YANGTSE GUNBOATS Siu.—Strix does not appear to have got his
facts right in his article on Yangtse gunboats; appearing in your issue of February 20.
HMS Sandpiper was by no means the only gunboat that could navigate the Siang River to Changsha— although she certainly had the shallowest draught (2 ft. 6 in.).
I commanded HMS Falcon from 1931 to 1933. Strange in appearance—she was only 150 feet long— she was specially powered with geared turbines to enable her to mount the treacherous Rapids and Gorges between khans and Chungking. HMS Falcon had a draught of 6 ft. 2 in. when fully laden and on two occasions we took her across the Tung Ting Lake and up' the Siang River to Changsha. Apart from the Upper River with its Rapids and Gorges, the trip up the Siang River was quite the most pic- turesque on the Yangtse and, with its numerous twists and turns, called for considerable navigational skill.
It is inaccurate to refer to 'the spectacular 120-mile- long Gorges above Hankow' for the Gorges arc not reached until after leaving Ichang, and to reach Ichang from Hankow one has to navigate 380 miles of dull, flat, uninteresting river—although the distance; as the crow flies, is only about 130 miles.
The Ichang Gorge is 15 miles long, the Ox Lung and Horse Liver Gorge 4 miles long, and Chintan 2+.
The Wustnin Gorge—the longest—is 25 miles and the Windbox, the most awe-inspiring sight of all, is 4} miles long. The average breadth of the Upper River between Ichang and Chungking is 250 to 350 yards, but there are a few places of only 150 yards. In places the current often exceeds 14 knots— especially when freshets occur and, on this account, there are places where no bottom has been found since it is impossible to get any lead-and-line to reach the bottom.
After the bps invaded China in 1937 HMS Falcon, I believe, eventually became the property of Marshal Liu Hsiang, the Governor of Chungking—and the crew had to footslog it to Shanghai as the laps had closed the river below Hankow.
I would be greatly interested to know what has happened to HMS Falcon now—for I spent three happy and eventful years in her whilst combing the River of Golden Sand.—Yours faithfully.
New Romney, Kent
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