Directory_and_Chronicle_1926

626

TAKU

allied Fleet had nothing in the world to do with it, lying as it was 12 miles distant with a shallow 12-foot bar between it and the forts. The entire weight of the business fell no six little cockle-shells of gunboats-the British Algerine, French Lion, German Iltis, and the Russian Bobr, Gelek and Korietz and two landing parties of British and Japan ese numbering about 300 each. The residents of Taku village found refuge in the U. S. Monocacy, which, after getting a shell through her bows, steamed up the river out of range. Many refugees fleeing from Tientsin were on the merchant steamers at the wharves, and were under fire for some hours. The firing was somewhat wild during the darkness, but when dawn appeared, at 3.45, the gunboats, led at first by the Algerine and afterwards by the Iltis, steamed down the river and took up a position close under the N.-W. Fort. A single well-timed shell would have utterly destroyed any one of the six vessels, but Chinese gunnery was once more at fault. The naval guns soon mastered the heavy and modern weapons on the Forts, and before 5 a.m. the two landing parties had rushed the North-West Fort, and then proceeded along the causeway to the large North Fort at the river mouth. This was also escaladed and its great guns turned against the two fortifications on the South side of the river at close range. The whole affair was finished before 6 a.m.-a large number of Chinese dead testifying to the accuracy of the Allies' fire. Four Chinese torpedo-boat destroyers were captured with 1 conspicuous bravery by the British torpedo-boat destroyers Whiting and Fame and distributed amongst the Allies. The demolition of the Forts was effected during 1901-2.

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