Yangtze Patrol: The U.S. Navy in China (Bluejacket Books)

Tolley, RADM Kemp; Yangtze Patrol: The U.S. Navy in China, Annapolis, MD: Bluejacket Books, U.S. Naval Institute Press, 1971 Kemp Tolley spins out the sea stories one after another as be tells the story of the United States Navy in China for a century, from 1854 to 1946. China in the 19th century was really the wild west, and European governments staked out territory all over China, paying off local officials and then conducting trade from one end of the country to the other. Before the age of rails, trade moved by the rivers, as it had for centuries. China, a land whose culture was flourishing long before these Europeans, was now in effect a colony of European nations, a humiliating condition for a proud people. As European nations worked out treaties with Chinese officials, their navies followed, and they rented out storage sheds (godowns) and built housing and clubs and playing fields for the crews, and even horse race tracks. Where our American businessmen and missionaries went, the Navy followed, with small, shallow draft gunboats that could sail up the Yangtze River from Shanghai all the way to Chungking, 1700 miles inland. Shanghai, (Above the Sea) on the coast, was built on the mouth of the Whangpoo River, and in the middle of the 19th century there were 3,000,000 Chinese and some 50,000 Europeans and Americans living there. Just upstream was Chinkyiang (to Pacify the River), the first treaty port on what foreigners called the Yangtze, but Chinese called this marvelous waterway various names at different locations. Next upstream was Nanking (now Nanjing) (Southern capital), then Wuhu, and next Kiukiang (Nine rivers meeting at one place), now called Jiujiang, Next was Hankow (now Wuhan) (At the mouth of the Han river), 600 miles inland. Then Shasi (now Shashi) (The market on the sand), and then Changsha (Sand Spit), actually 85 miles from the Yangtze. Next upstream was I Chang (now Yichang) (Can be prosperous), 400 miles upstream of Hankow,1000 miles from the mouth. Finally, deep in the province of Szechwan, and above beautiful but treacherous gorges which made river traffic dangerous, was Chungking (now Chongqing) (Happy Again), the World War II headquarters of Chiang Kai Shek and his Nationalist Army. American merchantmen beat a path to China with clipper ships in the early 1800s, and our government soon began to send U.S. Navy ships over to protect U.S. interests and American citizens. The industrial revolution urged Americans to find new markets, there was brisk business in shipping tea and carrying Chinese coolies to America to work on railroads and gold mines. With some five million tons of sailing merchantmen, America was becoming as powerful as England on the high seas. China in those days was filthy, smelly and loaded with diseases. Each city and town had its taotai, who was the head man, connected loosely at least to Peking and the Emperor. The local taotai had the authority to punish anyone, even to execute them. This man worked in concert with a cast of characters who could get anything for you, for a price. There were occasional revolutions, uprisings and riots here and there. There were local firebrands who would periodically start trouble with the foreigners, and the navy gunboats would show up, fire some rounds into the crowd, perhaps land a platoon of Marines, and quiet things down. American Navy activity began with shallow draft gunboats, because that was all that could sail over the shallow parts of the river. These boats had side paddle wheels, and when they appeared in various ports the Chinese were thrilled because they had not often seen boats belching smoke before. It was in 1853 when Commodore Matthew Perry sailed into Tokyo Bay in Japan and demanded that the Japanese grant America the privilege of entering Japan to conduct trade. We had already made arrangements up and down the coast of China, and this opened up Japan to the western world. Britain, Russia, France and Holland followed soon after. Perry often sailed into Shanghai, but he didn’t like China. It was dirty and disorganized, there was graft and corruption. In Japan, everything was clean and orderly. I joined the Navy in 1953, just a few years after the last “River rat” had come home from duty in China, and we heard many tales of these men because it was a world of wonder for a sailor. The gunboats spent much time in port, so there was plenty of time for sailors to explore the Chinese cities on the Yangtze. Wherever there were sailors, there were bars and girls, and some men took up life ashore with a Chinese girl. Aboard ship they could hire boys to cook their breakfast, and to do their chores. When the Yangtze patrol started in the middle of the 19th century, it was different. Sailors arose at the firing of a reveille gun at sunrise, and went up on deck to begin holystoning, which involved using a large stone attached to a mop handle to scrub the teak decks until they were shining. Then at four bells, 8 o’clock they had breakfast, which included spirits of one-third of a half pint. Then the men washed up and got on their uniforms for inspection, at 10 a.m. At noon was dinner, with more grog, and then work all afternoon. When Tolley gets to the early 1930s you sense that he is not writing history any longer but telling his own story on the Yangtze Patrol. There are the sailors with the Russian girl friend back in Shanghai, the young naval officers sweating out operating a gunboat in the Yangtze with only six inches of water under the keel, or heading up into the gorges toward Chungking against raging currents, offloading coal to reduce the draft, hiring coolies in a junk to carry the excess coal… or trying to manage paying the crew and purchasing food and supplies with a collection of Chinese yuan, British pounds, Mexican silver, and American greenbacks and goldbacks. In between, there’s the occasional riot or revolution, sandwiched with elegant little parties with officers and their ladies, and businessmen and wives, from Britain, France, Holland, Russia, Japan and Germany. There’s wheeling and dealing, with a whole string of shady characters, Chinese and foreign. Tolley’s detailed account of the voyage of USS Palos up the Yangtze to Chungking, pitting her old, coal-fired boilers and creaking hull against roaring, rock-strewn rapids is a tale of marvelous seamanship, facing danger that had wrecked many ships and killed thousands. I first sailed into Hong Kong in 1958, and much of what one reads of life along the Yangtze River was still lurking in the shadows: the little Chinese boys who, if a sailor tossed a Hong Kong dollah (worth 10 cents) into the water near the ship, would dive in and collect it. There was the No Squeak Shoe Company, where sailors would have shoes made to order during a week in port--- shoes that would dissolve in salt water after leaving port. And Mary Soo, a venerable legend, with an unknown number of women operating out of small sampans, who would paint the hulls of weather-beaten U.S. Navy ships in return for all the garbage from the galley… And the chief petty officers or sailors who were especially skilled at cumshaw, and could arrange for little men to come aboard and repair a sheet metal ventilator for a can of ham…. and always, the sleazy, shady characters who could get you just about anything, for a few HK dollars. This book is truly a delightful story.S.W. Coulbourn

I read this book on my way to Shanghai on business, and it was a fascinating book. It's written by a retired naval officer, and it is a first hand narrative about what went on in China along the Yangtze River in the early part of teh Chinese century from a US Naval Officer's point of view. He talks about the river boats that carried trade up and down to the coast, the naval ships of different countries that provided security along the river, and the historical events that overtook the country between WWI and WWII.During this period the Manchu dynasty was overthrown, various warlords rose up in the power vacuum, and ultimately a civil war developed between the Kuomintang (Nationalists) and the Communists. Adding to the mix was the outbreak of WWII, and the Japanese occupation. The book takes us up to Pearl Harbor, and carries its narrative well through many different events that were going on at the same time without confusing you (a difficult task given the complexity of the times).The author covers the political and historical events well, and also covers such day to day things, such as how the river boats navigated the rapids with the help of the coolie labor pulling them upstream by ropes. He goes into Chinese culture, relationships between Europeans, Americans, Japanese, and Chinese people. He also explains the trading concessions, and even goes over the layout of Shanghai. An amazing amount of subject matter that was somehow put down in a way I could follow it all. If you are going to do business in China, this is a good book for background on how the country was first opening up to the West. You can see the problems they had, and it helps give you a perspective on how they look at the West today.I found the book interesting in two areas - as a business man doing work in China, I enjoyed the easy to read historical account, and the first hand narrative of Shanghai (I made it a point to visit the places he talked about). Also, as a retired military officer, I found his discussion of military affairs in an environment we called "Military Operations Other Than War (MOOTW)" fascinating. That, and his account of life as a naval officer, and how the military personnel in China lived on a day to day basis.Like any good book, it is excellent in many ways, and I can't recommend it enough.

The most thorough study of the subject that I have ever read.

Yangtze Patrol is about a US Navy sailing vessel that sailed in the Chinese waters prior to WW2. The author, Kemp Tolley, went on to retire from the Navy as a Rear Admiral after the war. Sometimes humorous, sometimes suspenseful, the author weaves a tale of life in the Asiatic Fleet just before WW2. The book describes the life of the Asiatic Fleet sailors and their feelings about the Japanese just before the start of the War with Japan. The book talks about the means taken to escape the Japanese dragnet around the mouths of China's major rivers and many coastal islands. This book is a nail biter of suspense as the small sailing boat continues to masquerade as an interisland trader while doing intelligence work for the Navy and then the crew's escape from the Japanese. This is a great history book that has become a US Naval Institute classic and is now available in paperback. Great sea story.

Fully covers the story of the Yangtze Patrol from tentative beginnings to the end in Manila Bay in December 41.Covers individual stories of the men and ships with a wealth of detail. Read in conjunction with Osprey's Yangtze River Gunboats 1900 - 49 for even more detail.

Thorough, well written history of the Yangtze Patrol and the ships and men of the USN, by an officer who served there. Great history of the times and people of China as well. Highly recommended.