Irish Ships and Shipping
Lieutenant Commander John Kerans
and the
yangtse river incident
1915-1985
from John Davis
I was given a fascinating little book recently, entitled
'Last Action Hero of the British Empire' by Nigel Farndale. Now, I am in fact a
pacifist, and war time adventure tales of what ho and daring-do aren't exactly
grist to my mill, but I do also thoroughly enjoy the tension and heroism of this
type of story.
It was about Lieutenant Commander John Kerans (who lived
from 1915 to 1985) and the fascinating thing about Kerans was that he was born
and grew up in Birr Co.Offaly Ireland a fact that probably only two or three
people know about.
Well, what did Cdr Kerans do and why is he so famous?
Kerans possessed a volcanic temperament, was a dipsomaniac
and a tad self-destructive.
The Navy couldn't really handle his mercurial nature and
sent him off to a dull, mundane job in Nanking, China.
But then history overtook him and he was the right person
in the right place at the right time:
in April 1949 a Royal Navy frigate, HMS Amethyst, was
shelled in an unprovoked attack by the Chinese Communists. The ship was now
without a Captain and was hemmed in, trapped, on the Yangtse River.
The Admiralty called upon Kerans, as the nearest local
replacement, to go to the rescue.
What had probably happened was that the communists mistook
the Amethyst for a Nationalist ship and fired upon her. (China at the time was
in a state of civil war: the Communist army, led by Mao Tse-tung had advanced
from the north of the country and were now amassed on the Yangtse. Their
opponents, the Nationalists, were led by Chiang Kai-shek and were still
nominally in power. The nationalist forces were gathered around the capital,
Nanking on the opposite bank of the river).
Afterwards they tried to cover up their enormous gaffe and
the New China News Agency issued the statement that the •British Imperialist
Navy' had joined forces with the 'Nationalist reactionaries' to challenge the
communists and that the Amethyst had fired first.
In Britain the reaction was predictable: In London the Red
Flag was burnt. The leader of the British Communist Party was booed and chased
from a hall when he said the Communists were justified in their actions. The
situation was deemed to be an international crisis.
Once Kerans boarded the Amethyst and took over its command
the Admiralty became worried that he would not be fit for the job and they would
become a laughing stock. How ever the Commander rose to the occasion
marvellously. He kept the men's morale up over an intolerably dull 100 days on
the Yangtse and then made a dramatic dash for the sea. Prior to this break for
the sea Ferndale depicts him standing on deck weighing up his chances; 'He put
his odds of covering the 150 miles to the open sea running a gauntlet of enemy
guns, with
half a crew, in a shell-damaged ship, in the dark, over
hazardous waters, without lights, pilot, adequate charts, compass, secure codes
for signals, gyro or radar - at no more than 50/50.' "
Under the cover of darkness the ship raised anchor and
slipped quietly away. It was an extraordinarily tense night, death was an ever
imminent prospect and there were one or two touch and go moments; eventually
however Amethyst broke free and attained safety.
In the ensuing media hullabaloo Kerans was celebrated as
the swashbuckling successor of Drake and Raleigh. Amusingly, his cousin sent the
following message to him: 'I was giving up hope, being a pessimist, but I should
have realised the supplies of gin would be getting low and it would take all the
devils of Hell to stand between you and fresh supplies.'