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PHOTOGRAPH GALLERY TEN
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Captain Donald Brotchie
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The documents and photographs appearing in this gallery come from the records
of Donald Brotchie who served as captain on a number of merchant vessels
of the China Navigation Company. Donald Brotchie spent much of his early
career on the Yangtse and, following World War II and Japanese internment,
went on to captain SS Shengking on the China coast.
The materials submitted are particularly relevant to Royal Navy gunboats
as Donald Brotchie was the captain of SS Wantung at the time of the Panay
Incident. Early in December of 1937 the Japanese were well into their invasion
of China and began their final assault on Nanking, located several hundred
miles up the Yangtse. During this assault, the Japanese attacked a number
of Royal Navy gunboats, neutral merchant vessels and sunk the US gunboat
Panay. The United Kingdom and United States were neutral nations to the
conflict and the Japanese attempted to explain away their actions as "an
accident".
During this period Captain Brotchie kept a log of the actions of SS Wantung,
providing some interesting information on his convoy with HMS Cricket and
HMS Scarab. This log may be viewed below, together with letters of appreciation
for the courageous actions of SS Wantung at the time of the Panay Incident.
Also appearing are a number of photographs of the Yangtse during the 1930's.
These photographs are an excellent record of the treacherous nature of
the Yangtse and the devastating effect it could have on shipping.
The final page in this gallery displays the notes produced by Donald Brotchie
for a presentation on the gorges region of the Yangtse. These notes are
an extremely useful illustration of the region as each gorge is identified
and described in sequence.
Donald Brotchie survived internment by the Japanese during World War II
and returned to service as the captain of SS Shengking. A short article
appears at the end of the gallery documenting this service. In 1950 Donald
Brotchie retired from service and returned to England. He died in Bournemouth
in 1985, having spent 30 years of his life in the Far East. During his
career he served on the following merchant vessels: SS Maude, SS Fernley,
SS Davawongse, SS Newchwang, SS Ngankin, SS Chekiang, SS Chusan, SS Kwangchow,
SS Nanning, SS Ninghai, SS Chenan, SS Tungchow, SS Kiating, SS Wantung,
SS Wanlieu, SS Kintang, SS Ningpo, SS Fengtien, SS Wuhu, SS Luchow, SS
Taming, SS Wusueh and SS Shengking
I am immensely grateful to the family of Donald Brotchie for permitting these photographs to be posted on the site. Requests to use these photographs are welcome, but publication (by any means) may only occur with the prior approval of his family. Any inquires regarding these photographs should be directed to Donella Grimsdale via the site webmaster.
All of the images below appear in both high resolution (1024x768 uncompressed)
and low resolution (800x600 compressed) formats. Viewers of the site who
connect to the internet via a telephone modem should probably view the
images in low resolution so that download times do not become prohibitive.
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All rights reserved. No photographs or information appearing here may be
reproduced without permission. Inquiries regarding the photographs or information
appearing here should be directed to wampit@warstrike.com. Copyright 2005 - Donella Grimsdale.
Webmaster: wampit@warstrike.com
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