January 27, 1949 was the day before the Lunar New Year's Eve, and one more day and night would be the ugly New Year. On the banks of the Huangpu River in Shanghai, the huge Taiping ship was crowded with dignitaries and dignitaries, slowly leaving the port.
Everyone never imagined that the giant ship that was going to Taiwan Keelung Port sank in the waters near Zhoushan Islands eight hours later, and nearly a thousand people were buried in the seabed.
Among them, Li Haomin, the father of World Detective Li Changyu !
一 The overwhelmed Taiping Ship
This is a luxury freighter of China United Shipping Company, the main business is Cai Tianduo (the father of Cai Kangyong ) and his friends. This Taiping ship was converted from a cargo ship and divided into first-class, second-class, and third-class cabins. It was initially used as a transportation ship, and most of the passengers on board were businessmen, family members, and tourists traveling between the two sides of the Taiwan Strait.
In the autumn of 1948, due to the tense situation of the civil war , this ship almost became a refuge ship for the dignitaries. A large number of rich people began to flee the mainland by boat, and it was hard to find a ticket.
Therefore, some people exchanged gold bars for a cabin, or begged relatives and friends to get a ticket. On the day of the incident, the Taiping Ferry was already fully booked, and there were still many people crowded on board. The crew members were either greedy for money, or because of various reasons, they allowed those who did not buy tickets to board the ship.
As a result, 508 passengers with tickets and about 300 people without tickets remained on board, which was seriously overloaded.
What's more terrible is that this passenger ship, which was already overwhelmed, also carried other heavy cargo, including 600 tons of steel bars, more than 100 tons of printing materials and newspapers, more than 1,000 boxes of central bank , and a large amount of silver wait.
Because there was too much cargo to be loaded on board, the original plan was to set sail on the morning of January 27, but it was later changed to 2:00 p.m. When the ship is on the pier, it used to be a ladder to get on the ship, but now it can be boarded by lifting the feet - the deck is already level with the pier, which shows the degree of draft and load of the Taiping ship.
At that time, the whole ship had no open space, and it was either goods or people, so the draft was too deep. By the time the steel bars to be sent to Taiwan for the construction project were loaded onto the ship, the ship was already starting to tip, but no one cared.
A girl who was about to board the boat later recalled: "I saw that the hull of the boat was crooked, and I didn't dare to sit on it, so I sold the ticket." As a result, she was lucky to escape. Because of this,
laid a hidden danger for this accident, which directly led to a large number of victims.
2 Phantom of the night, both ships sank
At 4:00 pm on January 27 before New Year's Eve, the Taiping ship finally set sail with its heavy body. This is its 35th voyage, but it will be its last voyage!
It was an excellent day for walruses, no wind, no rain, no fog. The days are short in winter, and it gets dark soon after setting sail. But the boat went very fast, because everyone on board was looking forward to going to Taiwan to reunite with their families.
In order to avoid the government's curfew, the ship did not turn on the navigation lights, and sailed forward in the dark all the way at high speed. At about 11:45, near Baijie Mountain in the waters of the Zhoushan Archipelago (30°25&39; north latitude, 122° east longitude), disaster suddenly struck!
A "Jianyuan ship" carrying 2,700 tons of coal and timber was also sailing at night with the lights off, and the two ships collided. With a dull bang on the sea, the Jianyuan ship sank within a minute. 72 people on board drowned, and 3 people were rescued by the crew of Taiping.
At that time, the crew on the Taiping ship thought that their ship was fine, and everyone didn't take it seriously. According to the survivor Ge Ke’s later statement:
“After the bang, the waiter told the passengers that the Jianyuan ship had sunk and the Taiping ship was safe, so you don’t need to be alarmed. But I was relieved, and I took my wife and children to board the deck. At that time, the lower cabin was flooded with water, and the two lifeboats were crowded with people, but none of the crew on board untied the lifeboats into the sea.”
In fact, the hull of the ship had been damaged at that time, and sea water kept pouring into the cabin internal. Unprepared, this giant ship weighing 10,000 tons sank into the sea quickly, and the huge vortex caused by the sinking of the hull dragged many escape boats into the seabed.
The screams and wailing of those who fell into the water echoed on the dark sea. It's winter, the sea is cold and piercingBones, no matter those who can swim or those who cannot swim, will freeze to death after soaking in the water for a while. Many victims did not even die from drowning at all, but were frozen to death by the icy sea water.
At the end, there were only sporadic shouts and cries echoing on the sea, and finally calmed down...
The next morning, an Australian warship arrived after receiving a distress signal and nearly a thousand people died. In the Taiping Wheel, only 36 people were saved in the end.
According to the Australian crew, there are many corpses of adults and children floating in the sea, as well as those Buddhist statue tablets, wooden boxes of documents, etc.
When the two ships are added together, the lives of 1,000 people are ended, and those relatives who are eagerly waiting and eager to see through, know nothing at this time.
Three victims and survivors
At that time, there were many famous people on this boat, such as Wu Bochao, president of Nanjing Conservatory of Music, Deng Lianxi, editor-in-chief of " Time and Tide ", Lu Shuying, president of "Dongnan Daily", and Wang Yi, the representative of surrendered Hainan General et al.
In addition, Chang Zichun, the founder of the Taipei Mosque, has 11 members of his family, and Qiu Yangjun, a "National Congress representative" from Shanxi, Gong Yunlong, the father of Gong Xinru, who was once the "richest woman in Asia", and the two sons of Mao Qingxiang, the director of the confidential office of the Presidential Office. Son, etc., these people were all killed.
Yuan Shikai's great-granddaughter Yuan Jiayi hurried to the hospital after receiving the news of the sinking of the Taiping ship, because her father Yuan Jiayi was also on the Taiping ship. In the hospital, Yuan Jiayang was disappointed—she didn't find her father's shadow.
In addition, there is Li Haomin, the father of the famous detective Li Changyu!
Li Haomin is a big landlord in Rugao, Jiangsu, and owns a large piece of land near Rugao . He opened "Maoji Wuyang Store" in Tangjiaxiang, Rugao, dealing in daily-use commodities such as foreign kerosene, foreign matches and foreign soap, which were very popular among Gaocheng consumers. After the civil war broke out, Li Haomin judged the situation and considered moving his family and business to Taiwan, so he first went to Taiwan to run a fishing ground.
But the sudden " Taiping ship incident" caused him to die under the sea unfortunately.
Li Changyu's mother Wang Shuzhen
Li Changyu later recalled that the family had already set up the dishes and the children happily waited for their father to come back for the New Year, but his father never came back.
It is worth mentioning that Li Haomin's wife Wang Shuzhen gave birth to 13 children, and she raised these children alone with extraordinary perseverance. Later, all of them were Ph. Ds and had outstanding performance in their respective industries.
Master Xingyun
There are also many people who did not get on the wheel of death due to various reasons, such as Master Xingyun.
He was also a passenger of the "Taiping Ferry", but he was lucky enough to escape the catastrophe because he missed the time. Later, Master Xingyun once said: "Because I was in a hurry, I couldn't catch the ship in time, so I was spared."
Master Xingyun said, this should be a fate in life!
There is also scholar and writer Zheng Peikai . At that time, Zheng Peikai's family had already bought a ticket for the Taiping Ferry, but because Zheng Peikai vomited milk, the family refunded the ticket and bought a plane ticket.
three causes of the accident
After the accident, the authorities of the Kuomintang conducted a detailed investigation into the matter and set up a case trial team composed of professionals. After a detailed investigation, the cause of the accident is probably as follows:
1, improper handling
After the two ships collided, the Jianyuan ship sank instantly, but the Taiping ship did not show any major problems at this time, and two Jianyuan ships were rescued of drowning.
At this moment, it is said that Taiping should inspect the hull to prevent hidden dangers of water leakage, but the captain of Taiping did not take it seriously. Later, when the captain found that the front cabin was flooded, he hurriedly ordered to sail towards a nearby small island at full speed, but it was too late.
Due to more and more water ingress, the hull has begun to lose balance, the hull is gradually tilting to the right, and the speed of the boat is getting slower and slower. At this time, the boiler on the ship exploded again. After the explosion, seawater poured into faster and faster. 45 minutes after the sinking of the Jianyuan ship, it also sank into the icy sea.
Survivors and relatives of the victims paid homage to the dead
2 Seriously overloaded
The Taiping ship was transformed from a transport ship, and the design capacity of the ship was only more than 500 people. However, at that time, many passengers wanted to take the Taiping Ferry to Keelung, making it difficult to find a ticket. These passengers were either dignitaries or their family members. The operator of the Taiping Ferry had no choice but to load more than 300 passengers without tickets. The total number of
passengers and more than 100 crew members is close to 1,000, which is nearly double the overcrowding.
In addition, as just introduced, the Taiping Wheel was also loaded with 600 tons of steel, more than 100 tons of military supplies, etc., which made the Taiping Wheel overload even more serious.
The ship had listed before leaving port, and if the captain had been more careful, he would not have ventured to set sail.
Photos before Taiping’s accident
3 Blind sailing
Under normal circumstances, all ships sailing at night must turn on navigation lightsto indicate their own position and direction of travel, so as to avoid and identify each other. However, since it was a time of war, Songhu Garrison Command prohibited ships from turning on their lights.
Therefore, the Taiping ship did not turn on the navigation lights when sailing at night, and sailed in the dark, which led to the accident.
4 The crew was relaxed
It was the twenty-ninth day of the twelfth lunar month, the day before New Year's Eve, and many crew members drank alcohol that night. The first officer drank too much that night, and the third officer was in charge of driving.
Not only the chief mate, but almost all the crew members acted carelessly during the night voyage. They only looked forward to the New Year, and failed to discover the danger coming in time during the voyage.
5 The hull of the ship is too thin
The Taiping Wheel was designed and manufactured by the US military. It is a transport ship for short-distance use, with a displacement of 2,489 tons. During the World War II , the main task of this kind of transport ship was to supply the needs of China's rear for combat readiness and life. However, in order to cut off the supply, Japan often concentrates its firepower to sink this kind of transport and supply ship. Therefore, the U.S. military deliberately designed the hull of this type of ship to be light and thin in order to speed up the sailing.
So, when there is an impact, the hull breaks up very quickly.
Cai Tianduo, the owner, and his wife on the right
4 Follow-up processing
The passengers of the Taiping ship are either rich or expensive, and this ship carries too many confidential documents and some goods whose loss price cannot be estimated. Therefore, after the insurance company learned that the Taiping ship had sunk, they chose to go bankrupt without hesitation, but they did not want to pay any compensation for the accident-they really couldn't afford it!
Helpless, Cai Tianduo, as the owner of the ship, must shoulder this huge responsibility. He brought his family to Taiwan and started endless lawsuits. Later, the court ruled that the Taiping Wheel should bear the main responsibility and compensate all the losses of personal and property, which can be called astronomical data.
Cai Tianduo and the others couldn't afford to pay the compensation, so the matter was left alone. From then on, the whole family fell into a difficult situation immediately. In Taiwan, they had to engage in their old business and became lawyers to support the family by fighting lawsuits.
Later, the Kuomintang Navy's destroyer "Taiping", perhaps because the name of this destroyer is exactly the same as the Taiping ship, was hit by our People's Liberation Army with a torpedo and sank into the ocean... Thank you for reading, the pictures are from the Internet.
