 Courbet's squadron had been reinforced substantially since the start of the war, and he now had considerably more ships at his disposal than in October 1884.In early February 1885 part of his squadron left Keelung to head off a threatened attempt by part of the Chinese Southern Seas fleet to break the French blockade of Formosa.On 11February Courbet's task force met the cruisers "Kaiji", "Nanchen" and "Nanrui", three of the most modern ships in the Chinese fleet, near Shipu Bay, accompanied by the frigate "Yuyuan" and the composite sloop "Chengqing".