The Battle of Escape Creek was a naval engagement fought between the United Kingdom's Royal Navy and the Qing Chinese naval force on 25–27 May 1857 during the Second Opium War. Commodore Charles Elliot's squadron chased the war-junks at Escape Creek (present-day East River) and then, once the British ships were grounded as the river narrowed, they chased them in the ships' boats until all the junks had been overhauled.[4]
| Battle of Escape Creek | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Part of the Second Opium War | |||||||
 Commodore Elliot leading gunboats to attack the Mandarin junks | |||||||
| |||||||
| Belligerents | |||||||
 United Kingdom |
 Qing China | ||||||
| Commanders and leaders | |||||||
 Charles Elliot | Admiral Sonhay[1] | ||||||
| Strength | |||||||
|
13 gunboats 7 cutters & gigs[2] | 41 war-junks | ||||||
| Casualties and losses | |||||||
| 31 wounded[3] | 27 junks captured or destroyed[1] | ||||||
Gallery
edit-
Map of Canton area showing Escape Creek near the top -
Map of the engagements -
Attack on the junks -
Burning of 27 captured junks
References
edit- ^ a b Behan 1859, p. 1251
- ^ Behan 1859, p. 1256
- ^ Behan 1859, p. 1259
- ^ "Second Anglo-Chinese War ("Opium war") of 1856 – 1860". William Loney. Archived from the original on 3 May 2012. Retrieved 3 January 2015.
Bibliography
edit- Behan, T. L., ed. (1859). Bulletins and Other State Intelligence for the Year 1857. Part 2. London: Harrison and Sons.
Further reading
edit- Cooke, George Wingrove (1861). China and Lower Bengal (5th ed.). London: Routledge, Warne, & Routledge. pp. 15–18.