HMS Amethyst (U16)

From Freepedia

HMS Amethyst (U16) was a Modified Black Swan-class sloop of the Royal Navy. She was laid down by A. Stephen & Sons Ltd of Glasgow, Scotland on 25 March 1942, launched on 7 May 1943 and commissioned on 2 November 1943.

In World War II she served as a convoy escort in the North Atlantic. On 20 February 1945 she depth charged and sank U-1276 south of Waterford, Ireland.

The Amethyst incident

In 1949 Amethyst was involved in the Chinese Civil War. The events are known as the Amethyst incident and as the Yangtze incident.

During the Chinese Civil War, the United Kingdom kept a warship on the Yangtze River at Nanjing, ready to evacuate the British Embassy staff and other UK citizens. On April 19, 1949 Amethyst was dispatched to take over from Consort. At this time the People's Liberation Army (PLA) of the Communist Party of China controlled the north bank of the river while the Kuomintang controlled the south bank. A truce was being observed, but was due to expire on 20 April.

At 08:30 on April 20 Amethyst was attacked by artillery of the PLA. At about 09:30 as the sloop approached Kiangyin a shell hit the wheelhouse and the injured coxswain grounded Amethyst on Rose Island. Another shell mortally wounded Lieutenant Commander B. M. Skinner. By the time the shelling stopped at about 11:00, 22 men had been killed and 31 wounded. The ship managed to send off a signal to all ships in the area, “Under heavy fire, am aground, large number of casualties" before further shelling wrecked the power room below decks disabling the gyrocompass, radio, and electrically controlled firing circuits. Amethyst was now a helpless target. About 65 men were ordered to abandon ship and attempt to escape to Kuomingtang controlled territory. Some were shot in the water, but the survivors made it back to Shanghai. Remaining on board were about 40 unwounded men, 12 wounded, and 15 dead. The shelling had stopped but no one could move without drawing the attention of snipers.

Amethyst had received over 50 hits and holes below the waterline were plugged with hammocks and bedding. During this time HMS Consort was sighted, flying 7 White Ensigns and 3 Union Jack flags, steaming down from Nanking at an 29 knots. Consort came under fire from the shore batteries and returned fire with 4.5 inch (114 mm) guns, destroying the enemy shore batteries before she attempted to take Amethyst in tow. HMS Consort turned about with all guns blazing at the north bank batteries, destroying an enemy position. However, Consort came under heavy fire, and the attempt was abandoned with 10 killed and 3 injured.

On April 26 an attempt to free the Amethyst from the mud was successful, the ship then proceeded to move up river and anchored off Fu Te Wei. Later that day a signal was received: "HM ships London and Black Swan are moving up river to escort the Amethyst down stream. Be ready to move." The cruisers London and the sloop Black Swan were heavily shelled as they attempted to help Amethyst and retreated with 3 killed and 14 wounded. More than 250 PLA soldiers were killed in these artillery duels.

Lieutenant Geoffrey Weston refloated Amethyst on April 22 and moved her out of range of the PLA's artillery. The British Naval Attaché Lieutenant-Commander John Simon Kerans joined the ship later that day and assumed command.

Amethyst remained under guard by the PLA for ten weeks, with vital supplies being withheld from the ship. Negotiations were stuck because Kerans would not accept Major Kung's demand that the British admit that they had wrongly invaded Chinese national waters and had fired upon the PLA first.

On July 30 1949 Amethyst slipped her chain and headed downriver in the dark, beginning a 104-mile dash for freedom running the gauntlet of Communist guns on both banks of the river. She followed the merchant ship Kiang Ling Liberation, which showed the way through the shoals and distracted the PLA. At 0500 hours of July 31, Amethyst approached the PLA forts at Woosung and Par Shan with their searchlights sweeping the river. The Amethyst, at full speed ahead, broke through the boom at the mouth of the river and made contact with HMS Consort the signal "Have rejoined the fleet off Woosung...God save the King."

Amethyst re-enacted her role in the 1957 film Yangtse Incident: The Story of HMS Amethyst (released as Battle Hell in the USA, and also as Escape of the Amethyst and Their Greatest Glory) starring Richard Todd as Kerans.

See HMS Amethyst for other ships of this name.