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TIENTSIN-TAKU
OFFICES
Tokyo Fire Insurance Co.
Tokyo Marine Insurance Co.
Travellers' Baggage Ince. Assoc., Ld. Union Assurance Co.
Union Fire Insurance Co., Ld., of Paris
Union Insurance Society of Canton, Ld.. Union Marine Ince. Co., Ld.
World Marine Insurance Co.
Yangtsze Insurance Association, Ld.
Yokohama Fire & Marine Insurance Co.
"Yorkshire Fire Insurance Co.
AGENTS
Mitsui Bussan Kaisha Mitsui Bussan Kaisha William Forbes & Co. E. Rousseau
H. Bègue
Butterfield & Swire, Ld. Collins & Co.
Perrin, Cooper & Co. Liddell Bros. & Co. Mitsui Bussan Kaisha Crofts & Co., Geo.
TAKU
沽大
Ta-ku
This village is situated at the mouth of the Pei-ho, on the southern side of the river about sixty-seven miles from Tientsin. The land is so flat at Taku that it is difficult for a stranger to detect the entrance to the river. There are two anchorages, an outer and inner. The former extends from the Customs Junks to three miles outside the Bar, seaward; the latter from Liang-kia-yuan on the south to the Customs Jetty, Tz'chu-lin, on the north. The village is a poor one, and possesses few shops and no buildings of interest except the forts, now demolished. The only foreign residents are the employés of the Lighter Company, the Customs, and the Pilot Corporation. A railway from the adjoining town of Tungku (two miles up the river), to Tientsin was completed in 1888.
Taku is memorable on account of the engagements that have taken place between its forts and the British and French naval forces. The first attack was made on the - 20th May, 1858, by the British squadron under Sir Michael Seymour, when the forts were passed and Lord Elgin proceeded to Tientsin, where on the 26th June he signed the famous Treaty of Tientsin. The second attack, which was fatally unsuccessful, was made by the British forces in June, 1859. The third took place on the 21st August, 1860, when the forts were attacked from the land side and captured, the booms placed across the river destroyed, and the British ships sailed triumphantly up to Tientsin. The water on the bar ranges from about two to fourteen feet at the Spring tides. At certain states of the tide steamers are obliged to anchor outside until there is sufficient water to cross. An experimental channel over the bar was made in 1906, having a minimum width of 100 feet, with gently sloping banks outside those limits. In October a steamer drawing 8ft. 10in. was able to pass through this channel while the depth on the Bar was only 7ft. 6 inches. The existing channel can only, however, be maintained by constant raking operations.
Taku and Tongku as naval bases have been very prominent in the history of China. In May, 1900, as the Boxer sedition came to a head, the European Powers assembled the greatest naval armament ever seen in the Eastern hemisphere, at Taku Bar. Sir Edward Seymour, K.C.B., as Senior Naval Officer, was in command. The Admirals were called upon to protect the Legations in Peking and the foreign settlements of Tientsin, and in the second week of June naval landing parties were sent ashore by the six European Powers, the United States and Japan. Russia, however, sent to Port Arthur for troops and landed very few sailors.
During the week, June 10th to 16th, the general situation in Chihli became critical in the extreme, and it was a fine point to determine whether the Taku Forts command- ing the entrance of the Peiho should be seized. It will probably be a contentious ques- tion to the end of time if the ultimatum sent in by the Allied Admirals to the Comman- der on Saturday, June 16th, to hand over the Forts before next morning, precipitated the crisis in Tientsin and Peking or not. The official people in general held that it did; lay observers affirm that it made no difference, that the Imperial Government now captured by the Reactionaries was fully committed to the Boxer movement, and that
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