River Gunboats
Page 32
Robin and Sandpiper (and possibly later, Snipe) operated on the West River, and Snipe and Nightingale originally on the Yangtze. HMS Robin featured in a local Chinese legend in which, chasing river pirates, she sailed overland from the Yangtze to the West River!
Launched:
1897 by Yarrow.
Dimensions:
Displ: 85 tons; L: 32.8m/107ft 9in; B: 6.1m/20ft; D: 0.61m/2ft.
Crew:
25.
Power/Speed:
Twin screws in tunnels, horizontal flap type; 2 × VTE steam engines, 240ihp/9 knots.
Guns/Armour:
2 × 6-pounder QF; 5 × .303in Maxim MG/Bulletproof hull and superstructure.
Fate:
Sold in Hong Kong: Snipe and Nightingale 10 November 1919; Sandpiper 18 October 1920; Robin September 1929.
HMS Woodcock and Woodlark
The much larger Woodcock and Woodlark were also intended for the Nile expedition, but were built too late. They were sent to the Yangtze, arriving in packing cases to be assembled at Shanghai in December 1898. Having attained a speed on trials of 13.6 knots, it was decided to send them to attempt the passage of the rapids at T’a-Tong T’an, in order to reach the Upper Yangtze. Leaving Ichang on 5 April 1900, they took over a month to reach Chunking, having required the services of tug-boats on the most difficult stretches. The next month the side-wheeler Pioneer took just seven days to effect the same voyage, proving the advantage these vessels had over the screw steamers.
HMS Woodcock. (Photo from Website forums.airbase.ru)
A photo exists of Woodlark as built on the Thames, with her reconstruction section numbers painted on, shows she originally had the Spartan accommodation comparable to that of the Heron class gunboat design. For her trails on the Thames she was also fitted with a leeboard, a dangerous feature in shallow water. From the photo above it is clear that they were quickly taken in hand and converted to have much enlarged accommodation. Clearly in China the crews were intended to bunk aboard rather than sleep ashore.
Launched:
1897 by Thornycroft.
Dimensions:
Displ: 150 tons; L: 44.35m/145ft 6in; B: 7.3m/24ft; D: 0.61m/2ft.
Crew:
25.
Power/Speed:
Twin screws, tunnel guide blade type; 2 × VTE steam engines, 550ihp/13 knots.
Guns/Armour:
2 × 6-pounder QF; 4 × .303in Maxim MG/Bulletproof hull and superstructure.
Fate:
Woodcock sold 1927–8; Woodlark sold at Hong Kong 1928 or 1931.
Pioneer/HMS Kinsha
The exploit in June 1900 by the brand-new river steamer Pioneer which reached Chunking just a week after having left Ichang, a voyage which over a month earlier had taken the screw gunboats Woodcock and Woodlark thirty-one days to accomplish, convinced the Admiralty to purchase this side-wheeler in November 1900. Having armed her, she entered service as HMS Kinsha. Paid off at the commencement of the Great War, she was later re-commissioned, and was not sold until 1921.
After her purchase by the Admiralty, Pioneer was renamed HMS Kinsha, seen here on the Upper Yangtze at Chunking, in October 1903. Note her extremely wide beam, not normally appreciated in profile shots. (Photo George Henry Smith Collection)
HMS Kinsha at Su Chow Fu, July 1903. One distinctive alteration was the removal of her rear upper-deck cabin. Changes not visible would have included bulletproof plating on her superstructure and bridge. (Photo George Henry Smith Collection)
Launched:
1900 by Denny.
Dimensions:
Displ: 616 tons; L: 54m/192ft; B: 9m/30ft; D: 1.8m/6ft.
Crew:
58.
Power/Speed:
Side paddle wheels; steam engines, 1,200ihp/14 knots.
Guns/Armour:
2 × 12-pounders; 7 × .303in Maxim MG/Bulletproof hull and superstructure.
Fate:
Sold at Shanghai 30 April 1921.
HMS Teal, Moorhen and Widgeon
Teal and Moorhen were enlarged repeats of Woodcock and Woodlark. As noted in the illustration below, they were fitted with the additional ‘China’ accommodation from the outset, and their two funnels made it easier to differentiate them from the previous pair. A third vessel, Widgeon, joined them three years later.
Teal and Widgeon were primarily based on the Yangtze, and in 1920, an American commodore flew his flag aboard Widgeon for a tour of the Yangtze Valley. The pair were both sold for scrap in October 1931.
A photo of HMS Teal from an advert for Yarrow, which appeared in The Engineer. Here she is shown on her trials on the Thames, the hull sections numbered for re-assembly. Note that the additional accommodation on the battery deck is already fitted, as well as the forward bulwarks.
Moorhen served on the West River, and was sold in August 1933.
Launched:
Teal and Moorhen 1901, Widgeon 1904, by Yarrow, Poplar.
Dimensions:
Displ: 180 tons; L: 50.3m/165ft; B: 7.47m/24ft 6in; D: 0.69m/2ft 3in.
Crew:
35.
Power/Speed:
Twin screws, tunnel horizontal flap type; 2 × VTE steam engines, 670ihp/13 knots.
Guns/Armour:
2 × 6-pounder QF; 4 × .303in Maxim MG/Bulletproof hull and superstructure.
Fate:
Teal and Widgeon sold October 1931 at Shanghai; Moorhen sold August 1933 at Hong Kong.
‘Insect’ Class
Designated as ‘Large China Gunboats’ as a cover story to disguise the fact that they were intended for the Danube, all but one of the class finally did serve on the Yangtze and other Chinese rivers. There their size, speed and in particular their heavy armament made them the most powerful of all the foreign China gunboats in the theatre.
The original intention was to dismantle them and transport the parts overland to be reassembled on the Danube, to aid the Serbs combat the powerful Austro-Hungarian Danube flotilla of armoured gunboats. But Serbian resistance collapsed before the plan could be carried out.
Designed to be broken down into sections, the ‘Insects’ were given no armour protection at all. They did benefit from complete double bottoms, and their hulls were so thoroughly sub-divided that to move from one compartment to the next required passing via the hatches up to the main deck. They were intended to overpower their Austro-Hungarian opponents by force of numbers, and by their armament, which was extremely powerful for a river gunboat. They were designed to carry a 6in gun fore and aft, plus a couple of 12-pounders on their battery deck, backed up by six Maxim MG. With no less than twelve ordered and built, it was hope they could simply overwhelm the Austro-Hungarian ships which, although armoured, could not resist a 6in shell. But their lack of armour meant that they wold be vulnerable to batteries of field artillery dug in on river banks, and if the Austro-Hungarians had been able to carry through construction of their planned later river monitors and river battleships, the ‘Insects’ would have been heavily outgunned.
HMS Moth on the China Station.
Unlike many of their predecessors and contemporaries, the ‘Insects’ were considered large enough to undertake ocean transits in one piece. However, for long crossings, as flat-bottomed shallow-draught river gunboats, their guns were removed and sent on ahead, and their internal compartments were shored up. Their limited endurance made it inevitable that they should be towed by larger vessels. Although none ever floundered en route to or from their foreign stations, some suffered considerable damage: on the way through the Mediterranean en route to Mesopotamia, the stern of HMS Bee collapsed in a storm, and a new stern section had to be built at Malta’s dockyard; and at the end of her October 1940 transit from Singapore to the Mediterranean, the hull of HMS Cricket was found to require the replacing of no less than 3,000 rivets following severe pounding of the flat bottom. Their power and versatility would make them the most long-lived of the British river gunboats, and take them far and wide across the world.
After action in Mesopotamia, in Home Defence, in the Persian Gulf and North Russia, plus peace-keeping on the Danube, eleven out of the twelve finally found their way to the China Station, where they would remain until the beginning of the Second World War. Their subsequent deployment included fighting in the Mediterranean and at Hong Kong, and one, HMS Moth, was even resuscitated to serve the Japanese Emperor.
An early loss was HMS Glowworm, deemed not worth fully repairing for China duties following the damage she suffered in Russia. HMS Bee lost her 6in guns for conversion from a fighting vessel to a headquarters ship on the Yangtze. HMS Scarab was loaned to the Burmese as part of their new navy for a year from June 1946, and was scrapped as the last ‘Insect’ afloat in 1948.
Launched:
1915–16: Aphis, Bee and Cicala by Ailsa Shipbuilding; Cockchafer, Cricket and Glowworm by Barclay Curle; Gnat and Ladybird by Lobnitz; Moth and Mantis by Wm Doxford & Sons; Scarab and Tarantula by Wood, Skinner & Co.
Dimensions:
Displ: 625 tons; L: 72.39m/237ft 6in; B: 11m/36ft; D: 1.2m/4ft.
Crew:
55.
Power/Speed:
Twin screws, in tunnels with Yarrow patented balanced flap; VTE steam engines, 2,000ihp/14 knots.
Guns/Armour:
Original: 2 × 6in guns; 2 × 12-pounder QF; 6 × .303in Maxim MG. Later, plus: 1 × 2-pounder Pom-Pom; 20mm Oerlikon cannon; 20mm Breda cannon; 8mm Italian Breda MG.
Fate:
Glowworm scrapped first in November 1928; Scarab scrapped last in 1948. (For Moth in 1942, see JAPAN.)
HMS Kia Wo (Wanhsien Incident 1926)
In September 1926 two British steamers on the Yangtze belonging to the China Navigation Company, the Wanhsien and Wantung were seized by the Chinese warlord Yang Sen, and held for ransom at Wanhsien. The masters and officers were held on board the two ships under armed guard.
The British Yangtze Flotilla was determined to mount an expedition to release the officers and recover the vessels. The steamer Kia Wo of the Indo-China Steam Navigation Company Ltd. was therefore requisitioned and armed with two 2-pounder Pom-Poms. With a naval boarding party, on 5 September she set out for Wanhsien, and her master Captain Williamson of the company laid her alongside the Wanhsien. The naval party leapt aboard, to be confronted by massed rifle and machine-gun fire from the Chinese soldiers. They suffered heavy casualties, Commander Darley, two more officers and four ratings being killed, and many wounded. Captain Wilkinson steered the Kia Wo to safety downstream. The arrival of a powerful gunboat squadron the next day persuaded Yang Sen to release the merchant ships. Kia Wo was handed back by the Navy in November, and proceeded to Shanghai for repair of the damage she had suffered in the action. Captain Wilkinson was awarded the OBE.
China river steamer ‘HMS’ Kia Wo, used as a ‘Q’ Ship during the attempt to retake the two seized British steamers. (Photo provided by Liz Randall, on Website: http://www.naval-history.net/WW1xMemoir-Wanhsein.htm)
HMS Kia Wo’s bridge showing the armoured shutters. She is flying the White Ensign now, on approach to Wanhsien. (Photo provided by Liz Randall, on Website: http://www.naval-history.net/WW1xMemoir-Wanhsein.htm)
The forward Pom-Pom. (Photo provided by Liz Randall, on Website: http://www.naval-history.net/WW1xMemoir-Wanhsein.htm)
Kia Wo was a new ship, built in 1925, displacing 1,310 tons, over 200ft (61m) long with a beam of 33ft (10m). In 1941 she was seized by the Japanese and renamed Matsushima Maru. In 1947 she was returned to her owners and reverted to her original name. Later the same year she was sold to Ming Sung Company of Shanghai and renamed Ming Fung. Her eventual fate is not recorded.
HMS Bruce (1927)
The destroyer leader HMS Bruce has been included as an example of the ability of ocean-going destroyers to reach quite far inland on the rivers of China. The Japanese also made full use of the Yangtze during their invasion of China.
Early in 1927, Chiang Kai-shek seized British concessions on the Yangtze, and made threats against Shanghai. The British rushed out to Shanghai a division of troops from England, the 1st Cruiser Squadron, and the 8th Destroyer Flotilla from the Mediterranean. By March 1927 the ships had arrived at Hong Kong. In order to prepare for all eventualities, the admiral commanding the cruisers had the ships’ commanding officers rehearse a possible night attack on the Chinese forts around Canton, which fortunately was never needed.
The 8th Destroyer Flotilla was comprised of eight ‘S’ class destroyers, led by the much larger HMS Bruce. When the crisis had abated, the ‘S’ class destroyers dispersed to various ports, and the Bruce herself twice made the trip up to Hankow, a thousand miles (1,600km) from the river mouth.
Built at the end of the First World War, Bruce would not see service in the Second, being expended as a target for aerial torpedoes on 22 November 1939.
Launched:
1918 by Cammell Laird.
Dimensions:
Displ: 1,580 tons standard, 2,053 tons full load; L: 101.3m/332ft 6in; B: 9.6m/31ft 9in; D: 3.6m/10ft 6in.
Crew:
170.
Power/Speed:
Twin screws; geared steam turbines, 40,000shp/36.5 knots.
Guns/Armour:
5 × 4.7in QF; 1 × 3in HA; 2 × triple 21in torpedo tubes.
Fate:
Sunk by aerial torpedo 22 November 1939.
Profile drawing of the ‘Admiralty’ class flotilla leaders as designed. (From Destroyers of World War Two by M J Whitley)
HMS Tern and Seamew
Ordered under the 1926 Estimates and launched in 1927, HMS Tern was stationed on the Yangtze but transferred to Hong Kong in 1941. She destroyed a Japanese aircraft during the fight for the Colony, but was scuttled in deep water in Sham Shoo in December 1941.
HMS Seamew. (Author’s collection).
HMS Seamew cruised the West River, which reached the sea between Hong Kong and Macau. In late 1940 she was transferred to the Persian Gulf, and was scrapped at Basra in 1947.
Launched:
1927 by Yarrow.
Dimensions:
Displ: 262 tons; L: 51m/167ft 6in; B: 8.23m/27ft; D: 1.6m/5ft 3in.
Crew:
55.
Power/Speed:
Twin screws; geared steam turbines, 1,370shp/14 knots.
Guns/Armour:
2 × 3in HA; 8 × .303in Lewis MG/Bulletproof plating to bridge; gun shields.
Fate:
Tern sunk 19 December 1941; Seamew scrapped 18 August 1947.
HMS Gannet and Peterel
Peterel was intended to be given a traditional ‘bird’ name, ‘Petrel’, but the spelling error at the Admiralty was not discovered until too late. Based at Shanghai on 8 December 1941 she was the first RN ship to be sunk by the Japanese Navy, shelled by the armoured cruiser Idzumo and several destroyers. The small gunboat managed to get only one Lewis gun into action before she was abandoned.
Gannet or Peterel in model form. (Photo courtesy of Russell Wilson of Hong Kong-based Company IMA)
Patrolling out of Hong Kong, Gannet was damaged by Japanese aircraft and was sent to Chungking for repairs. Laid up there until February 1942, she was presented to the Chinese government. Renamed Ying Shan (‘British Mountain’), she served in the Chinese and Communist navies up until 1975.
Launched:
1927 by Yarrow.
Dimensions:
Displ: 310 tons; L: 56.3m/184ft 9in; B: 8.84m/29ft; D: 0.98m/3ft 2½in.
Crew:
55.
Power/Speed:
Twin screws; geared steam turbines, 2,250shp/16 knots.
Guns/Armour:
2 × 3in HA; 8 × .303in Lewis MG/Bulletproof plating to bridge; gun shields.
Fate:
Peterel sunk 8 December 1941; Gannet transferred to China February 1942.
HMS Falcon (1931)
Falcon was specially shortened for the tight bends of the upper Yangtze. At Chunking in March 1941, she was paid off and her crew reached Rangoon overland. In February 1942 Falco
n was transferred to the Chinese government and renamed Luan Huan. In 1948 she was again renamed Ying Teh (‘British Virtue’) but when the Communists seized her they called her Nan Chiang. She served in their navy under this name up until 1974.
HMS Falcon.
Because of her small size, Falcon was armed with a compact Army howitzer, the ubiquitous 3.7in. Drawings of the naval mount are highly elusive, if they still exist, so here is the howitzer, on an Army field mounting, but the gun itself is identical. Note the maximum recoil of 35in (0.89m) when firing horizontally. It went on to be mounted on Sandpiper, Robin and the Dragonfly class, so it must have been well-appreciated. For a view of the 3.7in howitzer mounted on Patrol Boat No 1, see IRAQ.
Launched:
1932 by Yarrow.
Dimensions:
Displ: 372 tons; L: 46m/150ft; B: 8.7m/28ft 8in; D: 1.5m/5ft (1.88m/6ft 2in full load).
Crew:
55.
Power/Speed:
Twin screws; geared steam turbines, 2,250shp/15 knots.
Guns/Armour:
1 × 3.7in howitzer; 1 × 6-pounder Hotchkiss QF; .303in Lewis MG/Bulletproof plating to bridge; gun shields.
Fate:
Transferred to China February 1942.
HMS Sandpiper (1933)
Designed to operate from Changsha, near Tung Ting Lake, Sandpiper had extremely shallow draught to allow her to move further up the river than any of the other ‘Bird’ types, but she reverted to lower-power triple expansion engines. The boilers were unprotected, projecting well above the waterline. She was shipped from Britain in sections and reassembled at the Kiangnan DY in Shanghai. Laid up at Changsha in 1939, she was presented to China in 1942 and renamed Ying Hao (‘British Hero’). She served up until 1974.