The list of seaplane carriers of China which includes all ships that have been used as seaplane carriers in the surface armed forces of various factions throughout Chinese history. The use of Chinese ships as seaplane carriers spans a period from 1923 to the final seaplane carrier in 1942.
The first ship to operate seaplanes in China was Chen Hai, a converted merchant ship of the Fengtian Navy. As a mainstay of the Fengtian Navy, it played a significant role in the Anti-Fengtian war in 1925. Later, under the leadership of Shen Honglie (沈鴻烈), an 8,000-ton German merchant ship was converted into the seaplane carrier Hwa Chia. Inspired by the Chen Hai, the Central Navy also converted two merchant ships ordered by Japanese merchants into seaplane carriers. After the outbreak of the full-scale War of Resistance against Japan, the Manchukuo naval forces, established with Japanese support, returning a destroyer gifted by Japan to a Japanese shipyard and converted it into the seaplane carrier Hai Wei. In addition, the transport ship Ding An was temporarily converted into a seaplane carrier during the 1930 campaign against the Fujian warlords. All these ships were either scuttled or sunk during the War of Resistance against Japan.
History In 1911, France began converting the minelayer by adding a hangar and crane between its third funnel and aft mast, eventually making it the world's first seaplane carrier. Later in 1913, the Japanese Navy began converting the captured British merchant ship HMS Lethington into the seaplane carrier . The conversion was completed in 1914, and this ship was then incorporated into the Japanese Second Fleet to participate in the battle of Qingdao, which was the world's first carrier-based air raid carried out by a naval vessel. The UK built several seaplane carriers before and after World War I, providing valuable experience for the development of aircraft carriers later.
In December 1916, the Beiyang government sent two naval officers, Chen Shaokuan and Zheng Liqing (鄭禮慶), to inspect the naval construction of various European countries. These two men boarded ships in Britain and personally witnessed the battlefield. During this period, Britain completed the conversion of HMS Hermes and then converted HMS Furious to make it the world's first true aircraft carrier with a flight deck. In July 1917, carrier-based aircraft launched from HMS Furious bombed German air bases, which left a deep impression on Chen Shaokuan. Chen Shaokuan returned to China in 1920. At this time, it was the period of warlordism and did not have the conditions to create a modern navy. In 1923, the Fengtian Navy under the warlord Zhang Zuolin purchased a merchant ship named Xiangli (祥利) from the Zhengji Shipping Company () in Yantai. Under the leadership of Shen Honglie, the ship was converted in July 1923 and carried the Schleck FBA 19 seaplane purchased from France in December 1924, becoming China's earliest seaplane carrier. In 1927, Shen Honglie converted the transport ship Hwa Chia () into a seaplane carrier. However, the ship was unusable due to excessive wear and tear and poor maintenance, and was transferred to Zhengji Shipping Company in 1929. Nisshin Kisen Kaisha, a Japanese shipping company, ordered two passenger ships on the Yangtze River from Jiangnan Shipyard in Shanghai, named Meitoku Maru () and Senjin Maru () respectively. Before the two ships were completed, they were purchased by Wu Peifu and delivered in Wuchang in early 1924. At this time, the two ships were equipped with two 75 mm army howitzers according to Wu Peifu's requirements and renamed Jue Chuan () and Jun Shu (). Among them, the Jue Chuan was designated as the flagship of the newly established Yangtze River Fleet. With the Chen Hai being active in battle, these two ships were also converted into the seaplane carriers Wei Sheng and De Sheng capable of carrying a seaplane.
Following Zhang Xueliang's "Northeast Flag Replacement" in 1928, Chiang Kai-shek achieved nominal national unification. At that time, Chen Shaokuan, then Commander of the Second Fleet, submitted a naval expansion plan to the Nationalist Government that included a proposal for the construction of aircraft carriers. However, his proposal was not taken seriously and was rejected at the National Disbandment and Reorganization Conference; Chen resigned in protest. To appease him, Chiang Kai-shek promised to build three aircraft carriers and appointed him Minister of the Navy. As Chiang's promise was merely an expedient measure to placate Chen—with no substantial funding actually allocated for naval development—plans for Chinese aircraft carriers never materialized prior to the outbreak of the full-scale War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression. During this period, following the Mukden Incident, Japan established a coastal police force in Northeast China under the command of Imperial Japanese Navy Reserve Captain Mitsutoshi Miyabe (); the force's Yingkou Coastal Police Unit was led by the Japanese national Mototsugu Wakaki (). In 1936, Miyabe was transferred to serve as the Director of the Police Bureau of Heilongjiang Province in Manchukuo; to balance tensions between the Japanese Army and Navy, Wakaki—a Navy Reserve Captain with pro-Army leanings—succeeded him as commander of the coastal police force. Upon taking command, Wakaki leveraged his connections in May 1937 to secure the decommissioned Imperial Japanese Navy second-class destroyer Kashi, transferring it to the Manchukuo coastal police force and renaming it Hwa Wei. In 1937, the coastal police force was officially designated the "Maritime Police Force". The Hwa Wei was converted into a seaplane tender in 1938, carrying a single seaplane. In 1942, Hwa Wei, the largest warship of Manchukuo, was reincorporated into the Imperial Japanese Navy.
Classification BuilderName of the ship's builderArmamentThe number and type of the primary armamentAircraftThe number of aircraft carried by the vesselDisplacementShip displacement at full combat loadPropulsionNumber of shafts, type of propulsion system, and top speed generatedCostCost of the ship's constructionServiceThe dates work began and finished on the ship and its ultimate fateThe date keel assembly was begunLaunchedThe date the ship was launchedCommissionedThe date the ship was commissionedFateNotes on what happened to the ship: sunk, scrapped, cancelled, sold or some other Classifications for the same vessel vary across different documents and publications; furthermore, the classification of a single ship based on its function changed over time. The Chen Hai was originally a German naval transport; after being acquired by the Northeastern Navy, it was first converted into a training ship and later modified into a seaplane tender. The Hwa Chia was originally a merchant vessel; upon incorporation into the Northeastern Navy, it initially served as a training ship or transport before being converted into a seaplane tender in 1927, although some sources also classify it as an "amphibious assault ship". The De Sheng and Wei Sheng were not originally warships; after being commissioned into the navy, they underwent shipyard modifications to become gunboats and were subsequently reclassified as seaplane tenders following further refitting. The Hua Wei was originally the Imperial Japanese Navy destroyer ; after being transferred to the Manchukuo Coast Guard, its torpedo tubes were removed to convert it into a coast guard vessel, and in 1938, it was further modified into an anti-submarine ship capable of carrying seaplanes—a role for which it is also categorized as a seaplane tender in some sources. The Ding An was originally a transport ship; it was only temporarily converted into a seaplane tender in 1930 for a campaign against Fujian warlords.
Chen Hai In August 1922, Zhang Zuolin established the Special Naval Police Department of the Northeast Security Command, which became the Fengtian Navy. Shen Honglie, who was appointed as the head of the department by Zhang Zuolin, prepared to purchase warships to build a coastal defense fleet. However, in May 1919, the United Kingdom and the United States, along with other military powers, announced a joint arms embargo against China in order to curb the expansion of influence of any single country on China. Therefore, Shen Honglie proposed to purchase old merchant ships to convert them into warships.
The Zhengji Shipping Company, established by Zhang Benzheng (張本政) in Yantai, expanded rapidly during World War I. While the business of this company declined after the war due to the global economic depression. In 1919, Zhang Zuolin lent Zhang Benzheng 300,000 Northeast Dollars to help the Yingkou Shipping Company he operated overcome difficulties, and later used the 300,000 Fengtian banknotes as an investment. From then until Zhang Zuolin's death, the Zhengji Shipping Company continued to distribute dividends to the Zhang family. In 1921, the Zhengji Shipping Company bought a merchant ship from the German Norddeutscher Lloyd for 145,000 taels and planned to put it on the transoceanic route. It was named Xiangli (祥利). The ship was originally named Manila and was completed on March 23, 1904, at the Bremen Rickmers shipyard in Germany. In 1923, the ship was purchased by the Northeast Naval Police and renamed Chen Hai as a training ship for the Huludao Naval Police School. In July of the same year, the ship underwent refitting, and the main deck between the forecastle, stern, and central building was converted into a seaplane platform. The refitting was completed on October 22.
For a long time afterward, the Zhenhai was the mainstay of the Fengtian Navy. In 1925, the ship and its wingman Wei Hai, joined the fight against the anti-Fengtian warlords. In November of the same year, the two ships launched surprise attacks on Wusongkou and Zhapu Port. As the joined the Northeast Coastal Defense Fleet, the Zhenhai gradually changed from a main combat warship to a dedicated seaplane operation ship. In 1927, the ship and the Haiqi sailed south to raid the heavily fortified Wusongkou of the National Revolutionary Army. After the Fujian Navy announced its support for the Northern Expeditionary Army, the Zhenhai was painted to resemble the merchant ship Dachang to deceive the enemy. After the Northeast Flag Replacement, the ship returned to the Huludao Naval Academy (formerly the Huludao Naval Police Academy) as a training ship. In June 1932, the Zhenhai, led by Zhang Yingqi, set sail from Qingdao with 50 teachers and students from the Naval Academy for a long-distance training voyage. During this period, the ship visited Taiwan, which was under Japanese occupation, becoming the first Chinese warship to visit Taiwan since the Qing government ceded Taiwan in the First Sino-Japanese War.
After the outbreak of the full-scale War of Resistance against Japan in 1937, Shen Honglie, then mayor of Qingdao, ordered the burning of all Japanese factories in the city on December 18 to implement a scorched earth strategy. On the same day, the Zhenhai was scuttled in the port of Qingdao.
ShipBuilderArmamentArmorDisplacementPropulsionCostServiceLaunchedCommissionedFateChen Hai () Bremen Shipyard2 × 3 FBA 31 reciprocating steam engine, , 230,000 silver rounds————October 22, 1923December 18, 1937, scuttled
Hwa Chia