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Yangtze River Patrol
Introduction
The Yangtze River Patrol of the United States Navy existed under various names between 1854 and 1941. This squadron-sized unit of the Asiatic Fleet patrolled the waters of the Yangtze river as far inland as Chungking, more than 1,300 miles from the sea, and occasionally far beyond. The patrol was necessary to protect U.S.citizens and their interests against pirates and warlords who would attack commercial ships on the river. In the early part of the 1900's China experienced turbulent times accompanied by many acts of violence against foreigners. The Yangtze Patrol was called upon to defend American lives, property, and commerce along the river and to support American foreign policy in the Far East.
History
Late 1800's
As a result of several so-called "unequal treaties" imposed on China by Great Britain after the Opium Wars, China was opened to foreign trade at a number of locations known as "treaty ports" where foreigners were permitted to live and conduct business. Also created by the treaties was the doctrine of extraterritoriality, a system whereby citizens of foreign countries living in China were subject to the laws of their home country, not those of China. Most favored nation treatment under the treaties assured other countries of the privileges afforded Great Britain, and soon many nations, including the United States, operated merchant ships and navy gunboats on the waterways of China.
During the 1860's and 1870's American merchant ships were prominent on the lower Yangtze, operating up to the deepwater port of Hankow 300 miles inland. The added mission of anti-piracy patrols required naval and marine landing parties be put ashore several times to protect American interests. U.S. ships also visited ports along the Yangtze. In 1874 the USS ACHUELOT reached as far as Ichang, at the foot of the Yangtze gorges, 975 miles from the sea. During this period most found a tour in the Yangtze to be uneventful, as a major American shipping company sold its interests to a Chinese firm leaving the patrol with little to protect. However, as the stability of China began to deteriorate after 1890, the U.S. Naval presence began to increase along the Yangtze.
1900's
In 1901 American-flag merchant vessels returned to the Yangtze when Standard Oil Company placed a steam tanker in service on the lower river. Within the decade several small motorships began hauling kerosene, the principle petroleum product used in China for that company. At the same time the Navy acquired several ex-Spanish gunboats which were seized in the Philippines during the Spanish-American War. These vessels became the core of the Yangtze River patrol for the first dozen years of the twentieth century, but they lacked the power to go beyond Ichang onto the more difficult stretches of the river.
In 1913 the first American gunboats were built specifically for service on the Yangtze river. These ships the USS PALOS and the USS MONOCACY, were built at the Mare Island Naval Shipyard in Vallejo, California. They were then disassembled and shipped to China aboard the American steamer MONGOLIA. In Shanghai they were reassembled at the Kiangnan Shipyard, and put into service in 1914. That year both vessels demonstrated their ability to handle the rapids of the upper river when they reached Chungking more than 1,300 miles from the sea, and went beyond to Kiating on the Min River. In 1917 the United States entered World War I and the guns of the PALOS and the MONOCACY were rendered inoperable. After China entered the war on the side of the allies the gunboats were re-armed..
In 1917 the first Standard Oil tanker reached Chungking, and a pattern of American commerce on the river began to emerge. Passenger and cargo service by American-flag ships began in 1920 with the Dollar Line and the American West China Company, followed in 1923 by the Yangtze River Steamship Company which stayed on the river until 1935, long after the other American passenger-cargo ships were gone.
To accommodate its increased responsibilities on the river, the Navy constructed six new gunboats in Shanghai between 1926-1927. These vessels were of three sizes, all capable of reaching Chungking at high water. The LUZON and MINDANAO were the largest, the OAHU and PANAY next in size, and the GUAM and TUTUILA the smallest. These vessels gave the navy the capability it needed at a time when operational requirements were growing rapidly.
Naval reaction to hostilities along the river peaked in the early 1920's and 1930's. In the early 1920's the patrol found itself fighting the forces of deadly warlords and ruthless bandits, then, in the late 1920's, Chiang Kai Shek and the Northern Expedition, created a volatile military situation for the patrol along the Yangtze. During the early 1930's communist armies took control of much of the north bank of the middle river and the patrol was there to protect U.S. lives and property. The climax of hostilities occured in 1937 with the "Rape of Nanking" and the sinking of the USS PANAY by the Japanese. These acts created an international incident which has often been regarded as the beginning of World War Two in the Pacific.
After the Japanese took control of much of the middle and lower Yangtze, American gunboats entered into a period of frustrating inactivity and impotence. Just prior to the attack on Pearl Harbor most of the ships on the Yangtze River Patrol were brought out of China, with only the smallest gunboats, GUAM which had been renamed the WAKE and the TUTUILA remaining behind. The WAKE at Shanghai was subsequently over-run and captured by the Japanese. TUTUILA at Chungking was turned over to the Chinese. When the other gunboats reached Manila the Yangtze River Patrol was formally disestablished. Subsequently, the evacuated ships were all scuttled, sunk, or captured with their crews imprisoned by the Japanese after the fall of Corregidor. The LUZON was later salvaged and used by the Japanese.
Thus, the end for the Yangtze Patrol, like the end for the entire Asiatic Fleet, came ingloriously. However, it is more befitting to remember the halcyon years of the Patrol when its gunboats proudly carried the American flag deep into China.
 Oahu, one of the last "old China hands" that never saw the land she served so well, received one battle star for World War II service.
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Copyright © 1999-2008 Pamela Walton All Rights Reserved
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