Tonkin Flotilla

The Tonkin Flotilla ("flotille de Tonkin"), a force of despatch vessels and gunboats used for policing the rivers and waterways of the Tonkin Delta, was created in the summer of 1883, during the period of undeclared hostilities that preceded the Sino-French War (August 1884–April 1885).

Background

In March 1882, on the eve of Commandant Henri Rivière's seizure of the citadel of Hanoi, France had two naval divisions in the Far East. The seas to the east of the Hainan Strait were the responsibility of Rear Admiral Charles Meyer’s Far East naval division ("division navale de l’Extrême-Orient"). France’s interests in Indochina were protected by Rivière’s Cochin China naval division ("division navale de Cochin-Chine"), responsible for monitoring coastal navigation between Singapore and the Hainan Strait and along the rivers of Cochin China and Cambodia.

Several vessels under Rivière's command were normally stationed in Cochin China or Cambodia, including the troopship "Drac", the light frigate "Alouette" and the small gunboats "Framée" and "Javeline". "Tilsitt", the flagship of the Cochin China naval division, was disarmed and in permanent dock at Saigon, and served as the division’s storehouse and administrative centre. Most of the division's vessels, however, were stationed in Tonkin, where they were enforcing the right of free navigation on the Red River conceded to France by the Vietnamese government in 1874. Rivière's command in Tonkin consisted of the light frigates "Hamelin", "Parseval" and "Antilope" (the latter due to be replaced shortly by "Pluvier"), the heavy gunboats "Lynx" and "Vipère", the seagoing gunboats "Fanfare", "Léopard" and "Surprise", and the smaller river gunboats "Carabine", "Éclair", "Hache", "Massue", "Trombe" and "Yatagan". The heavy gunboats had crews of 77 men and mounted four cannon, while the smaller gunboats had two cannon each. They all carried a Hotchkiss "canon-revolver" in their tops. [De Marolles, "La dernière campagne du Commandant Rivière", 60–1; Huard, "La guerre du Tonkin", 4–6; Loir, "L’escadre de l’amiral Courbet", 6; Thomazi, "La conquête de l’Indochine", 140]

Following Rivière's defeat and death at the Battle of Paper Bridge (19 June 1883), the navy ministry created a new Tonkin Coasts naval division under the command of Admiral Amédée Courbet, whose mission was to cut off the flow of weapons and ammunition from China to the Black Flag Army by blockading the Gulf of Tonkin. The larger seagoing vessels already on station in Tonkin were transferred to Courbet's new naval division, while the remainder (mostly gunboats) were organised into the 'Tonkin Flotilla'. The flotilla was initially placed under the command of "général de brigade" Alexandre-Eugène Bouët (1833–87), the French "commandant supérieur" in Tonkin. Operational command was given to "capitaine de vaisseau" Morel-Beaulieu.

Composition

The Tonkin Flotilla consisted initially of the light frigate "Pluvier", the heavy gunboats "Lynx" and "Vipère", the seagoing gunboats "Fanfare", "Léopard" and "Surprise", and the smaller river gunboats "Carabine", "Éclair", "Hache", "Massue", "Trombe" and "Yatagan".

In April 1884 the Farcy gunboats "Revolver" and "Mitrailleuse", both of which had seen service on the Seine during the Franco-Prussian War (1870–1), arrived in Tonkin. The two gunboats were transported to Tonkin lashed to the bridge of the troopship "Bien-Hoa", and re-floating them on their arrival at Haiphong was a technical task of considerable complexity. [Rollet de l'Isle, "Au Tonkin et dans les mers de Chine", 92–4]

In October 1883 Admiral Courbet asked the navy ministry to design a new class of shallow-draft gunboats which could penetrate the maze of shallow tributary streams and arroyos of the Delta, so that the Black Flags and pirates could be hunted down far more effectively. The ministry accepted his recommendations, and laid down two new classes of gunboats. Eight gunboats of the "Henri Rivière" class were designed and built specifically for service in Tonkin, while more than a dozen gunboats of the "Arquebuse" class were produced for use in both Tonkin and Madagascar.The gunboats of the former class were named after the French officers who had been killed or mortally wounded in action in Tonkin in Francis Garnier and Henri Rivière’s campaigns: "Francis Garnier", "Colonel Carreau", "Henri Rivière", "Berthe de Villers", "Jacquin" and "Moulun". The gunboats, built at the Claparède works in Lorient, reached Haiphong in the autumn of 1884.

The "Arquebuse" class of gunboats was designed for more general service, in Madagascar as well as Tonkin. Six vessels in this class ("Arquebuse", "Alerte", "Avalanche", "Bourrasque", "Mutine" and "Rafale") were deployed in Tonkin in the summer of 1884. These 70-horsepower gunboats were 30 metres long and 5 metres wide, cruised at 8 knots, and drew less than one-and-a-half metres of water. Although they could carry only 60 men, they were armed with two 90-millimetre cannon and three Hotchkiss "canons-revolvers", so that they packed a powerful punch. Two other gunboats of the "Arquebuse" class, "Casse-tête" and "Estoc", joined the Tonkin flotilla in early 1885. They differed from the earlier models in having two masts, each with a Hotchkiss station.

In February 1885, on the eve of the Lang Son Campaign, the Flotilla also included the gunboats "Hyène", "Jaguar", "Nagotna" and "Petit Haiphong". The Flotilla also deployed a number of steam launches and tugs that were used to tow strings of junks loaded with men, ammunition or food. Contemporary French sources mention the vessels "Pélican", "Ruri-Maru", "Cua-Cam", "Phu-Ly", "Tra-Ly" and "Cua-Dai". Just as French transports were often named after French rivers, these small river craft for use in Tonkin tended to be named after the watercourses of the Tonkin Delta.

By 1886 the Flotilla included the gunboats "Levrard", "Bossant" and "Cuvellier", named after three French officers killed in action in Tonkin during the Sino-French War. [Lecomte, "La vie militaire au Tonkin".]

Operations

Besides policing the inland waterways of Tonkin, the vessels of the Tonkin Flotilla were also used in close support of the movements of the Tonkin Expeditionary Corps, and took part in several actions in the Delta against the Black Flag Army and the Chinese Guangxi and Yunnan Armies.

The gunboat "Song-Cau" took part in a sortie by the French garrison of Nam Dinh in July 1883 that inflicted a serious defeat on besieging Vietnamese forces under the command of Prince Hoang Ke Viem. [Duboc, "Trente cinq mois de campagne", 156–7; "Histoire illustrée de l’expédition du Tonkin", 88–90; Huard, "La guerre du Tonkin", 88–92; Lonlay, "Au Tonkin", 61–3; Nicolas, "Livre d’or de l’infanterie de la marine", 262–4]

The gunboats "Pluvier", "Léopard", "Fanfare", "Éclair", "Mousqueton" and "Trombe" took part in the Battle of Phu Hoai (15 August 1883). [Bastard, "Bazeilles", 189–97; de Lonlay, "Au Tonkin", 82–8; Duboc, "Trente cinq mois de campagne", 162–78; "Histoire illustrée de l’expédition du Tonkin", 91–2; Huard, "La guerre du Tonkin", 99–103; Lung Chang, "Yueh-nan yu Chung-fa chan-cheng", 151-2; Nicolas, "Livre d’or de l’infanterie de la marine", 264–77; Sarrat, "Journal d’un marsouin", 75–7; Thomazi, "Histoire militaire de l’Indochine française", 60–2; Thomazi, "La conquête de l’Indochine", 163–5]

The gunboats "Pluvier", "Léopard", "Fanfare", "Éclair", "Hache" and "Mousqueton" took part in the Battle of Palan (1 September 1883). [Barbou, "Les héros de la France", 304–23; Bastard, "Bazeilles", 197–205; de Lonlay, "Au Tonkin", 88–92; Duboc, "Trente cinq mois de campagne", 180–91 (with map); "Histoire illustrée de l’expédition du Tonkin", 92–5; Huard, "La guerre du Tonkin", 131–5; Nicolas, "Livre d’or de l’infanterie de la marine", 285–95; Sarrat, "Journal d’un marsouin", 81–94; Thomazi, "Histoire militaire de l’Indochine française", 64–6 (with maps)]

The gunboats "Pluvier", "Trombe", "Éclair", "Hache", "Mousqueton" and "Yatagan" took part in the Son Tay Campaign (December 1883).

The Tonkin Flotilla played a decisive strategic role in General François de Négrier's Kep Campaign (October 1884), in which the French defeated a major Chinese invasion of the Tonkin Delta. In late September 1884 large detachments of the Guangxi Army advanced from Lang Son and probed into the Luc Nam valley. On 2 October the French gunboats "Hache" and "Massue", on patrol in the Luc Nam river, were ambushed from the riverbank by a strong force of Chinese infantry. A third gunboat, "Mousqueton", came to the rescue, and the three French vessels escaped downriver to the French post at Sept Pagodes. Although the French suffered heavy casualties in this ambush ("lieutenant de vaisseau" Challier of "Massue" was killed and 32 sailors and soldiers were wounded), the Guangxi Army had disclosed its presence prematurely. [Lecomte, "Lang-Son", 44–53] Back in Hanoi, General Louis Brière de l'Isle reacted swiftly to the Chinese threat. The French used the mobility conferred by their gunboats to move men and supplies between Phu Lang Thuong and the Luc Nam, enabling de Négrier to concentrate his forces rapidly and defeat the two widely-separated wings of the Chinese Guangxi Army one after the other. "Hache", "Éclair" and "Massue", accompanied by the tugs "Phu-Ly" and "Tra-Ly" and the barge "Cua-Dai", landed Donnier's column at Lam on 6 October, threatening the Chinese army's left wing at Chu while de Négrier concentrated against the Chinese forces at Kep. [De Lonlay, "Au Tonkin", 319–28; "Histoire illustrée de l’expédition du Tonkin", 212–13; Huard, "La guerre du Tonkin", 439–42; Lecomte, "Lang-Son", 53–66 and 103; Maury, "Mes campagnes au Tong-King", 115–18; Nicolas, "Livre d’or de l’infanterie de la marine", 357–9] The Farcy gunboat "Mitrailleuse" distinguished itself in the Siege of Tuyen Quang (24 November 1884–3 March 1885).

The Tonkin Flotilla played an important role in the relief of Tuyen Quang. In late February 1885 the gunboats "Henri Rivière", "Berthe de Villers", "Moulun", "Éclair" and "Trombe" transported 2,400 soldiers of Lieutenant-Colonel Laurent Giovanninelli's 1st Brigade from Hanoi up the Red and Clear Rivers and put them ashore near the French post of Phu Doan on the Clear River, fifty kilometres southwest of Tuyen Quang. Giovanninelli had hoped to have their support when he attacked an important Chinese blocking position at Hoa Moc, but the water level in the Clear River was so low that the gunboats grounded several kilometres above Phu Doan. Their crews endured a week of back-breaking labour, hauling the gunboats along an almost-dry river bed, but despite their utmost efforts the gunboats were absent from the Battle of Hoa Moc on 2 March. Some of the French crewmen were said to have wept with rage at their inability to take part in the crucial battle for Tuyen Quang. The gunboats finally reached Tuyen Quang on 4 March, the day after the post was relieved. General Brière de l'Isle was careful to acknowledge the heroic efforts made by their captains and crews in an order of the day issued on 5 March. After praising the courage of the marine infantry and Turcos of the 1st Brigade, who suffered more than 400 casualties storming the Chinese defences at Hoa Moc, he praised the sacrifices made by the men of the Flotilla:

You were luckier than the officers and the crews of the gunboats "Henri Rivière", "Berthe de Villers", "Moulun", "Éclair" and "Trombe", who had hoped right up to the last moment to share your dangers. At the cost of unimaginable efforts they dragged their vessels for seven consecutive days up a waterless river and succeeded in reaching Phu Doan, Yu Oc and the approaches to Tuyen Quang. They thus demonstrated that obstacles hitherto supposed insurmountable did not exist for them. [Huguet, "En colonne", 89–93; Lecomte, "La vie militaire au Tonkin", 215–31; Lecomte, "Lang-Son", 324–9; Nicolas, "Livre d’or de l’infanterie de la marine", 402–9; Thomazi, "Histoire militaire de l’Indochine française", 107–8; Thomazi, "La conquête de l’Indochine", 247–8]

Vessels of the Tonkin Flotilla

Notes

References

* De Lonlay, D., "Au Tonkin, 1883-1885" (Paris, 1886)
* Dreyfus, G, "Lettres du Tonkin, 1884-6" (Paris, 1888)
* Duboc, E., "Trente cinq mois de campagne en Chine, au Tonkin" (Paris, 1899)
* Huard, "La guerre du Tonkin" (Paris, 1887)
* Lecomte, J., "La vie militaire au Tonkin" (Paris, 1893)
* Loir, Maurice, "L'escadre de l'amiral Courbet" (Paris, 1886)
* Marolles, Vice-amiral de, "La dernière campagne du Commandant Henri Rivière" (Paris, 1932)
* Thomazi, A., "La conquête de l'Indochine" (Paris, 1934)
* Thomazi, A., "Histoire militaire de l'Indochine français" (Hanoi, 1931)