American Merchant Ships on the Yangtze, 1920-1941

(Hardback)

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This work describes the activities of a handful of American companies and about 80 American captains who were trying to run ships on China's great river during the treacherous days between the two World Wars. The considerable physical dangers of the Yangtze itself were compounded by the greater human hazards imposed by constant fighting among warlords, piracy, brigandry, kidnapping, opium and munitions smuggling, corruption, seizures and other forms of intimidation. The events recall - and surpass - anything of the "Wild West" in American frontier history. No American steamship company survived longer than 12 years in this environment, but Standard Oil, which was sheltered from the worst of the violence, was able to operate its ships throughout the entire period. More than a naval/military, or even economic history, this book is also intended to serve as a commentary on a significant but largely unsuccessful American commercial venture overseas - one that was eventually scuttled by the actions of the Chinese and the American companies themselves. Ship buffs, maritime historians, students of the evolution of modern China, and those interested in American commercial history should find this study useful and entertaining.

Reviews

.,."well worth reading, both for the historian of the period and for anyone interested in America's foreign adventures early in this century."-The Friday Review of Defense Literature
...well worth reading, both for the historian of the period and for anyone interested in America's foreign adventures early in this century.-The Friday Review of Defense Literature
Grover has provided a careful study of American merchant ships and their captains on the Yangtze River in the interwar years. It will be particularly useful for those interested in Sino-American relations or U.S. foreign commercial activity between the wars. The general reader will find it an entertaining chronicle of a relatively little known area of American maritime adventure.-The Historian Autumn, 1993
..."well worth reading, both for the historian of the period and for anyone interested in America's foreign adventures early in this century."-The Friday Review of Defense Literature
"Grover has provided a careful study of American merchant ships and their captains on the Yangtze River in the interwar years. It will be particularly useful for those interested in Sino-American relations or U.S. foreign commercial activity between the wars. The general reader will find it an entertaining chronicle of a relatively little known area of American maritime adventure."-The Historian Autumn, 1993

Author Bio

DAVID H. GROVER, a 1945 graduate of the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy, spent several years at sea as a merchant marine and naval officer. Later, he went to graduate school and became a university teacher. He was also Academic Dean of the California Maritime Academy. Now retired, he has published numerous articles and four books--two of western American history and two of maritime history.