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Lay-Osborn Flotilla

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 * Horatio Nelson Lay - see section on Lay-Osborn Flotilla
 * Sherard Osborn
 * Rosario class sloop
 * Vigilant class gunvessel
 * List of gunboat and gunvessel classes of the Royal Navy
 * Hugh Talbot Burgoyne, CO of Pekin
 * Taiping Rebellion
 * Li Hongzhang
 * Allen Young

Time line

 * 1854 - Inspectorate of customs formed at Shanghai, with Lay assisting while serving as Vice-Consul in Shanghai
 * 1855 - Lay appointed as IG of Imperial Customs
 * 1856 - 1860 - Second Opium War - Treaties of Tientsin opened Chinese ports to foreign trade and established freedom of navigation along the Yangtse River
 * 18 August 1860 - Taiping rebels arrive at Shanghai(Clowes)
 * 1860/1 - Shanghai defended by foreign forces against Taiping rebels led by Li Xiucheng
 * July 1861 - Chinese government agreed to a proposal presented by British ambassador Sir Frederic Bruce in July 1861
 * ? - Lay (IG of Imperial Customs) orders flotilla for coast patrol against smugglers and pirates (exceeding authority) (Williams p.40)
 * 14 March 1862 - Lay left China for England with written instructions from Prince Gong. China committed to a naval force for the Yangtse River manned by British Officers
 * 30 August 1862 - British government suspends the Foreign Enlistment Act, passing an Order in Council which authorised the fitting out and manning of vessels of war for the service of the Emperor of China.(Clowes)
 * 2 September 1862 - Queen Victoria agreed to the proposal and gave permission to equip the vessels and hire crews.
 * September 1862 - Lay appointed Captain Sherard Osborn as Commander of the flotilla.
 * 13 February 1863 - Flotilla sails from England
 * September 1863(FOTW) - Lay-Osborn flotilla arrives in China, with crews engaged for four years (Williams p.41)
 * 18 October 1863 - Osborn refuses to be subordinated to a Chinese officer, stating that he is only to receive his orders from the Emperor via Lay (FOTW)
 * 9 November 1863 - Osborn resigns at T'ien-tsin.(FOTW) Flotilla disbanded and returns to England.(FOTW)
 * 1863 - Lay dismissed. Robert Hart IG of Imperial Customs (until 1907).

The U.S. Minister to China, Anson Burlingame recommended to the Chinese Government that the ships should be returned to England and the crews paid off - this avoided the ships being sold in China, and potentially falling into the hands of pirates, rebellious Japanese nobles, or the Confederate States of America.(Williams)

Had Captain Osborn thought more of his pecuniary interests and less of his own and his country's honour, he would have taken command on the Chinese conditions — have made an attack upon Nanking, won a temporary notoriety, and left his country involved in a mortal struggle with the rebels and subject to the taunts of the civilised world.

"During the brief stay of the flotilla in Chinese waters, some of the officers and men belonging to it behaved in such a fashion that there was a general sense of relief among the European residents upon its departure. The disappearance of the "Vampires," as they were called, probably saved some of them from having to meet charges of piracy; for they had no commission whatsoever." (Clowes)

Ships
(Clowes)

Choice of Ensign

 * Although the Chinese had decreed that the flag was to be a yellow three-cornered flag bearing the Blue Dragon, Lay designed a four-cornered green flag with a yellow saltire.