China / Japan: 'Admiral Ding Ruchang of the Chinese Beiyang Fleet, Totally Destroyed at Weihaiwei,...

Ding Ruchang (18 November 1836 - 12 February 1895) was a career officer in the late Qing dynasty military of China. During the First Sino-Japanese War of 1894-95, at the Battle of the Yalu River on 17 September 1894, Ding lost five of the ten ships in his fleet. Ding refused offers of political asylum by Japanese admiral Itoh Sukeyuki and committed suicide by an overdose of opium in his office at his Liugong Island headquarters. His deputy, Admiral Liu Buchan, after ordering that his warship be scuttled by explosives, also committed suicide. The remnants of the Beiyang Fleet surrendered to the Japanese.