Osprey - New Vanguard 181 - Yangtze River Gunboats 1900-49

ABOUT THE AUTHOR AND ILLUSTRATOR ANGUS KONSTAM hails from the Orkney Islands, and is the author of over 50 books, 30 of which are published by Osprey. This acclaimed and widely published author has written several books on piracy, including The History of Pirates and Blackbeard: America's Most Notorious Pirate. A former naval officer .r-- and museum professional, he worked as the Curator of Weapons at the Tower of London and as the Chief Curator of the Mel Fisher Maritime Museum in Key West, Florida. He now works as a full-time author and historian, and lives in Edinburgh, Scotland. TONY BRYAN is a freelance illustrator of many years' experience who lives and works in Dorset. He initially qualified in Engineering and worked for a number of years in Military Research and Development, and has a keen interest in military hardware - armour, small arms, aircraft, and ships. NEWVANGUARD ·181 YANGTZE RIVER GUNBOATS 1900-49 ANGUS KONSTAM ILLUSTRATED BY TONY BRYAN / First published in Great Britain in 2011 by Osprey Publishing, Midland House, West Way, Botley, Oxford, OX2 OPH, UK 44-02 23rd St, Suite 219, Long Island City, NY 11101, USA E-mail: info@ospreypublishing.com © 201 1 Osprey Publishing Ltd. All rights reserved. Apart from any fair dealing for the purpose of private study, research, criticism or review, as permitted under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, electrical, chemical, mechanical, optical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the copyright owner. Enquiries should be addressed to the Publishers. A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Print ISBN: 978 1 849084086 PDF e-book ISBN: 978 1 849084093 Page layout by Melissa Orrom Swan, Oxford Index by Alan Rutter Typeset in Sabon and Myriad Pro Originated by PDQ Digital Media Solutions, Suffolk Printed in Hong Kong through Worldprint Ltd 111213141510987654321 Osprey Publishing is supporting the Woodland Trust, the UK's leading woodland conservation charity by funding the dedication of trees. www.ospreypublishing.com CONTENTS INTRODUCTION CHRONOLOGY THE GREAT RIVER PATROLLING THE YANGTZE The Early Years, 1858-99 The Heyday of the Yangtze Gunboats, 1900-20 The Years of Turmoil, 1921-30 The River as a Battleground, 1931-41 The Yangtze Incident, 1949 GUNBOAT DESIGN AND DEPLOYMENTS The Royal Navy The US Navy The Imperial Japanese Navy The Imperial German Navy The French Navy The Regia Marina LIFE ON THE GUNBOATS BRITISH AND AMERICAN GUNBOATS British Gunboats - The Yangtze Flotilla US Gunboats - The Yangtze Patrol BIBLIOGRAPHY INDEX 4 6 7 11 24 32 38 47 48 YANGTZE RIVER GUNBOATS 1900-49 INTRODUCTION In june 1858, the Treaty of Tientsin (Tianjin) effectively opened the door to Western trade with China. The agreement was just one of several 'unequal treaties' achieved more by force of Western arms than by any Chinese enthusiasm for foreign trade. While Imperial China remained a semi-medieval land, many of its ports were now open to foreigners, and rivers such as the Yangtze (Chang Kiang, or Changjiang) could be patrolled by Western warships. The terms of the treaty were quite specific. The clause that governed the activities of the Royal avy stated that: British ships of war coming for no hostile purposes, or being engaged in the pursuit of pirates, shall be at liberty to visit all ports within the Dominions of the Emperor of China and shall receive every facility for the purchase of provisions and the procuring of water and, if occasion required, for the making of repairs. The Commanders of such ships shall hold intercourse witl:J the Chinese Authorities on terms of equality and courtesy. Similar agreements were brokered with other Western powers. So began eight decades of Western naval presence in China, and the era of the Chinese river gunboats. The treaties included clauses that gave Western naval commanders the rights to 'protective action' and 'punitive action' - the former referred to the active preservation of lives and national interests, while the latter permitted retaliatory measures after a threatening or violent event, such as a gunboat being fired upon or the murder of Western merchants or missionaries. Gunboats were guarantors of Western commerce, privilege and safety, and were often all that protected the foreign enclaves in China. While our story concerns the whole eight decades of Western intervention in Chinese waters, these small warships really came into their own around 1900, and their heyday lasted until the late 1920s, although they remained in service until the start of World War II. By the start of the 20th century, central power in China had all but collapsed, and local warlords often provided the only real form of government in many parts of the country. In the 1920s, General Chiang Kai-shek (Jiang jieshi) achieved a nominal unification of China by military means, but japanese imperial interests and the growth of communist resistance prevented him from achieving true national unity. The japanese invaded China in the summer of 1937, and soon Shanghai and other treaty ports were overrun. That December the japanese attacked the gunboat USS Panay off anking ( anjing), an incident that demonstrated japan's growing military muscle. The era of the gunboats finally came to an end in December 1941, when japan declared war against the United States and Great Britain. Allied support for Chiang Kai-shek's Nationalist Chinese government continued throughout the war, but the gunboats were only able to return in September 1945, after japan's surrender. By then China was a very different country. It was ravaged by civil war, as nationalists and communists vied for control. Western warships still maintained a presence in Chinese waters, protecting national interests in the treaty ports, but the communists made it clear they weren't prepared to abide by the old agreements. In August 1949, for example, they fired on HMS Amethyst, which was damaged and forced aground. A diplomatic incident flared up, solved only when Amethyst ran the gauntlet of Chinese fire and escaped downriver again. By the following summer, the nationalists had been driven from the Chinese mainland, and Western presence was restricted to the British territory of Hong Kong, the nationalist-held island of Formosa and the Portuguese enclave of Macao. There was little room for gunboat diplomacy in the new post-war world of decolonization, Cold War posturing and superpower geopolitics. The USS Panay (foreground), moored off Hankow, alongside HMS Bee and HMS Ladybird. Between 1920 and 1938 there was significant Anglo- American co-operation on the Yangtze, and the two flotillas often performed joint patrols, anti-pirate or bandit sweeps and rescue missions. The Beacon Class composite gunboat HMS Dwarfwas one of the first gunboats to be built for service in Chinese waters, and from 1871 to 1B84 she was a familiar sight on the waters of the lower Yangtze, from Hankow to Shanghai. 4 5 CHRONOLOGY Soon the era of these gunboats wa little more than a di tant memory, something from a very different age, and from the far side of the world. THE GREAT RIVER Foundation of the Chin e Republic - collapse of central power in China Kuomintang (KMT); also known as Guomindang (GMD) founded as a force for hin e national unification World War f begin; Japan occupies the Shantung Peninsula Collap e of the Chinese Republic; regional power as umed by warlords End of World War [; T ingtao eized by the Japane e After using several other name, the US avy red ignates it gunboat force the Yangtze Patrol. Various wars fought between rival warlord in northern and central China Wanh ien fncident - minor crisis in upper Yangtz Chiang Kai-shek' orthern Expedition - KMT advance north Split between the KMT and the Chinese Communist Party (CCP); abortive communist risings in Shanghai and anton Japanese troops occupy Shantung Peninsula Chiang Kai-shek captures Peking Mao Tse-tung (M.ao Zedong) assumes control of communist forces Major flooding in Hankow The Long March - Chinese communists escape nationalist enci rclemen t Start of Sino-Japanese War; Japanese attack Nanking; Hankow becomes new capital Panay Incident - USS Panay sunk by Japanese Hankow captured by the Japanese Soviet-Japanese clash on border of Mongolia and Manchuria Japanese attack Pearl Harbor - commencement of war in the Pacific; Yangtze abandoned by British, French and mencans; Hong Kong captured \'(festern navies return to hina full-scale war between the K tT and the Chinese communists Amethyst Incident - HM Amethyst escapes from communi t forces; Mao Tse-tung proclaims the establishment of the People's Republic of China (PRC); Chiang Kai-shek proclaims foundation of Republic of China on Taiwan 1945 1946-50 1949 19 7 1938 1939 1941 1937 1931 1934-36 1920-24 1912 [926 1926-27 [927 1918 1920 1914 19[6 1927 [928 1929 1912 When Westerners first establi hed trading posts in China, they were only allowed to do so on suffrance, and in a handful of seagoing ports. After the Opium War ('1839-42 and 1856-60), most Western powers signed treaties with the Chinese Emperor, permitting the establishment of permanent mercantile communities in a number of 'treaty POrtS' such as Canton (Guangzhou), Shanghai, Chinkiang (Zhenjiang), anking, Amoy (Xiamen), Foochow (Fuzhou) and Weihaiwei. A few countries established their own exclu ive colonies - the British had Hong Kong, the Germans Tsingtao, the French Kwangchow (Canton) and the Portuguese Macao. Of course, all these trading communities had to be protected. The Royal avy fir t began patrolling off the China coast in the 18th century, but by the mid-19th century a permanent British naval presence had been e tablished, First Opium War Treaty of Nanking Royal Navy establishes the China Station, first permanent We tern na va I presence Taiping Rebellion - wid spread unrest in China US gunboat reaches Wuhu on the Yangtze River Second Opium War Treaty of Tientsin Royal Navy gunboats reach Hankow (Hankou) on the Yangtze River; warships of the US Indies Squadron reach ]-Iankow American Civil War - US warships return home for duration of confl ict French gunboat reaches Hankow US Asiatic Squadron returns to Chinese waters Royal Navy gunboats stationed in all treaty ports apart from on the upper Yangtze Gunboat USS Ashuelot reaches Ichang (Yichang) on the upper Yangtze Chungking (Chonqing) opened to Western trade Sino-Japanese War Germans gain control of Tsingtao (Qingdao) and the Shantung (Shandong) Peninsula British gain control of Weihaiwei (Weihai), and Russians gain Port Arthur (LLlchun) Boxer Uprising - widespr ad unrest in China British gunboats penetrate the upper Yangtze French establish naval station at Suifu, near Chungking on the upper Yangtze; US Navy reinforces its river fleet, and create the Yangtze Valley Force Russo-Japanese War - Japanese influence e 'tended into Manchuria and Port Arthur Japanese annexation of Korea Chinese Revolution - overthrow of the Manchu Dynasty Hankow fought over by imperialist and republican armies - city changes hands 1905 1839-42 1842 1844 1850-63 1854 1856-60 1858 1861 1861-65 1898 1863 1866 1871 1874 1876 1894-95 1897 1899-1901 1900 1901 1910 1911 1911 Royal Naval gunboats, moored off Hankow during the early 1930s. The inboard vessel is the flagship HMS Gannet, while the remainder are (from leh to right) the larger Insect Class gunboats HMS Gnat, HMS Cockchafer, HMS Mantis and HMS Scarab. 6 7 The waterfront (or bund) at Hankow during the 1920s, where the foreign concessions were located. Most of these impressive buildings belong to British trading companies. The gunboats anchored in the Yangtze are separated from the bund by lines of floating jetties. 8 based in Hong Kong. Dubbed the 'China Station', this force was created to protect British interests, subdue pirates and to 'show the flag'. Other na~ies joined them, most notably the US Navy, whose East Indies Squadron had a similar remit to its British counterpart. For the most part, the warships used around China were fairly large - sloops, frigates or even larger warships, powered first by sail and then, from the mid-19th century, by steam. After 1858, though, there was a need for a new class of warships, small enough to steam far inland up the great rivers of China, where inland ports were finally being opened up to Western trade. Of China's two great rivers - the Yellow River (Huang He) and the Yangtze River - it was the latter that became the conduit for Western trade, and the place where this new breed of gunboats was needed most. The name 'Yangtze' is largely unknown in China, where the river has several names. From its origins in the mountains of the Tibetan plateau (now Qinghai province), the river created from the cold mountain streams was once called the Hoh Moron ('Blue River'), but this Tibetan name was eventually replaced by the Dan Qu ('Marsh River'). It eventually becomes the Kinsha Kiang ('River of Golden Sand') before its confluence with the Min River at Suifu (Yibin), from where the river is navigable. Then it becomes the Chang Jiang ('Long River'), although an alternative and more poetic variant is the Ta Kiang ('Great River'). As the longest river in Asia, most Chinese simply call THE BRITISH: HMS WOODLARK(1912); HMS WIDGEON (1919) The little gunboats HMS Wood/ark (above) and HMS Woodcock had originally been built to support General Kitchener's campaign in the Sudan, but his victory at Omdurman (1898) meant that there was no need for them, so they were sent to Shanghai instead. They were shipped out in sections, then re-assembled, and by early 1900 they were flying the flag on the middle Yangtze. They were vitally needed, as until their arrival no gunboats had managed to pass through the treacherous Yangtze gorges, to reach the calmer waters of the upper Yangtze beyond. Western merchants there were vulnerable, so in May the two gunboats braved the rapids, and battled their way upriver to Chungking. They remained there for more than a quarter of a century. Like her sister ships Tea/ and Moorhen, HMS Widgeon (below) was a slightly enlarged version of the earlier two gunboats, and was shipped out to the Orient, and re-assembled in Shanghai. Widgeon entered service on the upper and middle Yangtze in 1904, and she remained there for three decades, before being decommissioned in 1931.ln September 1926 she played an active part in the Wanhsien Incident, as her crew attempted to recover two British-registered freighters from a Chinese warlord. For much of its course the Yangtze flows through flat land, but above Ichang the river narrows and flows between the Yangtze gorges. This fearsome stretch of rapids, shoals and seasonably changeable river levels divided the upper and lower Yangtze. 10 it Kiang or Jiang, meaning 'The River'. 'Yangtze' probably derives from Yang Tzu, the old name for the river city of Chinkiang. 'Yangtze' is simply a foreign misinterpretation, the Westerners applying the title to the whole ri ver, a lthough it could also be an extension of the word yang, mea n ing 'ocean'. In any case, only Westerners called this great river the Yangtze. The Yangtze is more than 3,900 miles long, although its exact length is hard to measure - the ri~er keeps growing as silt is carried downstream and deposited at the mouth of the Yangtze estuary. Every year around 30 yards of silt turns into mudflats, pushing the mouth of the river into the East China Sea. Over the centurie this effect has created a great alluvial plain, which has been settled and farmed, and used as a haven for pirates. The first traces of the Yangtze can be seen almost 100 miles from its mouth, where the sea becomes discoloured by the sediment. The river itself is brownish-yellow, the colour caused by the sediment and aided by human effluence. For much of its lower course it meanders through a low-lying flood plain dominated by rice paddies and swampland, interspersed with settlements varying from small villages to major cities. The river's navigable course has been described as resembling a widely splayed letter 'W', with the river port of Han kow - one of the triple cities that make up Wuhan - at its apex, some 600 miles from the sea. Downriver the river is fed by the fresh waters of Poyang Lake, before curving up again towards anking and Chinkiang. From there it flows in a south-easterly direction past Shanghai and down towards the open sea. Above Hankow the left half of the 'W' extends shakily for 370 miles to Ichang, which marks the start of the navigabl upper river. At the bottom of this 'w' lies a tributary called the Xiang that flows into Tung Ting (Dong Ting) Lake, and leads to another treaty city - Changsha, the capital of Hunan province. There an ancient canal connected th Xiang with Canton on the Pearl River, but by the start of the 20th century a railway linked Canton to Changsha, before reaching Wuchang, on the south bank of the Yangtze opposite Hankow. From Hankow another railway line ran north to Peking. Beyond !chang the mountains close in, creating the spectacular Yangtze gorges, and a navigable hazard in the form of rapids and fallen boulders. Another hazard is the water level, which can vary by 50ft or more overnight, leaving ships hard aground and turning the river into a foaming cataract. Beyond this difficult but beautiful stretch of water, the river continues upstream to the last inland treaty port of Chungking, 430 miles above !chang, and a staggering 1,500 miles from the sea. There the height of the river can vary by as much as 100ft, depending on the conditions and the season. The navigable river actually extends for a further 200 miles to Suifu, but as this wasn't a treaty port Western gunboats rarely made the trip that far upriver, although the French did establish a small naval base there in the early 1900s. For the best part of eight decad s, from 1858 until 1941, these 1,700 miles of river were patrolled by Western gunboats, and occasionally by Chinese warships, owned by emperors, nationalist factions or local warlords. Given Hankow's geographical location, it was inevitable that the city would become the centre of gunboat activity on the river, although they occasionally ventured downriver to Shanghai, where the Western maritime powers stationed larger and more formidable warships. These gunboats shared the river with thousands of other vessels, from the large steamships owned by Western shipping companies to the more mundane junks and sampans, whose owners earned their livelihood on the great river. The Yangtze has been described as the 'Golden Waterway' of China, dividing north from south, but linking the country through riverine trade. To the ancient Chinese, the river was the home of a great underwater dragon, whose changes in mood explained all river disasters, from shipwreck to flooding, stranding or piracy. The job of the Yangtze gunboats was to keep an eye on this great dragon, and to protect Westerners from its wrath. PATROLLING THE YANGTZE The Early Years, 1858-99 The story of the Yangtze gunboats really starts with Henry Temple, Lord Palmerston. In 1850, as the British Foreign Secretary, he sent a naval squadron to the egean, to intervene in Greek affairs. His 'gunboat diplomacy' worked well, and when he became Prime Minister five years later he was willing to repeat the tactic in China, where a new crisis was brewing. Despite its name, the Second Opium War (1856-60) was less about opium than about trade, and Palmerston used the navy to achieve his war aims - commercial access to China, including the removal of tax restrictions on Western goods. Western victories over China led to the Treaty of Tie