Gunboat on the Yangtze: The Diary of Captain Glenn F. Howell of the USS Palos, 1920-1921 [Paperback]

Glenn Howell (Author), Dennis L. Noble (Author, Editor)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 2002 | ISBN-10: 0786412321 | ISBN-13: 978-0786412327

Captain Glenn F. Howell kept a detailed account of his activities in China for 62 years. His journals now make up 202 leather-bound volumes—one of the largest sources in existence, perhaps the largest, of servicemen’s observations of service in China during that country’s struggle to oust one power and come to grips with a new one between World War I and II.

This work presents Howell’s diary from June 6, 1920, to September 23, 1921, during which time he commanded the naval gunboat USS Palos on the Yangtze River. First comes a biography of Howell, an overview of Chinese history from 1800 to 1920, and a history of the United States military involvement in China during those years. Howell’s time as commander of the USS Palos is divided into three sections. Preceding each, the editor comments on the nature of the upcoming diary entries. Howell covers a range of topics, including the Chinese people, various important locales (e.g., the Three Gorges), making official visits, (his first as a captain), officer–enlisted man relations, opium, the steam navy, people who influenced him (S. Cornell Plant and Captain Joseph Miclo, skipper of the Meitan), missionaries and other foreigners in China (including U.S. military retirees), and "trackers" (China’s human beasts of burden.)

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Excellent" -- Catholic Library World

About the Author

Glenn F. Howell served two full tours of duty on the old China Station in the interwar period. Editor Dennis L. Noble, retired from the United States Coast Guard, is a former librarian and adjunct college professor who lives in Sequim, Washington.

Product Details

• Paperback: 188 pages
• Publisher: Mcfarland & Co Inc Pub (August 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0786412321
• ISBN-13: 978-0786412327
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6.4 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.1 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #271,200 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Lost River Culture, July 20, 2010

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Glenn L. Smith "highlandglenn" (Orrstown, PA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Gunboat on the Yangtze: The Diary of Captain Glenn F. Howell of the USS Palos, 1920-1921 (Paperback)

Just the name of the great river Yangtze is evocative. It conjures up images of junks crowded with peasants plying their living and frequently spending most of their lives on these creaking boats, and war lords ruling with a heavy hand. In the early 20th century, a number of foreign nations had economic and religious interests in the interior of China, and the mighty Yangtze was how they accessed these interests. To protect their citizens who were exploiting the Chinese; Britain, France, Italy, Germany, Japan, and the United States all sent gunboats to ply the river. These gunboats, all necessarily with very shallow drafts, steamed up river as far as 1000 miles from the sea, climbing up over rapids through the majestic gorges of the upper Yangtze.

USS PALOS PG-16 (redesignated PR-1 in 1928) was one of those small gunboats. From June 1920 to September 1921, PALOS was commanded by LCDR Glenn F. Howell, who kept a fairly detailed diary. Howell, a relatively junior officer, had to deal with the ordinary challenges of command; recalcitrant sailors, broken pumps, ornery boilers, and difficult navigation; in addition, he was "America" to much senior officers of other Navies, diplomats, missionaries, and Chinese war lords. All of this without recourse to instructions from the State Department or his chain of command. Frequently his decisions had potential impact well beyond his horizons.

Many readers will be familiar with RADM Kemp Tolley's writings (Cruise of the Lanakai, The Yangtze Patrol, and others), and Richard McKenna's Sand Peebles which tells a fictitious tale of a "sister" of PALOS (USS SAN PABLO) set in about the same time-frame. However, the less well-known Howell's diary adds new dimension, texture, and cultural observations to the works of Tolley and McKenna.

Editor Noble does a workmanlike job of putting context and important detail into Howell's descriptions. A short (176 pages) and easy read, it is nonetheless quite interesting for what it covers. The China of the 1920s, especially once you got away from the coast, was as remote a place as one could find on planet earth. Communications was difficult, if not impossible. Howell's descriptions of the landscape that has already been permanently altered by the Three Gorges Dam will be useful to scholars of the future. His cultural observations are remarkable for a naval officer not trained as an anthropologist. All in all, a good read.