A marble warship instead of more Beiyang ironclads

In Drachinifel's account, a Beiyang administrator received enough funding for three Dingyuan-class ironclads and supporting vessels but spent more than the price of the third ironclad on a giant marble warship. The intended deterrent was conspicuous wealth: foreign visitors were supposed to infer that a state able to afford such a monument must possess formidable forces. Japan already knew the fleet's actual strength, defeating that logic. A Royal Navy observer reportedly estimated that the marble could have paid for two ironclads. The anecdote attributes a material loss of fighting capacity to spending intended to advertise prestige.