and Chinese negotiators concluded the Tientsin Accord, an agreement designed to end several months of undeclared hostilities between France and China in Tonkin. On 23 June 1884, French troops advancing to occupy Lạng Sơn, in accordance with the terms of this agreement, clashed near the small town of Bắc Lệ with a detachment of the Chinese Guangxi Army. The Chinese opened fire on the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Conseil Des Travaux
The (Board of Construction) was formed in 1831 in the Ministry of the Navy to examine projects relating to warship construction and dockyard infrastructure. It was composed of at least 18 members throughout its existence and included senior representatives from the corps of engineers, artillery branch, and inspectors of hydraulic works.Jordan & Caresse, p. 20 Among its tasks was evaluating projects, plans and cost estimates for warships, preparing the instructions for building new ships, preparing the documentation for competitive proposals and tenders and evaluating new inventions submitted to the ministry. More specifically, the council considered the staff requirements submitted by the (Superior Naval Council) to the Minister and submitted its comments to him. He would then request design studies from the (Director of Equipment), who might invite competitive submissions, which would then be evaluated by the council. Approved designs would be returned to the Minister for his c ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
