The Sand Pebbles (film) - Historical Accuracy

Historical Accuracy

• From the First Opium War to the founding of the People's Republic of China, Western gunboats patrolled the Yangtze River to enforce trading privileges and extraterritorial rights that imperial powers acquired through unequal treaties. The gunboats enabled Western powers to assert influence over political developments in China. In the Panay incident of 1937, an American gunboat on the Yangtze River was shelled by invading Japanese forces. In the Yangtze Incident of 1949, several small Royal Navy ships were shelled by artillery batteries of the Chinese People's Liberation Army. The attack on the gunboat USS Panay is often cited as the inspiration for some elements in McKenna's plot. McKenna served in the China River Patrol in 1936.

• Despite its naval designation as a "river gunboat", the San Pablo of the book and film has very little artillery on deck: a 3-inch/23-caliber gun forward, a 1-pounder rapid fire gun astern and two Lewis machine guns (six in the novel). The sailors' small arms are M1903 Springfield rifles, bayonets, BARs and .45 caliber M1911 pistols carried by the officers and Chief Petty Officers who also carry swords and cutlasses. The book mentions the use of riot guns by the crew and a box of hand grenades but they do not appear in the film.

• The plot element of the killing of missionary Jameson at China Light Mission may have been inspired by the 1934 killing of American Christian missionaries John and Betty Stam and by the killing of the "China Martyrs of 1900".