The ''Alice Dollar'' incident was an affair involving a

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

-flagged

merchant ship A merchant ship, merchant vessel, trading vessel, or merchantman is a watercraft that transports cargo or carries passengers for hire. This is in contrast to pleasure craft, which are used for personal recreation, and naval ships, which are u ...

and an American warship in 1920.

Chinese Chinese can refer to: * Something related to China * Chinese people, people of Chinese nationality, citizenship, and/or ethnicity **''Zhonghua minzu'', the supra-ethnic concept of the Chinese nation ** List of ethnic groups in China, people of va ...

rebel A rebel is a participant in a rebellion. Rebel or rebels may also refer to: People * Rebel (given name) * Rebel (surname) * Patriot (American Revolution), during the American Revolution * American Southerners, as a form of self-identification; s ...

s along the

Yangtze River The Yangtze or Yangzi ( or ; ) is the longest list of rivers of Asia, river in Asia, the list of rivers by length, third-longest in the world, and the longest in the world to flow entirely within one country. It rises at Jari Hill in th ...

attacked the SS ''Alice Dollar'' on July 20, so the

gunboat A gunboat is a naval watercraft designed for the express purpose of carrying one or more guns to bombard coastal targets, as opposed to those military craft designed for naval warfare, or for ferrying troops or supplies. History Pre-steam ...

was assigned to escort the vessel out of the area. On the following day, during the operation, rebels attacked again but were silenced by American counter-fire.Tolley, p. 88–89.

Incident

The ''Alice Dollar'', of the

Dollar Line APL, formerly called American President Lines Ltd., is an American container shipping company that is a subsidiary of French shipping company CMA CGM. It operates an all-container ship fleet, including 9 U.S. flagged container vessels. In 1938, ...

, was steaming upriver to the

treaty port Treaty ports (; ja, 条約港) were the port cities in China and Japan that were opened to foreign trade mainly by the unequal treaties forced upon them by Western powers, as well as cities in Korea opened up similarly by the Japanese Empire. ...

of Tang Chia To in the day of July 20 when armed Chinese rebels, belonging to a local

warlord A warlord is a person who exercises military, economic, and political control over a region in a country without a strong national government; largely because of coercive control over the armed forces. Warlords have existed throughout much of h ...

, opened fire on the ship with

small arms A firearm is any type of gun designed to be readily carried and used by an individual. The term is legally defined further in different countries (see Legal definitions). The first firearms originated in 10th-century China, when bamboo tubes c ...

. The Americans were able to increase their speed and escape to port with minor damage and no casualties.

Captain Captain is a title, an appellative for the commanding officer of a military unit; the supreme leader of a navy ship, merchant ship, aeroplane, spacecraft, or other vessel; or the commander of a port, fire or police department, election precinct, e ...

C. D. Gilroy, of USS ''Monocacy'', was informed of the situation and asked to escort the merchant ship back down the river on the next day, July 21. While only four miles off

Chongqing Chongqing ( or ; ; Sichuanese dialects, Sichuanese pronunciation: , Standard Mandarin pronunciation: ), Postal Romanization, alternately romanized as Chungking (), is a Direct-administered municipalities of China, municipality in Southwes ...

, Chinese rebels along the river again attacked from the north bank of the Yangtze. Due to other related

incidents ''Incidents'' is a 1987 collection of four essays by Roland Barthes. It was published posthumously by François Wahl, Barthes' literary executor. Summary In the first essay, ''La Lumiere du Sud-Ouest'', first published in ''L'Humanité'' in 1977 ...

in the past, the crews of ''Monocacy''s

machine gun A machine gun is a fully automatic, rifled autoloading firearm designed for sustained direct fire with rifle cartridges. Other automatic firearms such as automatic shotguns and automatic rifles (including assault rifles and battle rifles) a ...

s and

cannon A cannon is a large- caliber gun classified as a type of artillery, which usually launches a projectile using explosive chemical propellant. Gunpowder ("black powder") was the primary propellant before the invention of smokeless powder ...

s were immediately ordered to return fire. Within just a few minutes and after firing six shells, the Chinese were in retreat but downriver, they attacked once more. The Americans again returned fire and shot several more shells and hundreds of bullets into the surrounding hills, forcing the rebels to abandon their attempt. Captain Gilroy estimated that his ship was fired on 600 times though only 15 bullet holes were counted and two men were slightly wounded. After the affair, the U.S. consul in Chongqing demanded and received a Chinese apology but no restitution was requested.

References

* {{1920 shipwrecks Alice Dollar Alice Dollar Maritime incidents in 1920 Alice Dollar Alice Dollar Alice Dollar China–United States relations Conflicts in 1920 July 1920 events

Incident

See also

References