Posted by Robert Campbell (203.101.232.151) on January 29, 2008 at 20:44:31:
In Reply to: Re: ship General GORDON from Shanghi, China to SF 1948 posted by JWC Low on December 28, 1999 at 01:24:24:
Can't help about Chinese surnames but I'm glad I found this. I had been looking for a photo of the SS General Gordon for years. In 1949 at age 9 I was on the last Sunderland flying boat out of Shanghai as the communists approached the city. Women and children only. My father was Dockmaster at the Shanghai Dockyards and stayed. After a year in Hong Hong my mother and family boarded the General Gordon hoping it would sail to Shanhai. After 3 days we disembarked again. Considered too dangerous. Myself and many other kids played down below in a hold among piles of mattresses, pillows and blankets. Ready for bringing more refugees out maybe. Until we were chased by crew. Then boarded the (SS?)Anking which left but turned back when shells were fired over the top in the Formosa Strait. We eventually got to Tientsin on the SS Heinrich Jessen via the China Sea then by train to Shanghai. The Communists then closed the port and we moved to Sydney. I am now in Brisbane at [email protected]. Hope to hear more stories and thanks for tolerance on non Chinese surnames messages. Photos of General Gordon are on www.history.navy.mil/photos/sh/usnsh-gap117.htm