uor-1822
1938: Privately published account of Royal Navy destroyer on the China Station
W.W. - G.A.B.:
The Chronicles of H.M.S. "Duncan", 8th D.F. [Destroyer Flotilla] China Station [1935-38].
Published "for Private Circulation Only", Hong Kong, 1938.
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8.5 x 6 inches, 140 pages. 44 photographs. A nice copy in original red faux-cloth. Protected in a modern handmade archival cloth slipcase, leather label, titled in gilt.
This account of life aboard a destroyer on active service was compiled by crew members of H.M.S. Duncan, Leader of the 8th Destroyer Flotilla on the China Station 1935-38, and privately-published in Hong Kong in 1938. The 44 photographs in the work are almost certainly unpublished elsewhere.
The China Station was a historical formation of the British Royal Navy with bases in Singapore, Hong Kong and Wei Hei Wei. Its responsibilities generally covered the coasts of China and its navigable rivers, the western part of the Pacific Ocean, and the waters around the Dutch East Indies. These responsibilities did not imply territorial claims, although the navy often co-operated with British commercial interests in the above areas.
This account is an unique informal record by crew members of the vessel's activities during the mid to late 1930s in Penang, Bangkok, Hong Kong, Kobe, Foochow, Macassar, Sourabaya, Manila, Amoy, and, in particular, Shanghai during Japanese hostilities against China in 1937 (see the partial text and photographs shown in the images above and below).
Although H.M.S. Duncan's subsequent wartime record is not covered by this pre-war account, it is fitting to note here that the vessel returned from this lengthy tour of duties to European waters for the duration of World War II, serving mainly on anti-submarine patrols and convoy escort duties in the Mediterranean and Atlantic.
H.M.S. Duncan survived the war and was laid-up and sold for scrap in 1945.
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