Description
Object description
Port treadplate, from Black Swan class sloop HMS Amethyst, mid-20th Century.
Physical description
Tread plate, cast in bronze, bearing the name "AMETHYST", raised in a central recessed panel. The inset base is painted red. There are six screw holes, three equally paced along each of the long sides.
Label
Celebrated for its daring July 1949 escape from Communist Chinese forces on the Yangtze River, HMS AMETHYST remains one of the Royal Navy's most famous ships. The incident is widely interpreted by IWM as one of the key post-1945 'stories', no les so given HMS BELFAST's role in the operation as C-in-C's flagship based at Hong Kong.
Every man who served on this ship crossed this tread plate. No other surviving item from the ship, with the exception of the watch bell has such a visible connection to the ship, the men and their experiences.
History note
HMS AMETHYST, a Black Swan class destroyer was commissioned into Royal Navy service in 1943, and deployed on anti-submarine operations during the latter part of the Second World War. In February 1945 she was credited with sinking U1276. On 20th April 1949, during the Chinese Civil War, she was on route up the Yangtse river to take up station as the 'Nanking Guardship' providing protection to the embassy and its staff, when she was attacked by Chinese communist forces. Subsequent shelling killed 22 of the ship's company, including the captain, and immobilised the ship. She stayed aground and immobile for over 100 days before Lt Cdr Kerans, the naval attache in Nanking who had boarded the ship and assumed command, was encouraged by a signal from the Commander in Chief of the Far East Station Admiral Sir Patrick Brind, on board HMS BELFAST, to break out under dark.
History note
Decommissioned in 1952, AMETHYST depicted herself in the 1957 movie "The Yangtze Incident: The Story of HMS AMETHYST". Damaged during filming, the ship was soon scrapped but the ship's portside treadplates was presented by the Royal Navy to Herbert Wilcox, the film's producer, and his wife Anna Neagle. Wilcox later gave the plate to the director of the film Michael Anderson, who had earlier directed "The Dam Busters".