2015年7月25日 星期六

Gunboats in Tamsui

The presidential gunboat in Tamsui (courtesy of Prof LY Tseng)
Gunboats in Tamsui were never a rare sight, historically they arrived from China, England, France, and Japan, in both war and peace times. Even Steve McQueen's the Sand Pebbles (1966) was kind of there. Nothing really surprises us until the recent realization that two were actually reserved for CKS's personal use.

Tamsui-lang who grew up in town in the 60s still remember seeing a small gunboat moored near the piers behind Tamsui Post Office. It magically disappeared whenever a typhoon visited only to re-emerge from somewhere afterwards. Little did we known that it was part of CKS's "escape" plan.  And it was not only one but two gunboats. According to this site http://60-250-180-26.hinet-ip.hinet.net/taiwan/4425.html:

海軍配合總統府侍衛室的要求, 於1960年春在淡水河口編配一支快艇隊以供萬一蔣介石總統緊急需要時, 可自士林官邸趨車直奔淡水巡防處碼頭登艇, 開赴外海轉乘來接駕之座艦. 當時建造了兩艘交通艇, 並編制"定海"號為座艇, "鎮海"號為副艇. 兩艇規格不明.
Translation: At the request of the Presidential Guards, the Navy commissioned a speedboat team in the spring of 1960 to serve CKS in case of emergency. CKS was to be driven directly from his official residence in Shilin to a gunboat stationed at the coast guard docks in Tamsui and the boat was to ferry him to a presidential warship awaiting at high sea. Two such transfer boats were built and christened DingHai and ChengHai, respectively, with the latter designated as the backup. The specs of these two gunboats remain unknown.

Judging from the part of GuanYin Mountain appearing in the background, the gunboat in the photo above was most likely the DingHai, hiding inside the then restricted zone of the Customs Wharf. The one parked in the back of Tamsui Post Office for all to see was the smaller ChengHai.

This contingency plan of course was never put in action; although it was certainly far more elaborate than that for the first and only president of  the Republic of Formosa, 唐景崧Tang Jing-Song. Who, on June 6, 1895, sneaked from Taipei to board a German passenger ship Arthur anchored in Tamsui Port and sailed off to Foochow, leaving the Taiwanese behind to fend for themselves.

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4 則留言:

  1. Herman2015年7月26日 清晨7:23

    I saw the movie the Sand Pebbles. It reminds me right away pictures of Tamsui I have seen at this blog. That gunboat Steve McQueen served in looked really rusted. How fun to watch a movie and know the location where it is filmed.

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  2. EyeDoc2015年7月26日 清晨7:30

    Hi Herman,

    Part of Sand Pebbles was filmed in Tamsui, see: http://taipics.com/douglas.php

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  3. 匿名2015年7月28日 凌晨2:58

    My memory is somewhat different. The time is early 50s and the boat is smaller, as small as PT boat. It is always anchored in between the sandy delta and the shore, positioned at behind the police station, now is Starbucks coffee store where I spent all my summer vacation swimming and fishing everyday.
    Several times I swam to the boat and got acquainted with the sailors on board. One of the young sailor used to follow me to my home and stayed for dinner.
    It was a beautiful memory.
    ChoSan

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  4. EyeDoc2015年7月28日 清晨5:40

    Hi Chosan, this is very interesting. Was the sailor from Foochow? The smaller one in the back of the Post Office was not a PT boat. It had a tower in the middle (a PT had none). Perhaps we had seen the same boat, tower or not, except at a different parking spot. It was there before the official acknowledgment of 1960 starting date. Another reader remembers a gunboat at Customs Wharf which could be seen from the coastline in in front of the entryway to the golf course. That would be the one in the photo. Actually, just last evening at a gathering, another person who lived in Tamsui in the 50s told me a couple of LSTs in the same area, which I have no memory of. I only recall a rusted out hull of a certain ship.

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