The Great Shipwreck Rescue

Today, we will continue the WWII story about the sinking of the Lisbon Maru and how some courageous Chinese fishermen near the Zhoushan Islands risked their lives to rescue hundreds of drowning British prisoners of war.

Transcript

The Great Shipwreck Rescue

Today, we will continue the WWII story about the sinking of the Lisbon Maru and how some courageous Chinese fishermen near the Zhoushan Islands risked their lives to rescue hundreds of drowning British prisoners of war.

At 9:07 AM on October 1, the Lisbon Maru sank into the sea and hundreds of POWs were struggling to keep themselves afloat. Some managed to swim or help themselves by clinging to floating objects, desperately hoping to be rescued. What they received from Japanese soldiers, however, was nothing but bullets.

Suddenly, the loud sound of the horn rang out at sea, and the poor Chinese fishermen from Qingbang Island, Miaozi Lake Island, and Dongji Island found out about the shipwreck and immediately launched their fishing boats to rescue as many people as they could. Fishermen including Zhao Xiaoru, Tang Pingen, Weng Achuan, Tang Ruliang, Xu Yusong from the nearby Qingbang Island, sailed 30 fishing junks and sampans, rescuing 278 of the British captives.

Shen Wanshou, a 71-year-old fisherman at Miaozi Lake Island, was a respected elder on the island. He looked out to sea, and upon viewing the large amount of debris floating along the tide as well as countless people struggling amid fierce wind and waves, shouted a common Chinese saying to his fellow fisherman: “To rescue one person from death is better than to build a seven-storied pagoda for god.” The fishermen of Miaozi Lake Island responded enthusiastically, and 16 fishing boats were deployed, rescuing 106 people. 

In these islands, the local fishermen sing a song that goes, “Without wind the waves are three feet high, with wind the waves can go over a mountain.” Despite the danger, the tradition kept by these islanders is to preserve life; so, if any fishing boat has an accident, no matter who it is, everyone rushes out to the sea to help.

And this time, nearly 200 fishermen from nearby islands rowed 46 fishing boats out to sea. Most of them were very small – the type that could only seat a maximum of eight people. They set sail 65 times and saved at least 384 people from 10 AM till nightfall. And because the fishing boats are too small to carry a large number of people, the fishermen had to transport the British POWs to the nearby reefs as soon as possible because those who were not rescued in time were carried away by the current. Every boat available went back and forth out to sea to save those men in the water until no one was left to save.

Now, you’ve got to picture this situation. These fishermen aren’t just hurrying to keep the POWs from drowning: they were doing it while under gunfire from Japanese ships. Even as late as midnight, villagers were still finding survivors and transporting them back to shore. One old fisherman from Miaozi Lake Island, Lin Wanliang, recounted that it would have been good to have a searchlight to save more people, as it was hard to find his way back to shore at midnight.

And you have to give some credit to the military discipline instilled into the British soldiers as well. When the POWs saw that someone was coming to rescue them, they showed good character and behaved like gentleman, and did not jostle for position. Years later, several fishermen in Miaozi Lake Island remembered seeing three British POWs lying on the rocks along the shore whistling to comfort themselves.

Dennis Morley, who is believed to have been the last of the British survivors died in January of this year due to complications from COVID-19. He recalled that “after the fishermen came to their rescue, the Japanese eventually stopped shooting because they knew that the news would spread around the world.” As mass POW deaths would no doubt lead to international condemnation, the Japanese also began to help rescue British POWs, ultimately saving a total of 589 men.

Due to the strong currents and wind, many of the already sick and weakened British POWs died at sea. But most of those who were rescued on Qingbang Island temporarily lived in the temple of Tianhou Palace, and some of them lived in the homes of fishermen. All of the survivors taken to Miaozi Lake Islands stayed in the homes of fishermen.

Amid this horror of this wartime tragedy, some heartwarming stories have also emerged. For instance, the islands of Qingbang and Miaozi Lake are small with almost no arable land, so the fishermen have to fish and shrimp all year round to make a living. They generally lived in poverty but did their best to provide food, clothes, and shelter for the British POWs. One old man, Shen Wanshou, cooked a large pot of rice porridge and took it to the men staying in the temple. The British were so hungry and knew nothing about how to use chopsticks, so they just picked up the bowls and drank it. Seeing this, their islander hosts rushed back home to bring them some spoons.

But their respite was not to last. On the morning of October 3, five Japanese ships appeared in the area. Several Japanese bombers also flew over. Upon locating the Lisbon Maru, they immediately dropped bombs, and the ship sank completely into the sea.

At the critical moment, the Chinese fishermen sent three of the POWs into a small cave under the seaside cliffs to hide them. They thought that these three men, Evans, Jamestown, and Farense, looked like superior soldiers and might be British leaders in need of protection.

Soon, more than 200 Japanese soldiers landed in groups and went door to door in search of the POWs, threatening to bomb the islands back into the sea if they did not hand over the prisoners. In order not to cause trouble for the islanders, one after another the British POWs took the initiative to reveal themselves and left the islands showing gratitude to their temporary hosts. A total of 381 rescued British captives were cleared out, and then escorted once more to a Japanese ship.

In order to ensure the safety of the three hidden POWs, who it turns out did not happen to be officers, the fishermen sought help from Miao Kaiyun, the head of the anti-Japanese organization in Dinghai County, Zhejiang Province. On the night of October 9, the three POWs changed into fishermen’s clothing and hid in a small sampan, which was piloted by a few fishermen, and they were safely transferred off the island.

After that, the three officers were sent to Su Benshan, the governor of Dinghai County. Su first sent them to Yunhe County, the seat of the Zhejiang provincial government, and then sent a squad of Chinese soldiers to escort the men by car along the route of cities including Wuyishan, Nanping, Quanzhou, and Xiamen in southeastern China’s Fujian Province to Guilin of southwest China’s Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region. From there, they were flown to Chongqing, the wartime Chinese capital. By the time the three soldiers arrived at the British government embassy in Chongqing, it was December 1942.

In the whole Lisbon Maru sinking incident, only these three British prisoners were able to escape the Japanese soldiers. During their stay in Chongqing, they told their personal experience via radio broadcast unveiling the truth about the Japanese atrocities and arousing strong public anger both at home and abroad.

According to statistics, of the 1,816 British POWs who boarded the ship in Hong Kong, 843 were drowned or killed in the wreck, while an additional 249 died after being taken to Japan. The 724 survivors lived to see Japan’s unconditional surrender and returned to Britain to reunite with their families. 

In his memoirs, one survivor, British Lieutenant Colonel Geoffrey Hamilton, highly praised the fishermen’s good deeds, saying it was their brave rescue that prevented the Japanese from succeeding in their plot to “drown all the prisoners of war” and eventually had to change their plans and take them all to the Japanese mainland.

On February 17, 1949, Hong Kong solemnly commemorated the tragic death of the British captured officers and soldiers on the Lisbon Maru, and praised the extraordinary merits of the Chinese fishermen for their bravery. A presentation ceremony was held at the Queen’s Pier in Hong Kong. Sir Alexander William George Herder Grantham, then Governor of Hong Kong, presided over the ceremony and delivered a speech on behalf of the British government. He expressed his gratitude for the courageous work of Zhoushan fishermen and presented them with a certificate issued by the Supreme Commander of the Allied Forces and a motorized fishing vessel named Haian, which means peaceful sea.

In August 2005, the then 87-year-old Charles Jordan, another Lisbon Maru survivor, took his wife and two sons to Zhoushan to meet and thank the people who rescued him all those years ago. While there, he cast flowers into the sea where the ship sank in remembrance of those killed in the incident.

To commemorate the heroic deeds of local fishermen, the Lisbon Maru Exhibition Hall in the Dongji History and Culture Museum in Dongji Town, Zhejiang Province was opened on July 23, 2009. In an area of nearly 200 square meters, the exhibition displays articles including the bamboo baskets used to send food to the British POWs, the small wooden barrels used to send water to drink, as well as the bowls and chopsticks they used. The museum has so far received more than 400,000 visitors, with more than 30,000 visits in July and August 2022 alone.

Liang Yindi, head of the Dongji Town Cultural Center and guide of the Lisbon Maru Exhibition Hall in the museum, said her grandfather and uncle participated in the rescue. She told China Daily that “All the people that grow up in the town know the history. People of the older generation have told it many times.”

In 2008, she was involved in the construction of the Dongji History and Culture Museum. She added that: “As I learn more about the history, I feel that we should share the story with more people. The kindness and courage of the fishermen are never out of date and should be passed down from generation to generation.”

In 2018, Fang Li, who is a geophysicist, marine technology expert, and accomplished film producer, published advertisements in British newspapers in search of descendants of the POWs. He contacted and interviewed more than 300 family members of the victims for his documentary about the sinking of the Lisbon Maru called The 828 Unforgotten. Then in October of 2019, Fang Li invited dozens of those descendants to visit Zhoushan and the exact place where the ship was torpedoed and bombed. While there, they met and expressed their thanks to Lin Agen, who was at that time the only living fisherman to have participated in the rescue. And it’s a good thing they got to him when they did because Lin passed away less than a year later before the documentary was released on January 1, 2020.

In Britain, there have also been a number of memorial events commemorating the incident. On October 3, 2021, more than 650 people attended a service at the National Memorial Arboretum in Staffordshire to remember those who perished in the Lisbon Maru incident. During the service, a new memorial was unveiled by Vice Admiral John McAnally CB LVO, Vice Patron of The Royal Naval Association. 

Dennis Morley, the last living survivor, explained that if the Chinese fishermen hadn’t come, the Japanese gunners would have continued shooting and there would have been more carnage. He said, “Those Chinese fishermen didn’t know that they saved a lot more than what they thought they had saved.”

On the occasion of the 80th anniversary of the Lisbon Maru incident, Denise Wynn, daughter of Dennis Morley, sent a letter to Chinese President Xi Jinping, expressing her gratitude for China’s rescue and her firm support for the everlasting friendship between the British and Chinese peoples.

President Xi Jinping replied, encouraging her to actively stay committed to the China-UK friendship and expressing the hope that more British friends will contribute to China-UK relations. Xi pointed out that the touching story of the Lisbon Maru rescue is an important witness to China and the UK standing shoulder to shoulder as allies during WWII against fascist aggression, and it is also a historical tale of the profound friendship between the two peoples.

During an interview with Xinhua Video, Denise Wynn said that her father was always grateful to Chinese fishermen for saving his life, admitting that he wouldn’t have survived otherwise. She pointed out that the fishermen were risking their lives as well, and that her father owed his life to them.

When Denise Wynn received the letter from President Xi, her friend Major Brian Finch was present. The British veteran is an avid collector of historical documents concerning the Lisbon Maru. He said: “The story is a very good example of the best and worst of humanity. The fishermen represented the very best because they put their own lives at risk to rescue people. I think it needs to be remembered for all sorts of reasons.”

Well, that’s the end of our podcast on Lisbon Maru. Our theme music is by the famous film score composer Roc Chen. We want to thank our writer Lü Weitao, translator Du Guodong, and copy editor Pu Ren. And thank you for listening. We hope you enjoyed it, and if you did, please tell a friend so they, too, can understand The Context.