by River Gunboats- An Illustrated Encyclopaedia (retail) (epub)
River Patrol Boats Nos 1–4
These were diminutive versions of Dragonfly and Grasshopper, the China gunboats Thornycroft was building in the late 1930s, even down to the mounting of an Army 3.7in howitzer, a pair of 81mm mortars and Lewis guns. The vessels saw no active service in the Second World War and were not involved in Rashid Ali’s Axis-backed rebellion. After the war they were used as floating barracks, and were given names in the 1960s: No 1 became Abdul al Rahman, No 2, Al Ghazi, No 3, Dat al Diyari, and No 4, Jannada.
Launched:
1937 by Thornycroft.
Dimensions:
Displ: 67 tons full load; L: 30.5m/100ft; B: 5.18m/17ft; D: 0.91m/2ft 11¾in.
Power/Speed:
Twin screws; 2 × Thornycroft diesel engines, 280bhp/12 knots.
Guns/Armour:
1 × 3.7in howitzer; 2 × 81mm mortars; 2 × .303in MG/Bulletproof plating.
Fate:
All 4 stricken 1981.
Grif Class
Iraq received Grif Project 1400E and 1400M units Nos 123 to 127: the first in July 1974, two in January 1975, one in September 1975; and the last, the following November. They were armed with one twin 12.7mm MG. All were lost or stricken by 2003. For details, see RUSSIA Part II.
Neštin Class
Three Neštin class minesweepers were sold to Iraq by Yugoslavia, one of which was destroyed by an Iranian aircraft during the Iraq-Iran War. The others were lost or stricken by 2003. For details, see SERBIA.
No 1, probably seen on her trials. The mortars are not mounted, and neither are the Lewis guns which would have been carried on the bridge wings. (Thornycroft photo)
ITALY
LAKE GARDA GUNBOATS
On 10 August 1859 the sectionalised French river gunboats Nos 6 to 10, of the series ordered from FCM on 24 December 1858 for Napoleon III, were dismantled and transferred to the Kingdom of Sardinia for use on Lake Garda. They were given names as follows: No 6 = Frassinetto; No 7 = Sesia; No 8 = Torrione; No 9 = Castenedolo; No 10 = Pozzolengo. For details, see FRANCE. They were used during the Third War of Italian Unification, but stricken in 1867.
VENETIAN LAGOON GUNBOATS
On 9 October 1866 Venetia was ceded to the Kingdom of Italy. The Austrian lagoon gunboats Nos 1 to 6 based at Venice accordingly became part of the Regia Marina. For photos, see AUSTRIA-HUNGARY.
The Italians modified them in 1868 and again in 1886, and they ended up with vertical triple expansion steam engines and a 120mm breech-loading gun. All were stricken in 1901.
Launched:
1855, by J. Ruston, Vienna/Florisdorf.
Dimensions:
Displ: 47 tons; L: 21.3m/69ft 11in; B: 3.7m/12ft 2in; D: 0.9m/2ft 11in.
Power/Speed:
Side paddle wheels; VTE steam engine, 35 nominal hp/8 knots.
Guns/Armour:
1 × 120mm gun.
Fate:
Broken up 1901.
Marghera Class Lagoon Gunboats
The two small lagoon gunboats Brondolo and Marghera were launched in 1909 by the long-established Venice Naval Arsenal. Compared with the old Austrian gunboats scrapped some eight years earlier, the new pair had a more traditional outline, but drew even less water to freely operate within the Venetian lagoon. In July 1921 they were re-classified as minelayers.
Launched:
Marghera 29 March 1909; Brondolo 4 December 1909, by Venice Naval Arsenal.
Dimensions:
Displ: 115 tons; L: 38m/124ft 8in; B: 6.3m/20ft 8in; D: 0.74m/2ft 5in.
Crew:
18.
Power/Speed:
Twin screws; VTE steam engine, 500ihp/13 knots.
Guns/Armour:
1 × 76mm L/40 QF. From 1921: Mine load.
Fate:
Stricken: Marghera September 1934; Brondolo July 1934.
Brondolo.
Ape Class
Ape (‘Bee’) and Vespa (‘Wasp’) were built as lagoon and river gunboats intended for army co-operation, and armed with army weapons. With an armour-plated hull and bridge, they carried a 75mm field gun on its wheeled carriage, and no less than eleven machine guns behind shields. The twin screw vessels were double-ended with a shallow draught.
Launched:
1918 by Venice Naval Arsenal.
Dimensions:
Displ: 50 tons full load; L: 20.5m/67ft 3in; B: 3.4m/11ft 2in; D: 0.9m/2ft 11in.
Crew:
25.
Power/Speed:
Twin screws; 2 × Buffalo Cruiser petrol engines, total 120bhp/9.4 knots.
Guns/Armour:
1 × 75mm field gun; 11 × 6.5mm MG/Plates protecting bridge and vitals.
Fate:
Stricken November 1924.
Ape class.
CHINA GUNBOATS
Sebastiano Caboto
Designed by Ettore Berghinz, Sebastiano Caboto was built as the first of two China gunboats to protect Italian missionaries and merchants on the Yangtze, a role previously undertaken by French gunboats. Curiously, it seems she was originally intended for use on the Amazon, and her design included provision of a circular saw attachment at the bow, to cut through floating weeds. (This would have been most useful on the Blue Nile with its virtually impenetrable ‘Sudd’). When it was decided that Italian citizens in China were more at risk than those in South America, she was sent instead to the Yangtze and her saw attachment was removed.
Caboto on station, with her square-section portholes all opened for through ventilation. Note the unshielded bow 76mm trained to port.
In common with many colonial gunboats, she was equipped with sails to extend her endurance, and as she tended to roll excessively – due no doubt to her high freeboard and shallow draught – the sails were often used to stabilise her on sea crossings.
In May 1914 she made a trip up the Yangtze 950 miles (1,530km) from the sea, reaching Changsha on the Xiang, a tributary of the Yangtze. Because of her draught the Caboto operated in the Lower and Middle Yangtze, but could not navigate on the Upper Yangtze. That was to be the role of her smaller compatriot the Ermanno Carlotto, which had been delayed by the start of the Great War. On the outbreak of war Carlotto was at Tsingtao and in danger of being interned by neutral China, so her crew cut their moorings at night and proceeded to Nagasaki, where she remained until China entered the war on the side of the Allies.
After twenty years’ hard service, it was decided to replace Caboto, her hull strained and engines so worn that she found it difficult to breast the strong currents of the Yangtze. Accordingly on 7 August 1934 she left the China Station for home, being replaced by the minelayer Lepanto. In 1938 Caboto was reclassified as a submarine depot ship. As such she was captured by German troops at Rhodes on 18 September 1943, following the Italian surrender. While she was undergoing repairs at Rhodes, in the following month she was sunk by British aircraft.
Launched:
1912 by Cantieri Navali Riuniti, Palermo.
Dimensions:
Displ: 1,050 tons; L: 63.4m/208ft; B: 9.7m/31ft 10in; D: 3m/9ft 10in.
Crew:
107.
Power/Speed:
Twin screws; VTE steam engines, 1,203ihp/13.2 knots.
Guns/Armour:
6 × 75mm L/40 QF; 4 × 6.5mm MG.
Fate:
Sunk by air attack off Rhodes October 1943.
Ermanno Carlotto
The Ermanno Carlotto usually rates barely a mention in books on China gunboats and sometimes lacks even a photo. She had an overly long gestation period, but went on to an eventful career, in three navies, eventually outliving many of her contemporaries.
Designed in 1913, she was laid down in Shanghai in 1914 as the second of the Italian Navy’s China Gunboats, intended for the waters of the Upper Yangtze where her deeper-draught consort Sebastiano Caboto could not go. However, with the outbreak of war, her construction proceeded slowly, then with Italy’s entry into the war in 1915 was suspended completely, China being neutral at the time. She was not launched
until 1918, and due to the post-war financial situation was not completed and commissioned until 1921. In the meantime the Italians had taken the opportunity to convert her from coal to oil-firing. Her vertical triple expansion steam engines producing 1,100 horsepower, and using chain drive to twin propellers set in tunnels, could propel her at a maximum speed of 14 knots.
A superb drawing of the China gunboat Ermanno Carlotto. (Courtesy of Aldo Cherini at www.cherini.eu)
In the two years following her commissioning, in addition to the Yangtze, the Caboto cruised the Pai-ho, the Han and the Min Rivers, her officers making the first detailed hydrographic maps of these waterways.
Then in 1923 her commander Alberto Da Zara worked on a plan to travel 1,000 miles (1,600km) up the Blue River from Ichang, itself 1,000 miles from Shanghai. With the experienced Chinese river pilot Li Tai guiding them, the crew started out from Ichang on 11 June 1923, to undertake a voyage never attempted by any other gunboat crew up till then, and which would take them to the foothills of Tibet. They successfully avoided the notorious rock which had claimed the first European ship to attempt the passage, the German Sui Hsiang in 1900, bypassed the Saw Rock (Ku-tsé-liang) where the French gunboat Doudart de Lagrée had stranded two years earlier, and battled their way up the Yen-T’an rapids, going full speed and making headway of only 2 to 3 knots.
On 20 July 1923 they reached Kiating, 2,100 miles (3,400km) from the mouth of the Yangtze and 1,150ft (350m) above sea level, where they stayed for two weeks. During their descent back towards Shanghai, running with the current, at times Carlotto was moving at up to 26 knots! When her engines were examined at the end of the voyage, it was discovered that the propeller drive chain had stretched by some 2m (6ft 6in).
In 1927 at the height of the Chinese Civil War, Carlotto was involved in several firefights. When Italy joined the Second World War on 10 June 1940, the Carlotto was in Shanghai. She spent the next three years tied up alongside the gunboat Lepanto, to which ship she ceded her aft 76mm gun and much of her fuel oil. On the day the Italians surrendered, her commander received coded orders to scuttle his ship to avoid her falling into the hands of the Japanese. Due to a plate covering her engine-room water intake, she refused to sink, until the engineer made two holes in her hull. Even then, she settled so slowly that she came to rest against the hull of the scuttled Lepanto, so it was relatively easy for the Japanese to salvage her. For her subsequent career as the Narumi, see JAPAN.
Launched:
19 June 1918 by Shanghai Dock & Engineering Co., Shanghai.
Dimensions:
Displ: 218 tons; L: 48.8m/160ft 1in; B: 7.5m/24ft 7in; D: 0.91m/2ft 11in.
Crew:
44.
Power/Speed:
Twin screws; oil-fired VTE steam engines, 1,100ihp/14 knots.
Guns/Armour:
2 × 76mm L/40 QF; 4 × 6.5mm MG/Bulletproof plating.
Fate:
Captured by the Japanese 18 September 1943.
Lepanto
Lepanto was one of a series of six colonial gunboats which could also act as minelayers, carrying up to eighty mines. In 1934 she arrived in Shanghai to replace the worn-out Sebastiano Caboto. Following Italy’s entry into the Second World War, she spent her time tied up in Shanghai, moored bow to stern with the Ermanno Carlotto. When Italy surrendered on 8 September 1943 (9 September in Shanghai), her commander received coded orders to scuttle his ship, which he successfully carried out. However, she was moored in relatively shallow water, and the Japanese salvaged Lepanto, incorporating her in their Navy as the minelayer/ocean patrol boat Okitsu.
Launched:
22 May 1927 by Ancona DY.
Dimensions:
Displ: 850 tons; L: 62.18m/204ft; B: 8.69m/28ft 6in; D: 2.59m/8ft 6in.
Crew:
66.
Power/Speed:
Twin screws; oil-fired steam turbines, 1,500shp/15 knots.
Guns/Armour:
2 × 102mm L/35; 1 × 76mm L/40 QF; Capacity to carry up to 80 mines.
Fate:
Captured by the Japanese 18 September 1943.
Another of Aldo Cherini’s excellent drawings, this one showing the Lepanto. (On Website www.cherini.eu)
JAPAN
During their intervention in China, the Japanese stationed quite large warships on the Yangtze, from minesweepers and destroyers to cruisers. The station ship at Shanghai was the old armoured cruiser Idzumo, built by Armstrong back in 1899, but still formidable in 1941 with her batteries of 8in and 6in guns.
Japanese warship designers quickly learned how to copy and then improve on foreign designs, to give their countrymen their place in the sun and catch up on centuries of isolation. Their river gunboat designs followed this trend, and were second to none. At the same time the Japanese were adept at salvaging sunk and scuttled vessels, and returning them to service, perhaps more so than any other country, apart from Germany in the Second World War in the countries it occupied.
It must be freely acknowledged that many of the illustrations in this chapter come from two volumes of the long-defunct MARU SPECIAL series. Since the original publication of this series nearly forty years ago, illustrations from it have continued to turn up on the Web. The MARU SPECIALS, despite poor photo reproduction quality and a text entirely in Japanese, often gave a fascinating glimpse into lesser-known aspects of the Imperial Japanese Navy, the ‘Morning Glory’ as it was so aptly named by historian Stephen Howarth. The MARU SPECIALS deserve a modern reprint using up-to-date photo reproduction, and a translation into English, for the many worldwide admirers of Japanese warship design.
Sumida 1903
The Japanese were quick to follow the Western Powers in providing river gunboats to protect their nationals and commercial interests in China. They ordered one from each of the main British builders, and Sumida was the vessel built by Thornycroft, approximating in size to the smaller Woodcock type. She was sent to Shanghai to be reassembled, but the work was interrupted by the outbreak of the Russo-Japanese War, in which Great Britain remained neutral. So the Sumida’s completion was held up until 17 June 1903.
She fell foul of neutrality considerations a second time, at Shanghai during the Great War, the breechblocks of her armament being removed from August 1914 up until China joined in the war in 1917. Sumida operated on the Yangtze up until March 1935, when she was sold for scrap.
Sumida
Sumida profile (with proportions of the original source drastically corrected).
Launched:
26 June 1903 by Thornycroft. Reassembled at Shanghai.
Dimensions:
Displ: 126 tons; L: 44.2m/145ft; B: 7.63m/25ft; D: 0.61m/2ft.
Crew:
44.
Power/Speed:
Twin screws; VTE steam engines, 680ihp/13 knots.
Guns/Armour:
2 × 3-pounder Hotchkiss QF; 4 × 6.5mm MG/Bulletproof plating.
Fate:
Scrapped 31 March 1935.
Fushimi 1906
The Japanese Navy wished to test a large and a small gunboat from the two leading British shipyards for this type of warship, and Yarrow was chosen to build the larger one. Fushimi approximated to the larger Teal type. After service on the Yangtze, Fushimi was scrapped in 1935.
Launched:
1903 by Yarrow. Reassembled at Shanghai 1906.
Dimensions:
Displ: 180 tons; L: 48.7m/159ft 9in; B: 7.4m/24ft 3in; D: 0.68m/2ft 3in.
Crew:
45.
Power/Speed:
Twin screws; VTE steam engines, 900ihp/14 knots.
Guns/Armour:
2 × 6-pounder Hotchkiss QF; 3 × 6.5mm MG/Bulletproof plating.
Fate:
Scrapped 1935.
Yarrow’s Fushimi. Note the open windows on the battery deck are painted white on the inside, giving a homely appearance, rather like a country cottage, to this efficient little warship. Another point, often missed in broadside views, is the slanting inwards of the batt
ery deck accommodation towards the roof, to reduce topweight.
Toba
After experience with the British-built pair, the Japanese ordered from a Japanese dockyard a third gunboat, on the same lines of, but somewhat larger than, the Fushimi, She had higher-powered engines than Fushimi, and unusually, three propeller shafts – the only time this arrangement was used on a Japanese river gunboat.
Toba was commissioned on 17 November 1911 as part of the China Area Fleet’s Shanghai Base Force. Initially armed with short-barrelled 3in, these were later changed for longer guns of the same calibre, and during the Second World War her machine-gun secondary armament was supplemented by 25mm and 13.2mm AA weapons.
On 26 June 1938 Toba took part in the Battle of Madang, bombarding Chinese positions ashore. On 4 July 1938 she engaged the Chinese MTB Wen-93, which had scored a torpedo hit on the stern of the minelayer Kamome. On 8 December 1941 in Shanghai, Toba took part in the sinking of HMS Peterel and the capture of USS Wake.
All her armament was removed in May 1945 for use on land. Surrendered at the end of the war at Shanghai, she became the Chinese Yang Ch’i. When the Communists came to power, they renamed her Ho Hseueh.
Launched:
1911 by Sasebo DY.
Dimensions:
Displ: 291 tons; L: 54.86m/180ft; B: 8.2m/27ft; D: 0.8m/2ft 7in.
Crew:
59.
Toba with her armament having been removed for use on land.
Profile of Toba with her initial short-barrelled 3in guns.
Power/Speed:
Twin screws; VTE steam engines, 1,400ihp/15 knots.
