Battle of Escape Creek

Battle of Escape Creek
Part of the Second Opium War
Commodore Elliot leading gunboats to attack the Mandarin junks
Date 25–27 May 1857 Location Escape Creek, Guangdong, China Result British victory
Belligerents
United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland	Qing China
Commanders and leaders
Charles Elliot	Admiral Sonhay
Strength
13 gunboats 7 cutters and gigs	41 war-junks
Casualties and losses
31 wounded	27 junks captured or destroyed

The Battle of Escape Creek was a naval engagement fought between the United Kingdom's Royal Navy and the Qing Chinese naval force on 25–27 May 1857 during the Second Opium War. Commodore Charles Elliot's squadron chased the war-junks at Escape Creek (present-day East River) and then, once the British ships were grounded as the river narrowed, they chased them in the ships' boats until all the junks had been overhauled.

Gallery

Map of Canton area showing Escape Creek near the top

Map of the engagements

Attack on the junks

Burning of 27 captured junks

References

• Behan, T. L., ed. (1859). Bulletins and Other State Intelligence for the Year 1857. Part 2. London: Harrison and Sons.

Further reading

• Cooke, George Wingrove (1861). China and Lower Bengal (5th ed.). London: Routledge, Warne, & Routledge. pp. 15–18.