USS Villalobos Gunboat Chinese Expedition Yangtze Patrol Photographs China 1918 For Sale

USS Villalobos (PG-42) was a steel screw gunboat originally built for the Spanish Navy as the SPS Villalobos but captured by the United States Army in 1898 during the Spanish-American War and commissioned into the United States Navy in 1900. The ship spent almost all of her life as an American gunboat in the Yangtze Patrol on the Yangtze River. Recommissioned on 21 January 1903, Villalobos immediately commenced fitting out for service on the Yangtze River. She departed for China on 7 February and stopped at Dasol Bay, Philippines, from 8-14 February to conduct a \"hydrographic reconnaissance\" of the bay in company with gunboat Elcano, tender Callao, and collier Pompey. Underway again on the 14 February 1903, the squadron put into Hong Kong on 17 February and remained there until 26 February, when Villalobos, in company with Pompey and Elcano, sailed for Swatow, China. Leaving the collier at Swatow, Villalobos and Elcano proceeded to Pagoda Anchorage and thence to Shanghai to inaugurate the United States Navy\'s Yangtze River Patrol. After a brief visit to this key Chinese seaport city, Villalobos pushed up the Yangtze on 27 March to Kiang-Yin to investigate conditions there and to check on the welfare of the American citizens. At this time China had become a collection of feuding states governed by warlords. The Boxer Rebellion three years previously had resulted in the Boxer Protocol which gave eight foreign powers the right to station forces in the country to protect their nationals. Villalobos steamed, in company with Elcano, to Chin-kiang and thence via Nanking and Wuhu to Hankow where she arrived on 10 April. She spent the next five days awaiting a favorable rise in the river level to permit passage to I\'Chang before she got underway on the 15th for Chenglin, Yochow, and Shasi. After arriving at I\'Chang on 19 April, the ship headed back downriver and returned to Hankow on 5 May to investigate the possibility of making passage to Changsha for needed supplies. Proceeding thence to Yochow and Chin-Chi-wan, she met a party of American engineers mapping out a route for the Hankow to Canton Railway. Cruising subsequently to Changsha, Siangtan, Chu-Chow, Yochow, and Hankow, Villalobos set out on 1 June for Kiukiang. She waited three days for a pilot for passage up the Kan River and Poyang Lake and, when one was finally obtained, got underway for Nanchang. However, the river level had fallen rapidly and Villalobos could proceed no further, so sent a whaleboat upstream for Nanchang to reconnoiter in accordance with orders from Rear Admiral Robley D. Evans, Commander in Chief, Asiatic Fleet, who had wired the gunboat to investigate local conditions there.On 6 June, the boat returned and reported that all was quiet at Nanchang, and Villalobos headed back downriver. En route downriver, the gunboat\'s commander received a letter, via the American consul, from the local Tao-Tai (governor) who strongly protested Villalobos\' visit—a protest which the consul seemed to sanction. When word reached Admiral Evans, he responded that a French gunboat had earlier made the same trip and had followed the same procedures, and it had gone without a protest from the local Chinese authorities. \"Your visit with the Villalobos to Nanchang,\" wrote Evans to Villalobos\' commander, \"for the purpose of investigating the condition and providing for the protection of the lives and property of Americans is approved.\" The admiral continued: \"It is my desire that, so far as practicable, similar visits be paid to all Americans having property or other lawful interests in China, that I may be kept fully informed regarding all things concerning their welfare.\" Referring to the Tao Tai\'s contention that the gunboats should stay away since the inhabitants of the district were \"bad men,\" Evans responded that this was all the more reason for more frequent visits.Evans authorized Villalobos\' commanding officer to inform any Chinese officials who might raise similar objections that the Fleet\'s gunboats \"are always amply provided for dealing with \'bad men.\'\" The admiral admonished that if anything other than \"proper respect\" was shown to Americans in China, \"severe and lasting punishment\" would be meted out by his gunboats. As if that were not enough, Evans wrote, \"Our gunboats will continue to navigate Poyang Lake and other inland waters of China, wherever Americans may be, and where, by treaty with China, they are authorized to engage in business or reside for the purpose of spreading the Gospel.\" When word of Evans\' stand reached the American minister to China in Peking, Edward Conger, he sided with the Tao-Tai. Conger asked Evans by what authority he had sanctioned Villalobos\' visit to Nanchang. The admiral responded that he had acted under no specific treaty—but on the broad principle of extending American protection to wherever his country\'s nationals resided. While communications between widely separated places often took weeks or even months and the matter passed to Washington and the State and Navy Departments, American gunboats continued to patrol Poyang Lake. John Hay, the Secretary of State, wrote to Conger siding with Evans, whose position he considered \"proper and correct.\" Furthermore, Evans at the time had had no knowledge of treaties that indirectly applied to American rights in China although they had been made with other nations. Article 52 of the Anglo-Chinese 1858 Treaties of Tianjin, made reference to \"most-favored nation\" treatment—unbeknownst to Evans—and applied directly to Villalobos‍ \'​ controversial visit. The admiral had thus established a precedent for the Asiatic Fleet that would be carried on until late in the 1930s. Villalobos remained deployed on the Yangtze for the next 23 years, through various reorganizations and designations of what eventually became known as the Yangtze Patrol of the United States Asiatic Fleet.