Originally called HMS Aurora, Cruiser Chongqing was given as a gift to the KMT Navy by the British Government in February 1948 and the largest light cruiser in the KMT Navy. On February 25, 1949, the crew rose up at Wusongkou, Shanghai, and drove the cruiser to Yantai Port in the CPC-controlled Shandong province. In the two days from March 18 to 19, the cruiser was terribly damaged in the KMT’s airbombing at Hulu Island. The crew sank the cruiser near Hulu Island Pier on March 20. Cruiser Chongqing was salvaged on May 16, 1951. It served as the on-sea dormitory ship for Tianjin Maritime Rescue and Salvage Bureau in the 1980s. The cruiser was disassembled in the mid-1980s.
Zhang Yi, a materialman of a factory under the North Sea Fleet found the plates in 1972. He donated them to the Military Museum in 1982.