Over the thousand-year history of people sailing across the vast seas and oceans, there have been many all kinds of shipwrecks and accidents. Some of them are overgrown with legends, films have even been made about them. And the most popular of them, of course, is James Cameron's Titanic.
Once upon a time the feature film "Titanic" broke all records in box office and the number of viewers. Today it is not inferior to the film "Crossing" by John Wu, where famous actors Zhang Ziyi and Tong Dawei starred. However, few people know that the plot is based on the real tragedy of the ship "Taiping".
Escape from Mao
It was November 1949. With the support of the Soviet Union, the communists under the leadership of Mao Zedong gradually ousted the troops of the Kuomintang leader, Chiang Kai-shek, from the mainland of China. The great panic began when the city of Tianjin was taken by storm. Thousands of people, realizing that the regime was doomed, rushed to a large Chinese city and port of Shanghai.
They hoped to flee to the island of Taiwan, where the communists might not get there right away. Soon, millions of people gathered in the port city. Upon learning that the passenger ship "Taiping" was leaving for Taiwan on the evening of November 26, the refugees began a real assault on the ticket offices. Tickets were expensive and only rich people could buy them. The steamer was built in 1921 in the USA and could hold no more than 580 people. A total of 508 tickets were purchased. Those who could not acquire them now stormed the ship itself. The guards and 124 crew members of the Taiping could not contain the onslaught of the crowd. People fought for a place on board the ship. According to unverified data, about 300 free riders made their way to the ship.
The exact number of passengers on board the Taiping is unknown. According to some reports, there could be up to 1600 people. All cabins were packed to capacity. Many were accommodated on the deck, despite the bad weather.
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Save our souls
On the evening of November 26, 1949, after giving a farewell whistle, the Taiping headed for Taiwan. Before it was 4214.4 nautical miles. Then the weather turned bad and it started to rain. The visibility was poor. The captain of the steamer did not leave his wheelhouse for a minute. But neither he nor the passengers knew what disaster awaited them. At that time, the Jin Yuan dry cargo ship was sailing along the Taiping course. His holds were filled to capacity with coal.
At midnight, the two ships met. "Jin Yuan" rammed the steamer, but at the same time itself in an instant went into the abyss of the sea. On the Taiping at 0.30 minutes, the radio operator managed to transmit an SOS signal. An indescribable panic reigned on the ship. Several people were injured. The lights went out. From the darkness, shouts were heard: "Save yourself, who can!" People rushed about the deck, trying to get to the gangways and boats. Many, especially children, were knocked down and trampled on by the rushing crowd. The ship heeled back more and more, the stern was already flooded with water. After 15-20 minutes, the Taiping, like the Jin Yuan before it, plunged into the ocean abyss. It happened just two miles from Shandong. Most of the people on board the ship died instantly.
The Australian destroyer Warramunga was nearby. He hurried to help, having received the distress signal. Illuminating the sea surface with searchlights, the sailors saw people floundering in the water. But there were very few of them, too few for a vessel like the Taiping. Only 35 people were raised from the water (according to other sources - 36), 30 men and 5 women. Among them were two shipowners. In addition, one of the rescued women soon died. Long stay in cold water affected.
There is a memorial in Keelung Harbor (Jilong), Taiwan, to commemorate this tragedy. Here, on that fateful day, the Taiping was to moor. Every year, the people who survived then and their family members gather at this place on the day of the disaster, remembering the dead. Those who then lost people close to them come here too.
We will probably never know the number of casualties on November 27, 1949 at the Taiping. It is believed that the death toll could have been more than 1,600. For comparison, the famous crash of the Titanic claimed 1,496 lives.
Victor ELISEEV
