In the seventh year of Guangxu in Qing Dynasty (188 1), Yan Fu, a good friend of Xie's father and chief teacher of Tianjin Naval Academy, made a special trip back to Fuzhou to recruit naval students. Seeing Xie, Yan Fu felt that this young man was good material for the navy. So, I gave Xie two questions, one of which was an exam question. One is a poem entitled "From the Moon to the Mid-Autumn Festival", and the other is stereotyped writing. After Xie finished speaking, Yan Fu was very satisfied and decided to accept this student. From then on, I followed Yan Fu to Tianjin, entered the Naval Academy, and became the first driving class student of the school.
It took Xie and others only three years to study all the courses. On the eve of graduation, Li Hongzhang invited British and Russian naval officials to the school for examinations. They believe that students of European naval schools can only take some courses in the training stage of warships, and students of Tianjin Naval Academy have already completed them ahead of schedule. Domestic officials also believe that Tianjin Naval Academy "has taught many difficult subjects, most of which are not taught by foreign teachers in Fujian Factory Driving School (Fuzhou Ship Administration School)". Li Hongzhang is very satisfied with this.
In October of the 10th year of Guangxu (1884), Xie finished his studies with the first place and transferred to the internship ship "Weiyuan".
In the 13th year of Guangxu (1887), beiyang fleet's four main cruisers Zhiyuan, Jingyuan, Laiyuan and Jingyuan were built and launched in Britain and Germany respectively. Li Hongzhang learned the lesson of buying a boat in those years and decided to send officers and men from beiyang fleet to and Germany to receive it, instead of foreigners sending boats to China. This will not only avoid the trouble of recruiting people, raising people and sending money, but also enable the officers and men to "regain the benefits of training all the way."
Li Hongzhang first sent Deng Shichang, Ye Zugui, Qiu Baoren and Lin Yongsheng as officers (captains) of four ships. At the same time, each ship is assisted by a chief officer and two students. Xie participated in the ship receiving operation as a student, and Qiu Baoren and others were responsible for receiving the "Laiyuan" ship.
In February of this year, under the personal leadership of the Beiyang Navy's prefect Ding, more than 400 officers and men set off from Tianjin for Europe on the ship "China Merchants". After arriving in Britain, Xie and other officers and men turned to Germany and received the "Laiyuan" and "Jingyuan" ships at the Fuerkeng factory. After the reception, the two ships sailed for England, where they met Zhiyuan and Jingyuan.
Subsequently, Britain held a grand ceremony to take over the ship. At that time, China didn't even have a national anthem, so we had to improvise a folk song called "Mom is so confused" to play as the national anthem. This incident deeply hurt Xie's heart, and many years later, he still used this incident to educate his children. In June+10, 5438, four cruisers received from Britain and Germany, driven by China people themselves, crossed the choppy Atlantic Ocean, crossed the Cape of Good Hope, crossed the Indian Ocean and arrived in Xiamen, Fujian. In the second year, the four ships went north and joined beiyang fleet.
Since then, Xie has been staying on the "Laiyuan" ship. In the 18th year of Guangxu in Qing Dynasty (1892), he was officially appointed as the right-wing left battalion garrison of Beiyang Navy, and the "Laiyuan" ship was the second mate. In the past three years, Xie has been acting as an agent for this position because he is not qualified.