Steamboats On The Yangtze River - Royal Navy Boats On The Yangtze River

Royal Navy Boats On The Yangtze River

Of course, the British Royal Navy had three generations of gunboats on the Yangtze River spanning fifty years. The first were the Heron-class river gunboats, of which HMS Nightingale ; and HMS Robin, HMS Sandpiper, HMS Snipe served on Yangtze and West Rivers until 1914 and were sold in 1919. Later, in the Woodcock Class of gunboats came into service: these included the Woodcock, Moorhen, Teal and Widgeon.

The Insect-class gunboats, built in Britain for service on the Danube in 1915, were moved to the China Station and the Yangtze River in the 1920s. Concomitant to the Insect class were the Dragonfly class of smaller boats—Dragonfly, Grasshopper, Locust and Mosquito. Unfortunately, most of these became casualties of war in 1942 with the Japanese attacks.

In 1926 the Wanhsien incident, brought the attention of the perils of China. A local warlord seized the Swire steamer Wahsien and held ship and officers for ransom. British gunboats attended and fired. The officers escaped, and the gunboats shelled the shoreline, from where the Chinese were firing rifles and artillery at the boats. (See HMS Cockchafer.)