Directory_and_Chronicle_1915 — Page 804

TAKU

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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, 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.

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 the non-capture of the Forts would have involved the destruction of every foreigner and native Christian in North China. The admirals had to decide this fine point, and, with the exception of the American Officer, they took the line of men of action. After a council of war they sent in the ultimatum that they would open fire at daybreak next day if the Forts were not surrendered. Mr. Johnson, of the Taku Tug and Lighter Company and a Chinese scholar, carrying his life in his hand, delivered the ultimatum. His services have not been recognized by the British Authorities. The Commander referred the matter to Tientsin, and was ordered not only to resist but to take the initiative. He did so by opening fire at the six gunboats lying in the Tong- ku reaches of the Peiho, about 2,000 yards in a bee-line above the forts (three miles by river). There is much general misapprehension about this brilliant feat of war. The allied Fleet had nothing in the world to do with it, lying as it was twelve miles distant with a shallow twelve foot bar between it and the forts. The entire weight of the business fell on six little cockleshells of gunboats the British Algerine, French Lion, German Iltis, And the Russian Bobr, Gelek and Korietz-and two landing parties of British and Japanose numbering about 300 each. The residents of Taku village found refuge in the 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 hal rushed the North-west Fort, and then proceedled 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..a large number of Chinese dead testifying to the accuracy of the Allies' fire. Four Chinese torpedo-boat destroyers were captured with conspicuous bravery by the British torpedo-boat destroyers Whiting and Fame and distributed amongst the Allies. The demolition of the Forts was effected during 1991-2