China and the Powers: A Narrative of the Outbreak Of 1900 Book

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This is an OCR edition with typos.
Excerpt from book:
CHAPTER III Capture Of The Taku Forts—Siege Of Tientsin—Gallant Conduct Of Mb. Watts And Mr. Seebebo—Tong-shan Refugees—Nabrow Escape Of Mr. Hughes—Predicament Of Chinese Mine Manager. The Taku Forts were taken on the night of June 15, the action being begun by the Chinese, who opened fire a little after midnight, their first shot going through the rigging of the' Algerine.' The details of the action were given so fully at the time by various correspondents that it is superfluous now to do more than state shortly what occurred. The bar at the mouth of the Peiho Eiver is shallow, and only vessels of small draught can cross it. The larger ships of war of the allied fleets, twenty-eight in number, had therefore to lie outside it some ten miles away from the Forts at Taku, at the entrance of the river, and could take no part in the fighting. In the river, inside the bar, were only the following vessels: British—H.M.S. ' Algerine' and two torpedo destroyers, the ' Fame' and the ' Whiting ;' German— the ' Iltis ;' French—the ' Lion;' Russian—the ' Bobr,' the ' Koreetch,' and the ' Gilyak.' In all, six gunboats and two torpedo destroyers. The forts these vessels had opposed to them wereexceedingly strong : the Northern forts having about eighty guns, all told, of various sizes, and the Southern forts no less than a hundred and twenty guns, some of them being 1o-mm. Krupps of the very latest pattern. The action lasted from a little before 1 A.m. until six in the morning, when the big magazine in the South Fort was blown up, and the fire from both the Northern and the Southern forts somewhat slackened. Up to that time it had been heavy, but badly directed. The storming parties—the British being under the command of Comman...