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Concept
HMS Cockchafer (1915)
Summary
HMS Cockchafer was a Royal Navy . She was built by Barclay Curle and launched on 17 December 1915 as the fifth Royal Navy ship to carry this name. The Insect class was originally designed for service on the River Danube but most of them spent much of their service on Chinese rivers.
During the First World War, Cockchafer was assigned to the defence of the south east coast of England, based at Brightlingsea. During the Russian Civil War, she served with some of her sister ships as part of the British intervention forces fighting in support of White Russian forces on the Dvina River from 1918–1919. On 17 January 1920, the Insect-class ships , Cockchafer, , and set out from Chatham, England for China. Cockchafer was stationed on the Yangtze River where her duties were patrolling and protection of British nationals and interests in China.
One significant event which Cockchafer was involved in was the Wanhsien Incident in August and September 1926. Wanhsien, now known as Wanzhou District, is a port on the Yangtze River about upstream from Shanghai. The local warlord, Marshal Wu Pei Fu controlled the area and his local commander was General Yang Sen.
Following friction earlier in the year, General Yang's troops seized the British merchant ship, SS Wanhsien in August 1926, which belonged to The China Navigation Company of the Swire Group. The crew of Cockchafer heard the British crew calling for help and sent an officer and boarding party to Wanhsien to investigate. They found the ship occupied by 100 Chinese soldiers. The Navy party obtained the release of the ship after a heated argument.
On 29 August 1926, China Navigation Co. ship, SS Wanliu suddenly made a U-turn while a wooden boat full of Chinese soldiers, guns, bullets and allowances passed by. The wave caused by the movement of Wanliu capsized the wooden boat. 58 soldiers were drowned.
Thousands of bullets, hundreds of guns and some allowances were lost. Wanliu steamed upstream while the Chinese soldiers aboard attempted to capture the ship.
Official source
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