During March, 1926, contracts were let to the Kiangnan Dock and Engineering Company at Shanghai, China, and construction was begun on six new gunboats. Commander Bryson Bruce, U. S. Navy, and Commander L. S. Border (C.C.), U. S. Navy, accompanied by a small staff, set up shop in an office at the Kiangnan works and assumed the task of supervising the building of the Luzon, Oahu, Mindanao, Panay, Guam, and Tutuila. These six were to replace the Helena, Pigeon, Penguin, Elcano, Villalobos, and Pampanga, traditional relics of doubtful origin that had been making colorful cruises from ten to fifty years. The need that we had for these new gunboats can be told very positively by the officers and men of the Villalobos, which, caught by too much draft for escape in the receding water of the falling river, remained for the winter in the “deep hole’’ at Changsha and was aground on her own ashes long before spring. The officers and men who that same spring experienced a trip up the Yangtze with a rising current against which the Elcano ran all day at full speed and made good but fifteen miles over the ground, might also assist in the story of how badly they were needed.
The gunboats were to be built in three sizes: Luzon and Mindanao, 198 feet long, 31 feet beam, displacement 615 tons, and draft of 6 feet; Oahu and Panay, 180 feet long, 28 feet beam, displacement 474 tons, and draft of 5 feet 6 inches; Guam and Tutuila, 150 feet long, 27 feet beam, displacement 378 tons, and draft of 5 feet 3 inches. The Luzon and the Panay were for South China duty, while the other four were to be used for Yangtze River patrol.
To get the minimum draft, with the required power, reciprocating engines had to be used. Two of the engines were to be made in the Kiangnan machine shops, while those for the other four were to be made in the navy yard at New York and shipped out east to be assembled and fitted. Boilers and pumps were to be from standard stock, but water supply had to be given special consideration. Due to the abundance of cholera and typhoid fever along the Whang- poo and Yangtze rivers, low pressure evaporators could not be used for fear that germs might carry over with the distillate and prove fatal. A high-pressure type system was planned, in which the water must first be filtered and then subjected to sufficient heat of evaporation to insure safety.
One particularly likable feature is the ice plant and cold room. Experience of long periods away from markets for fresh provisions proved that space had to be provided where perishable vegetables sufficient in quantity for a cruise of four weeks could be kept at a chilled temperature. In addition to this, if required, a ton of ice each day may be had as output.
Most river boats have the propellers acting in tubes formed by the shape of the bottom at the stern. This supposedly well- founded principle was to be absolutely disregarded and our gunboats made with faired sterns. This later proved its worth, it seems, when the Guam and Tutuila made a knot more than their contract speed.
Failure of steering gear is the outstanding cause of many accidents on the Yangtze River. To get around this, a three-rudder steam steering system is to be so arranged that stand-by hand steering can be substituted on practically instantaneous notice. This is done by having the hand gear always engaged. The wheel ropes are rove through as shown in the diagram.
A and B are drums attached to the steam steering engine and hand wheel respectively. Two movable sheaves, aa, are fastened to the ends of the tiller chains. Drum B is held secure by a pin that prevents it from rotating. The steering engine is controlled by the regular differential valve through a reach rod. As the engine turns drum A, the hand drum B is locked, tension is put on a, and a' is slackened. The wheel rope reeves through the movable blocks at a and a', allowing the rudders to be pulled over. In the event that the steering engine breaks down, drum A becomes fixed. The pin holding drum B is pulled out and the steering action is immediately transferred to the hand gear on the bridge.
Construction commenced briskly enough, but review of the contract brought out that bullet-proof metal galvanized by the “hot process” must be used. None could be had in Shanghai in sufficient bulk at any price. Lieutenant Commander J. W. Fowler (C.C.), U. S. Navy, solved this problem quite easily by manufacturing a galvanizing plant and schooling the Chinese in its use. The “hot process” of galvanizing iron derives its name from the action of plunging a plate, cleaned of scale by friction with the aid of acid, into a molten zinc bath. Mr. Fowler planned three tanks to do this, one for pickling, a second for a washing tank, and a third for the zinc bath, all of which had to be made in the Kiangnan shops. The first tank completed was too short and was consigned to the junk heap, just full of “me no savvies.” Three were then made according to prints, a blower and a burner provided, and the process started. Success was slightly hampered, however, when “John Chino,” before going home one night, turned the fires out under the tank, and allowed the “dip” to be ruined by forming a solid. After four days’ heating again, the zinc was still solid. It had to be chipped out and thrown away. The system, mastered at last, allows the Kiangnan engineers to brag of the first and only galvanizing plant in Shanghai.
Work lingered in the spring of last year when the Cantonese contingent drove the Northerners out of Shanghai, appropriated the yard, and drafted many of the workmen into the army. During the April showers, when the same disturbing force cornered the umbrella market, dispatched all available umbrellas to the Nanking soldiers, and heartlessly left the gunboat workers exposed to the elements, those that remained were practically useless, because a Chinese works little, if at all, in rainy or misty weather. Soon after this, the contract was apparently doomed to be brought to a close when the Chinese admiral in charge of Shanghai issued an ultimatum to the effect that a rusty old barge should be converted into a gunboat in twenty-four hours, or off would come the heads of all concerned. The task seemed so impossible that everyone threw up his hands in despair, but in view of the unmistakable penalty involved, something had to be done. The matter ended by the miraculous conversion of the barge into a snappy man-o’-war; and the work on our gunboats continued. Fortunately for the U. S. Navy, the contract for these gunboats was let to a yard run by the Chinese government. Even after the Kiangnan works fell into the hands of the Nationalists, the work continued. Agitators spread propaganda against it, of course. Some recommended that they be taken over for the Cantonese cause, while others said that it was foolish for the government to build ships that would later be engaged in shooting at them. Without doubt, had the construction been going on at any other yard than at the Kiangnan works when Shanghai was captured, the boats would never have been finished; but finally, on December 28, 1927, the Guam, and on March 2, 1928, the Tutuila, were commissioned.
The Guam and the Tutuila, the two smallest of the group, have 150 feet length, 27 feet beam, and draw about 6 feet of water loaded for a steaming radius of two thousand miles. For these two ships, the engines were made in Shanghai by the Kiangnan Company according to English machinery standards. These engines have about the size and appearance of those that were installed on the torpedo boats of the Biddle class, with the exception that the slow, hand-working, painstaking Chinese has burnished and polished each piece until the assemblage is as shiny as the inside of a watch. Contract speed was set at fourteen knots, but on their trials, each did better than fifteen. Engines for the other four were made in the New York Navy Yard. Choice between the two types naturally leans toward home production, because of the different standards in machine threads used. English standard has one more thread per inch than United States standard, and nuts to fit such threads are as correspondingly peculiar. As the auxiliary pumps are divided between Blake-Knowles and Weir type, the necessity arises for the two boats already completed to carry a double allowance of wrenches and threading tools.
Two Thornycroft boilers, each fitted with three Thornycroft burners and one Ray burner, easily furnish sufficient steam to drive the engines at 375 revolutions a minute. Lighting and power are obtained from two Westinghouse generators of the latest twenty-five kilowatt type, supplemented by an auxiliary kerosene-engine generator of the Westinghouse twelve-and- a-half kilowatt type for use at anchor during summer months. Commander Bruce has had unlimited freedom in laying out the machinery units, and he has used his skill and experience in planning and forming one of the best balanced engineering plants imaginable.
The complement calls for three line officers, a medical officer, and forty-seven men. Quarters are spacious, comfortable, and, owing to their location above decks, are expected to be cool and well ventilated. The junior line officer is engineering and disbursing officer. All the other tasks aboard fall to the lot of the executive officer. Of his numerous cares, perhaps the least will be his gunnery schedule. The Guam and the Tutuila each carry two 3-inch 23-caliber guns and eight Lewis machine guns in specially protected mounts. To people who have been in the recent trouble on the Yangtze, these seem like excellent sporting arms to pot at ducks on a trip up or down river. However, they are quite sufficient for upper river protection. Due to poor accommodations, if any, in the line of hospitalization in Chinese ports, minute detail has been observed in fitting out a sick bay in which the medical officer can perform all minor operations with ease. This is perhaps the most pleasant space on the ship.
Work at present is being concentrated on the Luzon, in order to finish her trials by May. With three out, the rest, aided by the penalty clause in the contract, will rapidly follow. All of these ships were scheduled to be commissioned by March, 1927, under penalty of forfeiture of twenty dollars per ship for each day up to three months, and forty dollars per ship for each day until completion of the contract. When the Kiangnan authorities found that they were in a position to lose money, they protested and asked for an extension of the time limit. With true Chinese imaginative genius, they presented their request with the excuse that too many rainy days were the cause of the delay. Commander Border investigated this and found that the normal rainfall for Shanghai is forty-nine inches. During the past year the weather bureau recorded fifty inches of rainfall. The request was returned with, the endorsement that, as no abnormally stormy conditions had existed, the extension was not approved. The same request was re-submitted with reasons to the effect that because of all the troubles in Shanghai, the workmen would not produce on days half as rainy as before. On this request, half the time of extension requested was allowed.
Barring more uprisings and rainy days, the remaining three boats should be away by November. Then the Yangtze River will be patrolled by a U. S. Navy that does not have to bow to current by waiting for the sun to come up and dry a heavy dew before proceeding through the famous gorges.