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Kajow (simplified Chinese: 高桥; traditional Chinese: 高橋; pinyin: Gāoqiáo; Wade–Giles: Kao Ch'iao) was a small armed steamer who fought for the Imperialist forces during the Taiping Rebellion. It was briefly seized by Taiping troops but recovered.

History

Kajow was under the service of the local futai, and was frequently used by the Scottish diplomat Halliday Macartney for trips between Sunkiang and Shanghai. She was commanded by an American named C. F. Jones, who grew to dislike the Chinese authorities due to his employers "withholding the pay due for nearly a year's employment." Jones eventually stopped working for the Chinese, and was persuaded by his acquaintance Henry Andres Burgevine, an American under the service of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, to help capture Kajow.

In August 1863, Macartney, departing from Shanghai, arrived at Sunkiang on Kajow. There, on the morning of 2 August, Burgevine and Jones, together with a group of forty European and Chinese men, captured Kajow. At the time of her capture, Kajow was carrying a "valuable cargo of arms and ammunition". Kajow was then carried to Suzhou. She was later moved to Nanjing where her engines were repaired.

On 1 October, she took part in an unsuccessful attempt to capture Patachiaou. In the following weeks, Burgevine and Jones negotiated with Charles George Gordon, commander of the Imperial Ever Victorious Army, for the surrender of their men and Kajow, citing the fact that they received no pay during their service with the rebels. This plan was not yet carried out when on 12 October, Taiping general Li Xiucheng launched an attack on Monding near Suzhou, against Gordon's forces. Kajow and Jones thus took to battle. At 10 a.m., Kajow was sunk at Tajouka (simplified Chinese: 大桥角; traditional Chinese: 大橋角), Wuxi by a "lucky shot" which ignited the magazine of the ship, and the Taiping attack was repelled. Burgevine and Jones surrendered to Gordon, and the wreck of Kajow was recovered by Imperialist forces. Her further fate is not known.

Citations

1. ^ Boulger 2011, pp. 81–82.
2. Gordon 1891, p. 329.
3. ^ Gordon 1891, p. 300.
4. Foreign Office 1864, p. 172.
5. Boulger 1882, p. 384.
6. ^ Foreign Office 1864, p. 164.
7. ^ Boulger 1900, pp. 175–176.
8. ^ Foreign Office 1864, p. 182.
9. ^ Luo 2000.
10. Foreign Office 1864, p. 174.
11. Gordon 1891, p. 345.

References

• Boulger, Demetrius Charles (1882). History of China. Vol. 2. London: W. H. Allen & Co.
• Boulger, Demetrius Charles (1900). China (PDF).
• Boulger, Demetrius Charles (2011). The Life of Sir Halliday Macartney, K.C.M.G.: Commander of Li Hung Chang's Trained Force in the Taeping Rebellion, Founder of the First Chinese Arsenals, for Thirty Years Councillor and Secretary to the Chinese Legation in London. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-1-108-02626-0.
• Curwen, C.A. (1976). Taiping Rebel: The Deposition of Li Hsiu-ch'eng. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 9780521210829.
• Papers Relating to the Affairs of China (PDF). London: Harrison. 1864. {{cite book}}: |work= ignored (help)
• Gordon, Charles George (1891). Hake, A. Egmont (ed.). Events in the Taeping Rebellion (PDF). London: W. H. Allen & Co.
• Luo, Ergang (2000). 传第三十六 洋兄弟传. Tai ping tian guo shi 太平天国史 [Histories of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom] (in Chinese). Vol. 77. Zhonghua Book Company.

• Naval ships of Imperial China
• Gunboats of China
• Naval ships of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom