Lay-Osborn flotilla

Lay-Osborn flotilla, fleet of ships bought for China in the mid-19th century by a British consular official, Horatio Nelson Lay, which created a tremendous controversy when Lay falsely assumed that the Chinese government would transmit all orders to the fleet through him. This controversy prompted a decision by the Chinese government to discontinue leasing or purchasing vessels from abroad and instead to manufacture vessels in China.

In 1862 the Chinese government decided to buy a fleet of gunboats to aid in suppressing the great Taiping Rebellion (1850–64), which was sweeping the southern provinces. Lay, who had undertaken to contract the vessels for the Chinese government, procured the gunboats and hired Captain Sherard Osborn and a British crew to run them. After the flotilla arrived in Chinese waters in 1863, Lay and Osborn refused to comply with the wishes of the Chinese that they surrender command of the ships and continue to serve only as technical advisers. Lay revealed much about Western attitudes toward the Chinese when he stated that “the notion of a gentleman acting under an Asiatic barbarian is preposterous.” The Chinese government revoked the purchase and dismissed Lay from its service.