Directory_and_Chronicle_1908 — Page 782

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 employées 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.

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, and one might almost add in the history of the World, 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. On Saturday, June 9th, the situation in Peking became so alarming by the attitude of the Boxers that the Ministers wired for instant help. The message was flashed out to the fleet at midnight, and before morning a combined force of nearly 1,500 men of all nationalities was towed over the Bar, landed, and sent up to Tientsin by train, where, under Admiral Seymour's personal command, they at once entrained for Peking. Advancing as far as Lo-fa and Lang-fong, their further passage was disputed by the Boxers in force, who were easily beaten off, but as they had torn up the line and destroyed the bridges, further advance by train became impossible. After June 17th, the Boxers were joined by the Imperial troops now in the rear of the Relief Column, who busied themselves by cutting up the railway, thus destroying the Admiral's communication with his base. He had now no military choice but to fight his way back to Tientsin. He had but two or three obsolete field-pieces with which to oppose the modern Krupps with the Chinese forces around Peking, and had no supply of food, as he had landed at almost a moment's notice. To have gone on and tried to cut his way through the Chinese and into the city under such circumstances would have been to court disaster, and as, even if successful, he could not possibly have returned, he would only have added to the difficulties of the Legations and besieged residents, whose supplies of food and ammunition were already perilously low. The retreat was masterly. The column came by train to the break in the line at Yangtsun, and then took to the old road, seized Hsi-ku arsenal five miles out of Tientsin native city, and stayed there till relieved on Monday, June 25th, by a column of Allied troops. On Tuesday, June 26th,

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