USS Panay (PR-5)
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| History | |
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| Builder: | Kiangnan Dockyard and Engineering Works, Shanghai |
| Launched: | 10 November 1927 |
| Commissioned: | 10 September 1928 |
| Fate: | Sunk by Japanese aircraft, 12 December 1937 |
| General characteristics | |
| Type: | River gunboat |
| Displacement: | 474 long tons (482 t) |
| Length: | 191 ft (58 m) |
| Beam: | 29 ft (8.8 m) |
| Draft: | 5 ft 3 in (1.60 m) |
| Speed: | 15 kn (28 km/h; 17 mph) |
| Complement: | 59 officers and enlisted |
| Armament: |
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The second USS Panay (PR–5) of the United States Navy was a river gunboat that served on the Yangtze Patrol in China until sunk by Japanese aircraft on 12 December 1937 on the Yangtze River.
The vessel was built by Kiangnan Dockyard and Engineering Works, Shanghai, China, and launched on 10 November 1927. She was sponsored by Mrs. Ellis S. Stone and commissioned on 10 September 1928, with Lieutenant Commander James Mackey Lewis in command.
Built for duty in the Asiatic Fleet on the Yangtze River, Panay had as her primary mission the protection of American lives and property frequently threatened in the disturbances that the 1920s and 1930s brought to a China struggling to modernize, create a strong central government, and later counter Japanese aggression. Throughout Panay’s service, navigation on the Yangtze was constantly menaced by bandits and soldier outlaws, and Panay and her sister ships provided protection for American shipping and nationals, as other foreign forces did for their citizens.
Often detachments from Panay served as armed guards on American steamers plying the river. In 1931, her commanding officer, Lieutenant Commander R. A. Dyer, reported, "Firing on gunboats and merchant ships have [sic] become so routine that any vessel traversing the Yangtze River sails with the expectation of being fired upon. Fortunately," he added, "the Chinese appear to be rather poor marksmen and the ship has, so far, not sustained any casualties in these engagements."
As the Japanese moved through south China, American gunboats evacuated most of the embassy staff from Nanking during November 1937. Panay was assigned as station ship to guard the remaining Americans and take them off at the last moment. Panay evacuated the remaining Americans from the city on 11 December, bringing the number of people aboard to five officers, 54 enlisted men, four US embassy staff, and 10 civilians, including Universal News cameraman Norman Alley, Movietone News’ Eric Mayell, the New York Times's Norman Soong, Collier's Weekly correspondent Jim Marshall, La Stampa correspondent Sandro Sandri and Corriere della Sera correspondent Luigi Barzini jr. Panay moved upriver to avoid becoming involved in the fighting around the doomed capital. Three American merchant tankers sailed with her. The Japanese senior naval commander in Shanghai was informed both before and after the fact of this movement.
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Wikipedia