PREVIEW: ORDERS, DECORATIONS, MEDALS & MILITARIA 24 MAY

The Yangtze Incident is one of the most celebrated moments in British naval history, and a textbook example of ingenious improvisation, courage and resolve against the odds. It even inspired a feature film starring leading British actor Richard Todd.

Now the Naval General Service Medal awarded to one of the chief architects of its successful resolution will come to auction here.

Eric Noble Saunders was an Able Seaman and aged just 21 in April 1949 when he was among the crew of the frigate HMS Amethyst as it set off up the Yangtze river during the Chinese Civil War. Its orders were to relieve H.M.S. Consort as the guardship for the British Embassy at Nanjing, then the capital of the Nationalist republic of China.

The ship’s course placed it between the warring Nationalists on the south bank of the river and the Communists occupying the north. Disaster struck at 09.30 on 20 April 1949 when a Communist shore battery opened fire, hitting the bridge, wheelhouse and low-power room of the Amethyst, and killing her Captain. The frigate slewed to port and grounded on a sandbank.

A sitting duck as shelling continued, Amethyst was holed severely in her hull, including near the waterline, the sickbay and the port engine room. Only one turret was capable of returning fire and did so until it was disabled.

Within half an hour of the incident beginning, the wounded First Lieutenant ordered the evacuation of all but essential personnel; just over 60 men reached the southern shore. By the time shelling ceased at 11am, the ship’s casualty list included 22 killed and 31 wounded, the latter being taken off by sampan the next day, and the evacuation of non-essential personnel completed. The ship had been hit over 50 times, and People’s Liberation Army (P.L.A.) snipers continued to fire at any visible movement on board.

Despite the catastrophic damage, Amethyst was re-floated after midnight, but any attempt to flee the scene was thwarted by the Communist batteries which fired on her whenever she attempted to get underway.

She had been trapped in position for two days when the British Assistant Naval Attaché, Lieutenant-Commander Kerans, came on board and took over command. The remaining crew numbered around 50, including Saunders.

Kerans tried to resolve the crisis by negotiating with the Communists, but they made it a precondition that he should admit that the ship had wrongly invaded Chinese national waters and had fired upon the P.L.A. first (in 1988 the Chinese commander, Ye Fei, admitted that it was his troops that opened fire first), and so the stalemate continued.

According to Yangtse Incident by Lawrence Earl: “As early as mid-May Kerans reserved a corner of his mind for thinking about a possible break-out from the river in case his negotiations for a safe-conduct should fail. With this in his mind he decided to get the ship into seaworthy shape as soon as possible. He appointed Garns and Saunders, under the supervision of Strain, as a damage-control party, which soon became jocularly known among the ship’s company as the Wrecker’s Union. But Kerans did not mention to anyone his secret fears that a break-out might eventually become the only avenue to freedom.
“Garns and Saunders pitched in with great enthusiasm. They busily stuffed hammocks with mattresses and blankets and old clothing – anything they could lay their hands on that could be spared. Then they took these bulging, sausage-like wads and stuffed them into the gaping shell-holes. They used from one to three of these at a time, according to the size of the hole. After that they shored up the damaged area with planks, using the stock of timber – which they cut down to the proper sizes – which, fortunately, had been taken aboard in Malaya some time previously. In a month they had succeeded in adequately filling in eight holes along the waterline; but one waterline hole, dead astern and directly over the rudder, resisted all their efforts.

“Garns was a short, sandy-haired man of about thirty years of age [whose period of engagement in the Navy ended while Amethyst was trapped]. “Here I am, stuck,” he said sadly to Saunders. He had been in the Navy for twelve years. “One thing I can tell you, though: the Navy will never get me again after this. No, Sir!” Saunders grinned. “Don’t be an ass, Garnsey. Don’t you know you’ll never get out of this predicament? Don’t you know you’ll never be demobbed now?” Garns gave him a long, sideways look of suspicion. “You’ll be soldiering on, me lad,” he said, “long after I get back to Civvie Street. And, brother, am I going to have the laugh on you!”

“Kerans was feeling pretty good about the break-out now that the decision had been made. He had worked out all the angles, quietly and alone, during the long, tiresome wait. He drew up a list of seventeen petty officers and key ratings and ordered them to meet in his cabin at about eight that evening. The seventeen trooped silently into Kerans’ small cabin. There was not much room to spare. The door was shut, and almost at once the air became stifling. “I’m going to break out tonight at ten,” Kerans said matter-of-factly.

“When Amethyst finally slipped her mooring, a brief maelstrom of firing, mostly inaccurate and causing much damage to the Communists themselves, enabled Kerans to steer Amethyst neatly through and under and around the wild barrage and make good his escape, [having suffered only one hit]. Reports came up from the engine-room that Amethyst was flooding badly from the one waterline hole, right in the stern, which Garns and Saunders had been unable to repair. Pumps were put into action to keep the water in check. Kerans prayed: ‘Dear God, don’t let it flood so badly that it will put paid to my steering’.”

Saunders was present throughout the hostage crisis and was instrumental in enabling the famous escape and dash down the Yangtze River that ended it (after 101 days) on the night of 30-31 July.

Amethyst rejoined the Fleet and returned to England on 1 November 1949. The Commander-in-Chief, Plymouth, notified the ship’s company that their conduct had been ‘up to standard’. King George VI was more effusive: ‘Please convey to the commanding officer and ship’s company of H.M.S. Amethyst my hearty congratulations on their daring exploit to re-join the Fleet. The courage, skill and determination shown by all on board have my highest commendation. Splice the mainbrace.’

Saunders took part in the celebrations when the ship returned home and sat on Table 2 at the Celebratory Dinner at the Dorchester Hotel, London, on 16 November 1949. He married in Liverpool in 1951, and was discharged from the Navy on 14 December 1953, after seven years’ service. He died in Liverpool on 15 January 1968.

Noonans will offer his 1949 H.M.S. Amethyst Yangtze Incident Naval General Service Medal with an estimate of £2,800-3,200.