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Imperial China:
One of the Last Qing Dynasty War Junks, Ningpo later Whang Hu.
When the Qing Dynasty fell in 1911, this old-girl renegade served as a gunship for almost 158 years. She first set sailed in 1753 as a fast merchant junk. But her corrupt captains, after realizing she was one of the fastest ships in Southern China, soon used her as a pirate & smuggling ship, and also a mercenary in the service of anti-Imperial rebels in 1796. She was seized by the Imperial government in 1806 and resold to merchants, only to be caught smuggling silk & opium in 1823. In 1834 she was apprehended by the British for trafficking slave girls to Guangzhou (Canton) and in 1841, she was passed over to the Imperial government to serve as a pirate hunter and prison ship (pirates in China were imprisoned by the warships that captured them, usually for a short while since they were then brought to shore and publicly executed).
In 1850s-1860s, the then-largest civil war in human history erupted: the Taiping Rebellion. Stationed as she were in the heart of Taiping rebel territory, she served as a rebel gunship, until she was retaken by the Imperial government in 1861. From then on she served as an Imperial gunboat policing the waters of Southern China's coastline while also moonlighting as a floating circus, where its crew disembarked and performed martial arts skills. Her gun deck was upgraded during this time as well to fire breech loaders instead of muzzle loaders.
In 1911 she fought her last battle during the Chinese Revolution in Hankou, where she was captured by the Revolutionaries. As the nascent Chinese republic wanted to modernize its fleet, it had no use for an old traditional warship, so they sold her to an American carnival company, who towed her all the way to San Pedro, California in 1913. There the local residents of the Chinatown were hired as performers to play the role of Imperial Chinese sailors/pirates in West Coast carnivals.
One of the Last Qing Dynasty War Junks, Ningpo later Whang Hu.
When the Qing Dynasty fell in 1911, this old-girl renegade served as a gunship for almost 158 years. She first set sailed in 1753 as a fast merchant junk. But her corrupt captains, after realizing she was one of the fastest ships in Southern China, soon used her as a pirate & smuggling ship, and also a mercenary in the service of anti-Imperial rebels in 1796. She was seized by the Imperial government in 1806 and resold to merchants, only to be caught smuggling silk & opium in 1823. In 1834 she was apprehended by the British for trafficking slave girls to Guangzhou (Canton) and in 1841, she was passed over to the Imperial government to serve as a pirate hunter and prison ship (pirates in China were imprisoned by the warships that captured them, usually for a short while since they were then brought to shore and publicly executed).
In 1850s-1860s, the then-largest civil war in human history erupted: the Taiping Rebellion. Stationed as she were in the heart of Taiping rebel territory, she served as a rebel gunship, until she was retaken by the Imperial government in 1861. From then on she served as an Imperial gunboat policing the waters of Southern China's coastline while also moonlighting as a floating circus, where its crew disembarked and performed martial arts skills. Her gun deck was upgraded during this time as well to fire breech loaders instead of muzzle loaders.
In 1911 she fought her last battle during the Chinese Revolution in Hankou, where she was captured by the Revolutionaries. As the nascent Chinese republic wanted to modernize its fleet, it had no use for an old traditional warship, so they sold her to an American carnival company, who towed her all the way to San Pedro, California in 1913. There the local residents of the Chinatown were hired as performers to play the role of Imperial Chinese sailors/pirates in West Coast carnivals.
