Our Sailors: Gallant Deeds of the British Navy during Victoria's ReignKingston, William Henry Giles
History
Our Sailors: Gallant Deeds of the British Navy during Victoria's Reign
Kingston, William Henry Giles
Great Britain -- History, Naval -- 19th century; Great Britain. Royal Navy -- History -- 19th century
Amoy was captured on the 26th of August in a dashing manner, and
Chinghae on the 10th of October 1841, and Ningpo was occupied on the
12th of the same month. Early in the year, Captain Hall and the
officers and crew of the _Nemesis_ had a spirited brush with the
Chinese, to the north of Chusan. After this, the enemy kept at a
distance from that place.
Several attempts were made by the Chinese to destroy the ships of the
squadron, each time defeated by the vigilance of the officers and crews.
On the 13th of May 1843, Chapoo, a large town near the sea, was
attacked and captured; and Woosung and Shanghai shared the same fate on
the 16th and 19th of June, the greater part of the fighting on both
occasions being performed by the seamen and marines of the fleet.
CAPTURE OF CHIN-KEANG-FOO AND NANKIN--21ST JULY 1842.
We now come to the crowning victory of the British in China in this war.
Considerable reinforcements having arrived, it was resolved to advance
on Nankin itself, the ancient capital of the empire, as the most certain
way of bringing the Chinese to terms. To reach that city, the admiral
had determined to conduct his fleet, consisting of nearly eighty sail,
including two line-of-battle ships, up the great river Yang-Tze, into
the very heart of the empire, 200 miles from the sea.
On the 6th July, this imposing fleet passed up the river without any
opposition, the Chinese having even withdrawn their guns from most of
the towns on its banks, to escape the injury they expected would be
inflicted had they made any hostile demonstration. At Seshan, however,
about fifteen miles below Chin-Keang-Foo, some batteries at the foot of
a hill, mounting about twenty guns, opened their fire on the _Pluto_ and
_Nemesis_, as those vessels were surveying in advance. On the following
day, the batteries having fired on the _Modeste_, she very speedily
drove out their garrisons, and destroyed them completely.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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