Battle of Kowloon

Battle of Kowloon
Part of the First Opium War
The Chinese fort in Kowloon, 1841
Date 4 September 1839 Location Kowloon Peninsula, China Coordinates: 22°17′34″N 114°10′14″E / 22.29278°N 114.17056°E / 22.29278; 114.17056 Result Stalemate
Belligerents
United Kingdom	Qing China
Commanders and leaders
Charles Elliot Henry Smith	Lai Enjue
Strength
4 boats1	3 war junks
Casualties and losses
3 wounded	2 killed 6 wounded
1 1 cutter, 1 schooner, 1 pinnace, and 1 barge.

The Battle of Kowloon was a skirmish between British and Chinese vessels off the Kowloon Peninsula, China, on 4 September 1839. Located in present-day Hong Kong, Kowloon was then part of the Guangdong province. The skirmish was the first armed conflict of the First Opium War and occurred when British boats opened fire on Chinese war junks enforcing a food sales embargo on the British community. The embargo was ordered after a local Chinese man died in a drunken brawl with British sailors. The Chinese authorities did not consider the punishment meted out by British officials to be sufficient and as a result, suspended food supplies in an attempt to force the handover of the culprit. In response, the British summoned nearby warships to force the Chinese to lift the embargo.

Before the battle, Captain Charles Elliot, the chief superintendent of British trade in China, sailed to Kowloon in the cutter Louisa for food supplies, accompanied by the schooner Pearl and a pinnace from HMS Volage. Upon encountering three Chinese junks, Elliot sent interpreter Karl Gutzlaff with demands to re-allow the supply of provisions. After several hours of unsuccessful correspondence, Elliot delivered an ultimatum that if provisions were not received, the junks would be sunk. When it expired with no results, the British opened fire on the junks, which returned fire with support from the fort on shore. During the engagement, the larger junks pursued the British boats which were sailing away after running low on ammunition. But after replenishing their cartridges, the British re-engaged the ships, which retreated to their former position, ending the clash in a stalemate.

On 7 July 1839, seamen from the Carnatic and Mangalore, both owned by Jardine, Matheson & Co., landed in Kowloon where they were joined by colleagues from other British and American ships. After a group of sailors consumed the rice liquor known as samshu, a local named Lin Weixi in the village of Tsim Sha Tsui was beaten in a drunken brawl and died the next day. On 15 July, Chief Superintendent of British Trade in China, Charles Elliot, offered rewards of $200 for evidence leading to the conviction of those responsible for the murder and $100 for evidence leading to the instigators of the riot. He also gave $1,500 in compensation to Lin's family, $400 to protect them against extortion of that money from what he called the "lower mandarins", and $100 to be distributed among the villagers.

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