Directory_and_Chronicle_1922 — Page 741

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 baes 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 were never 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 on 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