Battle of Nam Quan | |||||||
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Part of Piracy in Asia | |||||||
A picture of a Chinese junk (left) and a lorcha (right). | |||||||
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Belligerents | |||||||
United Kingdom Qing dynasty | Chinese Pirates | ||||||
Strength | |||||||
Land: Unknown number of Chinese civilians Sea: 1 sloop-of-war | Land: ~500 pirates Sea: 1 lorcha 7 war-junks | ||||||
Casualties and losses | |||||||
British: 3 killed 1 sloop-of-war damaged Chinese: unknown | ~500 killed or wounded 3 war-junks sunk 1 lorcha captured 4 war-junks captured | ||||||
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The Battle of Nam Quan was fought in 1853 as part of a British anti-piracy operation in China. A Royal Navy sloop-of-war encountered eight pirate ships near Nam Quan and defeated them in a decisive action with help from armed Chinese civilians on land. [1]
For years the United Kingdom, the Qing dynasty, the United States and the Portuguese of Macao operated against the pirates of southwestern China. It took decades to finally clear the South China Sea of pirate junks. The largest problem was that the western and Chinese navies did not have the naval strength to combat the pirates. However, operations continued despite the weakness and several significant battles were fought. Usually the sailors of the navies were heavily out-numbered, but they were not out-gunned by the pirates, and so this did not prevent them from hunting and engaging the brigands wherever found. The RN's biggest problem was finding them. [2]
HMS Rattler, of 12 guns, was one of the Royal Navy vessels assigned to counter piracy. In the early 1850s she participated in several actions with pirates. On 10 May 1853 Rattler found pirates off Nam Quan, which is near the present day border with Vietnam. Just days before, the pirates had captured a convoy of merchant ships. The pirates were holding the vessels off Nam Quan and demanding that a ransom be paid for their release. When Rattler approached she opened fire at long range on the pirate flagship. The pirate flagship returned fire but was quickly sunk. Rattler then engaged a second junk and sank her too with gunfire before moving on to capture a third which was burned and then sunk. [3]
Disheartened, the remaining pirate ships broke off the action and were beached by their crews. At least half of the 1,000 pirates escaped to shore but most of them were attacked by Chinese militia and killed. One group, after their ship was grounded, took over a merchant junk, killed its crew, and began to flee. The British sent their cutter after it but when it closed in on the junk, the pirates opened fire and repulsed the attack. Three Britons, one officer and two enlisted men, were killed. Out of over 1,000 pirates, 500 were estimated to have been killed or wounded; the British took no prisoners. The British took and refloated all four of the beached junks and the one lorcha. Eighty-four cannons were also taken along with the remaining merchant ships; one captured junk escaped. [4]
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An armed merchantman is a merchant ship equipped with guns, usually for defensive purposes, either by design or after the fact. In the days of sail, piracy and privateers, many merchantmen would be routinely armed, especially those engaging in long distance and high value trade. In more modern times, auxiliary cruisers were used offensively as merchant raiders to disrupt trade chiefly during both World War I and World War II, particularly by Germany.
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Shap-ng-tsai was a Chinese pirate active in the South China Sea from about 1845 to 1859. He was one of the two most notorious South China Sea pirates of the era, along with Chui A-poo. He commanded about 70 junks stationed at Dianbai, about 180 miles west of Hong Kong. Coastal villages and traders paid Shap-ng-tsai protection money so they would not be attacked. Chinese naval ships that pursued the pirate were captured and their officers taken captive and held for ransom. The Chinese government offered him a pardon and the rank of officer in the military at first he did not accept, but he eventually did so to avoid legal ramifications.
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The Battle of Ty-ho Bay was a significant naval engagement in 1855 involving the United Kingdom and United States against Chinese pirates. The action off Tai O, Hong Kong was to rescue captured merchant vessels, held by a fleet of armed war-junks. British and American forces defeated the pirates in one of the last major battles between Chinese pirate fleets and western navies. It was also one of the first joint operations undertaken by British and American forces.
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The Battle of Cape Lopez was fought in early 1722 during the Golden Age of Piracy. A Royal Navy ship of the line under the command of Captain Chaloner Ogle defeated the pirate ship of Bartholomew Roberts off the coast of Gabon, West Africa.
The Battle of the Leotung was a British victory against an overwhelming fleet of Chinese pirate ships. In 1855 the Royal Navy launched a series of operations into the Gulf of Leotung and surrounding area to suppress piracy, several battles were fought and hundreds of pirates were killed.
The Battle of Tonkin River was a major naval battle fought in northern Vietnam between the pirates of Shap Ng-tsai and the British Royal Navy with aid from the Qing Chinese navy and the Tonkinese. The 1849 expedition led to the destruction of Shap Ng-tsai's fleet and the loss of over 2,000 men. The battle occurred over a three-day period at the mouth of the Tonkin River, near present-day Hai Phong.
The Battle of Tysami was a military engagement involving a warship from the British China Squadron and the Chinese pirates of Chui A-poo. It was fought in September 1849 off Tysami, Harlaim Bay, China, and ended with a Royal Navy victory. It was also the precursor engagement to the larger Battle of Pinghoi Creek where Chui A-poo's fleet was destroyed.
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The West Indies Squadron, or the West Indies Station, was a United States Navy squadron that operated in the West Indies in the early nineteenth century. It was formed due to the need to suppress piracy in the Caribbean Sea, the Antilles and the Gulf of Mexico region of the Atlantic Ocean. This unit later engaged in the Second Seminole War until being combined with the Home Squadron in 1842. From 1822 to 1826 the squadron was based out of Saint Thomas Island until the Pensacola Naval Yard was constructed.
The New Orleans Squadron or the New Orleans Station was a United States Navy squadron raised out of the growing threat the United Kingdom posed to Louisiana during the War of 1812. The first squadron consisted of over a dozen vessels and was mostly defeated during the war. Afterward, new ships were stationed at New Orleans which engaged in counter-piracy operations for over twenty years. The New Orleans Squadron was eventually merged with the Home Squadron.
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The Battle of Doro Passage was a naval engagement during the United States Navy's operation against Greek pirates in the Aegean Sea. On October 16, 1827 a British merchant ship was attacked by pirates in Doro Passage off the islands of Andros and Negroponte but was retaken by American sailors.
The West Indies Anti-Piracy Operations were a series of military operations and engagements undertaken by the United States Navy against pirates in and around the Antilles. Between 1814 and 1825, the American West Indies Squadron hunted pirates on both sea and land, primarily around Cuba and Puerto Rico. After the capture of Roberto Cofresi in 1825, acts of piracy became rare, and the operation was considered a success, although limited occurrences went on until slightly after the start of the 20th century.
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