[VOL II] ATTACK AND CAPTURE OF CHUENPEE

ATTACK AND CAPTURE OF CHUENPEE

Cover Image: Attack and Capture of Chuen-pee, near Canton / GuangZhou GuangDong China / Drawn by T.Allom – ALAMY Image ID:2X3H920

*The First Battle of Chuen-pee（Chuenpi/ChuanBi） was a naval engagement fought between British and Chinese ships at the entrance of the Humen strait, Guangdong province, China, on 3 November 1839 during the First Opium War. / From a sketch on the spot by Lieut: White, Royal Marines.

The trench is dug, the cannon’s breath
Wings the far-hissing globe of death:
Fast whirl the fragments from the wall,
Which crumbles with the pond’rous ball;
And from that wall the foe replies,
O’er dusky dales and smoky skies.

BYRON.

THE principal entrance of the Pearl river is between Chuenpee and Tycocktow forts, the outer defences of that great emporium, the city of Canton. To the west is an extensive delta, intersected by numerous branches; all, however, too shallow for any other than flat-bottomed craft: but with these a considerable trade is carried on between Canton and Macao. As no vessels of great burden, or ships of war, can approach beyond the channel except Bocca Tigris, the points of Tycocktow, (Taikok) and Chuenpee, (Shakok) have for ages past been strongly fortified. During the accumulation of insults heaped on British merchants and British officers by Commissioner Lin, in the late opium quarrel, that artful diplomatist selected Chuenpee as his throne, to which he ordered all foreigners to bow. An English merchant-ship, Thomas Coutts Warner, master, having acceded to Lin’s conditional bond, the Commissioner proceeded a step farther in effrontery, and demanded the restoration of five men, detained by Captain Elliott, pending an inquiry into the manner of Lin Weihe’s death. Captain Smith’s remonstrances were returned unopened, and the conduct of the Celestial functionaries on this occasion was too childish to be deserving of serious record in the page of history. Further forbearance being rather calculated to mislead the Chinese authorities, in the conclusion they might form of British character, and Captains Smith and Elliott having declined to surrender a homicide, whom Admiral Kwan blusteringly demanded, collision became inevitable. A fleet of sixteen war-junks anchored in a line from Chuenpee point stretching to the southward, an outer line being formed of thirteen fire-ships, each having a black flag waving over it. Our force, in the action that followed, consisted only of the Volage and Hyacinth, under the conduct of Captain Smith. The first shot from the Volage fell upon one of the fire-rafts, which sunk almost immediately; the next, upon a war-junk, which blew up in even a shorter lapse of time.

The Hyacinth, following the Volage, was soon amidst the war-junks, upon which she fired indiscriminately, rather with the design of destroying property, than taking away life. Several junks fled upon the first fire of our ships, a few kept their position for some moments, and Kwan displayed a degree of courage honourable to his rank in the service of his country. At the close of the action it was found “that three junks had been sunk, one blown up, many deserted, and the rest flying. The firing commenced about twelve; the Chinese fleet was completely scattered and disabled before one; while their wretched gunnery hurt no one. As the guns were not fitted for elevation or depression, their shot went too high to have any effect except on the spars and rigging.”

If the Chinese have little claim to a military character, they have less to anything naval. Their vessels are ill built, badly rigged, of insignificant dimensions, and their sailors unacquainted with tactics; nor are these imperfections likely to be remedied, until a larger share of truth shall pervade the reports of officials to the emperor—and of sincerity, his instructions to them. Lin’s mendacious despatch on this occasion offers a very forcible example of the species of hypocrisy here condemned. “The British sanpans,” writes the commissioner, “earnestly begged to pass the Bocca Tigris; they meanly attempted to steal through, but their prayers have not been granted. Kwan killed many of their crew, upon which the rest ought to have fled; but instead, they dared to return his fire, which was like beating an egg upon the stones. Kwan was wounded by a splinter as he sat in his cabin; and four of his sailors, losing their footing, fell into the water and perished. Cheering on his men, the admiral did indeed display the terror of his name, and, firing a broadside, killed several tens of the barbarians. Hereafter they shall never be allowed to peep clandestinely into the Tiger’s Mouth.” Upon this false and foolish fabrication, Kwan was promoted in the national peerage, and dubbed, in the military phraseology of Tartary, “Fa-hae-long-oh Pa-too-loo.

The preceding action was fought at the close of the year 1840, and might have produced beneficial consequences, had not the mendacity of Lin impeded its natural operation on his imperial master’s mind. Keshen became the new medium of communication with government at the opening of 1841; but, possessing the usual characteristics of his race, shuffling, dissimulation, and even open falsehood, appear to be the only instruments he had any desire to employ in diplomacy. Letters from Sir Gordon Bremer were delivered at Chuenpee, but in vain—Keshen observed a strict silence. One only alternative, therefore, was left to the British,—recourse to arms; and, on the 7th of January, 1841, orders were given for the troops to land, the fleet to form, and the forts to be annihilated.

Chuenpee island consists of a number of small hills rising abruptly from a general level; and upon making a reconnaissance, it was found that the troops, about 1,500 in number, being landed at the watering-place, might, not however without obstruction from the heavy character of the ground, reach the summit of a ridge commanding the Hill-fort, with the Rush-hut camp below it, around which a wide fosse had been drawn. Three batteries were formed to the eastward, having deep ditches behind them for the garrison to shelter in, and Chinese and Tartar troops almost covered the hill to the right of the lower-fort, the battlements of which are just distinguishable in the opening between the Watch-tower and the hill that fronts towards Anunghoy. One division of our fleet, under the orders of Captain Herbert, was to attack Shakok and new Chuenpee forts; the second, under Captain Scott, the forts of Tycocktow, which appear on the left of the illustration, and beyond the junk-channel.

After a struggle of two hours, with more than anticipated difficulties, the advanced guard of the marines, under Captain Ellis, appeared on the summit of the ridge which they had been ordered to occupy; a detachment of Royal Artillery, with a twenty-four pound howitzer, and two field-pieces, drawn by seamen from the Blenheim and Melville, commanded by Captain Knowles; detachments of the 26th Cameronians, and 27th Native Infantry, under Brigade-Major Pratt, Lieutenant-Steward Mackenzie of the 90th, acting as aide-de-camp, speedily followed. Our troops, as they came up and fell into position, were received by the enemy with deafening shouts, beating of gongs, vociferous threatenings, and finally a general cannonade from the main battery and encampment. The whole united menaces of the Chinese did not produce the most trifling manifestation in a single British heart, and descending with a rapid but firm step into the entrenchments, our brave soldiers drove the Tartar host and camp-followers up the steep hill behind it, and planted on the watch-tower the flag of England. After the first panic, the Chinese rallied, and took possession of every place of shelter, whence they furiously fired upon our men. But this cowardly warfare proved ultimately more destructive to the aggressors than fair resistance in the open field; for, no quarter was given to the detected marksmen, and detection was almost inevitable.

In the second, and most memorable action at Chuenpee, 600 Chinese fell either in their entrenchments, or in the huts, to which they fled for refuge; while “we had not one killed, and only thirty wounded, many of whom were so hurt through the blowing up of a magazine.” The triumph of our fleet was equally complete, “eleven war-junks, including the admiral’s, having been destroyed.” It is unnecessary to depress the naval character of the Chinese by further details of a contest so unequal; one anecdote, however, may be added, as illustrative of their entire want of “fortune in war.” “Captain Belcher, who had charge of the steamers, proceeded, in the Nemesis, to attack the war-junks, which were at anchor in Anson’s Bay. The first rocket from the Nemesis passed through the side of a junk into her magazine, when she blew up with a most tremendous explosion, hurling her unfortunate crew into the air, not one of whom escaped; and very shortly the whole flotilla of junks were either shattered to pieces or burnt.”（ * Narrative of the Expedition to China, by Commander J. Elliott Bingham, R.N.）

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