advantage over the Northern Seas Fleet (Beiyang Fleet). During the following decade the Nanyang fleet gradually lost its primacy, as Li Hongzhang invested heavily in the Beiyang Fleet. By 1894, on the eve of the Sino-Japanese War, the Beiyang Fleet had a comfortable superiority over the Nanyang Fleet both in numbers of ships and quality. Nevertheless, the Nanyang fleet continued to acquire new ships after the Sino-French War, some of reasonable quality. The first of the new ships was the steel cruiser Baomin, completed at the Kiangnan Arsenal in 1885. The next additions were the composite cruisers Jingqing and Huantai, both products of the Foochow Navy Yard (1886 and 1887). Table 2: Additions to the Nanyang fleet, 1885–94 Ships of the Nanyang Fleet Notes References Arlington, L. C., Through the Dragon's Eyes (London, 1931) Duboc, E., Trente cinq mois de campagne en Chine, au Tonkin (Paris, 1899) Loir, M., L'escadre de l'amiral Courbet (Paris, 1886) Lung Chang [龍章], Yueh-nan yu Chung-fa chan-cheng [越南與中法戰爭, Vietnam and the Sino-French War] (Taipei, 1993) Rawlinson, J., China's Struggle for Naval Development, 1839–1895 (Harvard, 1967) Wright, R., The Chinese Steam Navy, 1862–1945 (London, 2001) Chinese fleets Military units and formations of the Qing dynasty Naval history of China Sino-French War