Niushan Island, also known as Niushan Dao,, United States National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency Niushandao, Kiushan Tao or , is an

island An island (or isle) is an isolated piece of habitat that is surrounded by a dramatically different habitat, such as water. Very small islands such as emergent land features on atolls can be called islets, skerries, cays or keys. An island ...

in Nanlai Village (), Aoqian Town (),

Pingtan County Pingtan County () is a county comprising 126 islands in the Taiwan Strait, it is under the administration of the prefecture-level city of Fuzhou, the capital of Fujian Province, China. Now it is also the subject of newly founded Pingtan Compr ...

Fuzhou Fuzhou (; , Fuzhounese: Hokchew, ''Hók-ciŭ''), alternately romanized as Foochow, is the capital and one of the largest cities in Fujian province, China. Along with the many counties of Ningde, those of Fuzhou are considered to constitute t ...

Fujian Province Fujian (; alternately romanized as Fukien or Hokkien) is a province on the southeastern coast of China. Fujian is bordered by Zhejiang to the north, Jiangxi to the west, Guangdong to the south, and the Taiwan Strait to the east. Its cap ...

in the

People's Republic of China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...

. It forms part of the boundary between the

East East or Orient is one of the four cardinal directions or points of the compass. It is the opposite direction from west and is the direction from which the Sun rises on the Earth. Etymology As in other languages, the word is formed from the fa ...

and

South China Sea The South China Sea is a marginal sea of the Western Pacific Ocean. It is bounded in the north by the shores of South China (hence the name), in the west by the Indochinese Peninsula, in the east by the islands of Taiwan and northwestern Phil ...

s at the north end of the

Taiwan Strait The Taiwan Strait is a -wide strait separating the island of Taiwan and continental Asia. The strait is part of the South China Sea and connects to the East China Sea to the north. The narrowest part is wide. The Taiwan Strait is itself a s ...

. Niushan Island is the closest China (PRC)-administered island to

Taiwan Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia, at the junction of the East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocean, with the People's Republic of China (PRC) to the northwest, Japan to the nort ...

(main island).

History

19th century

The island and its shoals are a hazard to navigation. In 1873, a lighthouse was built on the island. A 1901 sailing manual describes the island as being about 218 feet high, having two islets, and dangerous rocks to the north and south. The manual describes the light: :LIGHT.—A ''fixed white'' light is exhibited from a lighthouse 54 feet in height, on the summit of Turnabout island, visible all round. It is elevated 257 feet above high water, and should be seen in clear weather, a distance of 23 miles. :The tower, which is of stone, is painted black, and the keepers' dwelling and surrounding walls white. The SS San Pablo was owned by the

Occidental and Oriental Steamship Company The Occidental and Oriental Steamship Company (sometimes abbreviated to O&O) was an American shipping company founded in 1874 by US railroads wishing to provide competition to the Pacific Mail Steamship Company which had not complied with its obli ...

. The ship ran between San Francisco and Hong Kong. The San Pablo had been intended as a collier between San Francisco and Tacoma, but Occidental & Oriental converted her for passenger service. Her first trip as a refitted passenger vessel started April 26, 1887. In 1887,

Antonio Jacobsen Antonio Nicolo Gasparo Jacobsen (November 2, 1850 – February 2, 1921) was a Danish-born American maritime artist known as the "Audubon of Steam Vessels". Biography Jacobsen was born in Copenhagen, Denmark where he attended the Royal Academy of ...

painted a waterscape of the ship. On April 24, 1888, the San Pablo was in the Formosa Strait. There was a thick fog, and the ship ran aground north of Turnabout Island at about 3:30 in the morning. The ship was hard aground, and two holds and a coal bunker filled with water. The ship might capsize. The ship was going to be abandoned, and the crew and passengers were about to head for Niushan lighthouse, when the ship was set upon by pirates from the mainland. Captain Reed armed the passengers and crew, and the first attack was repulsed. During a second attack, the pirates gained the main deck, but were beaten back with steam hoses. The pirates waited half a mile from the ship. The crew and passengers then made for land, and the pirates took the ship. While the pirates had the ship, a fire broke out, and the San Pablo burned to the waterline.

20th century

In September 1910, the center of a typhoon swept over Niushan Island (Turnabout Island) and Wuqiu (Ockseu) or a few miles to the southeast. In 1921, the British watercolorist

John Fraser John Fraser may refer to: Politics *John Simon Frederick Fraser (1765–1803), commanded the Fraser Fencibles in Ireland and was (M.P.) for Inverness-shire *John James Fraser (1829–1896), 5th Premier of the Canadian province of New Brunswick, 18 ...

painted ''Passing Turnabout Island. China Sea - 1875. Vessel under full sail''. The painting is held by

National Maritime Museum The National Maritime Museum (NMM) is a maritime museum in Greenwich, London. It is part of Royal Museums Greenwich, a network of museums in the Maritime Greenwich World Heritage Site. Like other publicly funded national museums in the United ...

. In May 1938, the Japanese captured

Amoy Xiamen ( , ; ), also known as Amoy (, from Hokkien pronunciation ), is a sub-provincial city in southeastern Fujian, People's Republic of China, beside the Taiwan Strait. It is divided into six districts: Huli, Siming, Jimei, Tong'an, ...

and gained control of the lighthouse.http://www.360doc.com/content/12/1105/15/6999644_245873854.shtml In Chinese. Accessed 2013-03-09 In June 1942, the Chinese managed to blow up the lighthouse and then retreat. Japanese troops then occupied the island and constructed a temporary lighthouse and a radio station. In April 1945, some unarmed Chinese troops dressed as fishermen and some fishermen evaded some Japanese security checks and landed on the island under the guise of supplying or collecting food. They were able to separate and surprise the Japanese on the island. At one point, a single Japanese guard was watching a group of Chinese; they killed him and gained his weapon. Stones were also used as weapons. The Chinese gained control of the island. On 25 October 1944, the

USS Tang (SS-306) USS ''Tang'' (SS-306) was a ''Balao''-class submarine of World War II, the first ship of the United States Navy to bear the name Tang. She was built and launched in 1943, serving until being sunk by her own torpedo off China in the Taiwan Stra ...

discovered a large, well-protected, convoy near Turnabout Island. Tang penetrated the destroyer screen and attacked the convoy. Tang sank several ships and evaded the destroyers. Later Tang attacked one of the ships she had damaged, but Tang fell victim to a circular run by one of her own torpedoes. On April 1, 1945, the submarine

USS Queenfish (SS-393) USS ''Queenfish'' (SS/AGSS-393), a Balao class submarine, ''Balao''-class submarine, was the first ship of the United States Navy to be named for the queenfish, a small food fish found off the Pacific Ocean, Pacific coast of North America. Con ...

torpedoed the Awa Maru near Turnabout Island in what became known as the Awa Maru incident. The Japanese government had obtained safe passage for the vessel as a

Red Cross The International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement is a Humanitarianism, humanitarian movement with approximately 97 million Volunteering, volunteers, members and staff worldwide. It was founded to protect human life and health, to ensure re ...

relief ship. Only one of the 2004 passengers survived. The lighthouse was destroyed during World War II. A temporary lighthouse was installed in 1947 and refurbished in 1982. In 1987, a new lighthouse was built. The lighthouse may have been rebuilt in December 1998.

21st century

In August 2013,

Typhoon Trami Typhoon Trami, known in the Philippines as Typhoon Paeng, was the second typhoon to affect Japan within a month. The twenty-fourth tropical storm and tenth typhoon of the annual typhoon season, Trami developed from a low-pressure area southeas ...

brought winds reaching 163.4 km per hour to the island. In September 2015, Typhoon Dujuan brought winds reaching 45.9 meters per second to the island. On September 27–28, 2016, Typhoon Megi brought torrential rains across Pingtan. Recorded wind speeds on Niushan Island reached 45 meters per second.

References

External links

*https://www.un.org/Depts/los/LEGISLATIONANDTREATIES/PDFFILES/CHN_1996_Declaration.pdf *. Description at page 234. Table of Positions: Turnabout Island Light House, , page 702 * Niushan Dao Lighthouse (), http://www.shmsa.gov.cn/mark/donghai/data/2989.htm, Fuzhou Waterways Department, language=CN , founded 1873. * {{Citation , first=Samuel Wells , last=Williams , title=A Chinese Commercial Guide , edition=Fourth , year=1856 , url=https://books.google.com/books?id=cMNLAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA48 , ref=none Turnabout Island, page 48. *http://geographic.org/geographic_names/name.php?uni=568915&fid=1061&c=china *https://books.google.com/books?id=tYsEAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA197&lpg=PA197&hl=en&ved=0CB8Q6AEwATgK#v=onepage&f=false Nautical Magazine and Naval Chronicle, 1844, page 197 *London Gazette, Sunda Rock, 1877, https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&q=cache:ZEtmgpR9p5YJ:www.london-gazette.co.uk/issues/24500/pages/5107/page.pdf+turnabout+island+china&hl=en&gl=us&pid=bl&srcid=ADGEESjLgW3vl0pQ7HqN72Nos5dhpxgcWew7sqmFp2b1VjeXg4vqB3UoZyMVTW3BlfLVQp1_Iv5L4jnMlGjAkxnTmsLYEwhr5aRjW990bZP3xRizEfZ8WwX63uF9PTcxi3A7ejjeYghY&sig=AHIEtbRxIf33j7_PkYytuiNnV0o69AMX-g *http://www.prlog.org/10625420-pingtan-plans-to-develop-marine-eco-tourism.html Ushiyama another possible name Islands of Fujian Islands of the East China Sea Islands of the South China Sea

History

19th century

20th century

21st century

See also

References

External links