Themes

Conflict and Change

• Introduction

• In Focus: 1900

• In Focus: World War One

• In Focus: Interwar

• In Focus: World War Two

• In Focus: Post War Conflict

  • Surface Fleet

  • Royal Marines

• In Focus: Cold War Climate

• In Focus: Falklands and Beyond

• Special Exhibition: Falklands 25

Learning

• How To: Understand Propaganda

• Propaganda Image Galleries

• Education Project: Sea With Your Own Eyes

Post War Conflict: Surface Fleet

Article Highlights

• Introduction

• The Yangtze Incident

• Suez Operation

• The Cod Wars

• The Beira Patrol

• Technological Developments

The Yangtze Incident

On 20th April 1949 the Royal Navy frigate HMS Amethyst entered the Yangtze River to take the regular supplies to the British Embassy in Nanking and to relieve HMS Consort. Communist artillery fired on HMS Amethyst when she was sixty miles from Nanking causing considerable damage. The coxswain ran her around on Rose Island.

On the morning of 21st April 1949 the cruiser, HMS London, and the frigate, HMS Black Swan, entered the river to attempt to tow HMS Amethyst but again heavy gunfire prevented this from happening and the two ships withdrew returning to Shanghai.

A photograph of a side party in a sanpan alongside the sloop HMS Amethyst whilst in China, taken c.1949. (RNM)

Lieutenant Geoffrey Weston refloated HMS Amethyst on 22nd April 1949 and moved her out of range of the artillery. The British Naval Attache Lieutenant-Commander John Simon Kerans joined the ship later that day and took command.

HMS Consort proceeded downstream from Nanking and also attempted to take HMS Amethyst in tow. Heavy gunfire again prevented HMS Consort from giving any assistance and so they continued downstream.

For three months HMS Amethyst remained at anchor during long negotiations aimed at allowing the ship to proceed downstream into the open sea. In the end the Commanding Officer decided to break the deadlock by running for the open sea, 140 nautical miles away, despite realising that it was likely that his ship would come under enemy fire at several points in this journey.

Amethyst arriving at Hong Kong after the Yangtze Incident, showing damage from Communist gunfire. During April 1949, HMS Amethyst came under fire from Communist Chinese forces up the River Yangtze. The boat was damaged and suffered casualties. (RNM)

The Admiralty sent HMS Amethyst approval for the plan which was carried out over night 29th-30th July 1949 when the ship managed to reach open sea in seven hours. As she went through the entrance to the river she sent the signal ‘Have rejoined the Fleet. No damage or casualties. God save the King!’