"Splice the Mainbrace"

Ever since her duel with Chinese Communist shore batteries off Rose Island (TIME, May 2), the shell-pocked British frigate Amethyst had been blockaded 140 miles up the Yangtze River from Shanghai, with 86 men of her original crew of 192 still aboard. The Communists kept 105-mm. howitzers constantly trained on the Amethyst at a murderous 400-yard range. The colonel commanding the batteries had warned the Amethyst's captain: "If you move, I'll sink you instantly."

As spring wore into a cruelly hot summer, the Amethyst's Lieut. Commander John S. Kerans faced mounting difficulties. The heat aboard the motionless steel vessel frequently drove the temperature to 120. Fuel supplies were perilously low, because the ship's oil bunkers were being sapped daily to run her generator.

One day last week, Kerans decided to run the Communist gauntlet. At 10:12 p.m. he gave the order to sail. The Amethyst nosed out into the channel astern of a Yangtze freighter. At 10:23 p.m., the Communists discovered the Amethyst in motion when the steamer ahead of her was challenged by flares from the shore. The Communists opened up with heavy artillery and machine-gun fire. The Amethyst returned the fire. In London, the Admiralty received a message from the Amethyst: "Am under heavy fire and hit." Ten minutes later she messaged: "Still under heavy fire." At midnight the moon set, giving the Amethyst an advantage of 7 1/4 hours of darkness. About 1 a.m., Communist batteries at the Kiangyin forts opened up on the Amethyst. Kiangyin was the critical point. To get past, the Amethyst had to crash a blockading boom across the river. Once more she messaged: "Under heavy fire nearing the boom."

Then, for two hours, Admiralty officials in London waited anxiously, finally received a terse message: the ship had run the blockade and was already only 40 miles from the Yangtze's mouth. Two and a half hours later, the Amethyst signaled that she was in sight of the Woosung forts. Then she wired triumphantly: "Have rejoined the fleet. No damage or casualties. God save the King."

The King was delighted. He called the Amethyst's escape a "daring exploit," personally ordered the frigate's crew to "splice the mainbrace"--break out an extra order of grog for all hands. In Shanghai, the Communist press ignored the Amethyst's escape completely. Shanghai British celebrated discreetly. "We're glad they're out of it," said one, "but there's no point in crowing over it. After all, we're still here."

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