Effectiveness and Limitations of Anti-Piracy Activities

In general, under Tu Duc, along with social upheavals and especially being busy dealing with the French colonial invasion, pirates emerged a lot. Reading documents from Dai Nam Thuc Luc shows that many times pirates "made waves" at the seaports and sea areas of Vietnam.

Along with certain successes in fighting pirates, there were also many limitations and as a result, many officials in charge of the military posts, even provincial officials, were severely disciplined: Chau Ban dated April 24, Minh Mang 19 (1838), Quang Ngai's memorial on disciplining officials who were weak in handling pirates [51, volume 70, page 194]. The edict dated March 21, Thieu Tri 1 (1841), demoted officials in Thanh Hoa for allowing pirates to occur. The edict affirmed that the sea patrol had a complete program, and that these days, coastal provinces had sent soldiers and boats to patrol, so from then until now, everything had been peaceful. "Now, there was a robbery in the sea area of ​​that province, but the local military posts and soldiers on the coast guard were still ignorant and did not know, so patrolling and capturing them was really helpless" [52: volume 8, page 52]. The Governor, the Inspector, the Navy, and the Guard were all demoted and retained their positions. The official document dated April 16, Thieu Tri 1 (1841), stated that the disciplinary action against officials in Nghe An and Ha Tinh for allowing transport ships to be robbed on their sea territory, "The Governor also found it difficult to deny his crime". The official document dated April 12, Thieu Tri 7 (1845), disciplined officials for robbing merchant ships that escaped in Binh Thuan: "The Guards in Phan Thiet and Long Vinh were all demoted.

4 levels. The original patrol officer, Hoang Van Huong, of the 2nd team of the Right Water Guard, was demoted to 2 levels and kept in office to wait for future results. The captain of the 6th team of the Left Water Guard, Nguyen Van To, was beaten 80 times with sticks to show his punishment. The acting Governor Nguyen Dang Uan was reprimanded by the imperial edict” [52: volume 43, page 89]…

Why are pirates so difficult to suppress? That is the question that the Nguyen Dynasty kings and mandarins spent a lot of effort but still could not find a satisfactory answer, and that also meant that they had to pay the price every day at sea. Annual statistics, under the Tu Duc Dynasty alone, the number of government ships dispatched that were often attacked by wind, storms and pirates was quite large: 851/11,984 government ships dispatched. Of these, 447 ships were attacked by wind and storms. The reality is that pirate ships not only operated individually but were often organized and had large numbers and many weapons, while government ships had inferior weapons, and fishing boats were even more limited. (Fishing ships were not prohibited from carrying sickles, daggers, stone fists, and wooden clubs. Everything else was controlled). Even patrol boats were sometimes weak against pirates. For example, in February 1865, pirates flooded into Thanh Hoa province with many weapons, they caused chaos in Ne Son with 30 ships and Bien Son with 21 ships. The local authorities had to request to send 2-3 more bronze boats to gather and suppress the rebellion. The king then sent 2 bronze boats, Than Giao (originally patrolling from Quang Tri, Quang Binh to Quang Nam) and Tinh Duong (originally patrolling from Ha Tinh to Nam Dinh), along with 3 patrol boats, to immediately gather and suppress the rebellion. Then the Than Giao boat sank, Quan Co Nguyen Tri and more than 100 soldiers drowned [155: 904]. The price to pay was too great. Or the event in June 1867, 22 pirate boats entered Sa Ky seaport and 300 soldiers came ashore while the soldiers there were only 150 people. However, it was difficult to hunt them down. Sometimes, even after capturing more than a hundred of them, they were only handed over to the "old country" (Qing country) to handle and propose coordinated patrols. [53: episode 112].

In general, anti-piracy weapons were quite few and rudimentary. Apart from the government cruisers which were equipped with weapons, merchant ships were only allowed to carry weapons for self-defense. Edward Brown's memoirs provided this information: "Only government ships were allowed to carry weapons, and although there were many Chinese pirates at sea, merchant ships were not allowed to use any weapons, even for self-defense." The "weapon" on the merchant ships that he described was actually a flamethrower: "It was a small bamboo tube, about 6.5 centimeters in diameter and about a meter long, with the barrel inside

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filled with gunpowder. These bamboo barrels were tied to wooden poles about two meters long. To use this weapon, people did the following: "light the gunpowder and press the muzzle of the gun against the enemy's ship when the enemy attacks or climbs over your boat. By doing so, the enemy's ship is easily burned and forced to retreat. This gun may be effective against an unarmed enemy, but against anyone with a real gun, it is no longer effective" [89: 133].

Thus, the weapons of merchant ships and fishing boats against pirates were still too modest. Let's compare them with the weapons and organization of pirates, described as follows: "Their ships were specially designed and built. Their ships were not powered by engines, had three large bat-shaped masts and about 50 rowers. The ships were made of wood with iron straps, and were both used for fishing and for war. The ships were equipped with cannons, and the sailors used knives, machetes, sickles, iron hooks, etc. The ships had 3 floors: the top floor was flat with cannons, which was the place to fight when in battle and also to pull fish up when fishing. The middle floor was where people lived, with holes left on both sides of the ship higher than the water surface, and the oars were brought out to row the ship. The bottom floor was used for food, raising animals, storing drinking water, storing guns and ammunition, etc. similar to the warships of the Roman Empire. The boat was designed with many sturdy wooden compartments to prevent water from entering and sinking the boat when it was punctured or had an accident similar to today's oil tankers. In that situation, the boat still ran normally and could repair the puncture in a short time. A large-sized Tau O could carry a crew of several hundred people, with enough food and water to sustain them for several months at sea without needing to stop for supplies. The Tau O pirates were a major threat to Vietnam's security in the sea. They divided into many groups and hid in Ha Long Bay, Quang Yen, and later entered the southern coastal area, especially during the Tu Duc period. The Chinese pirates appeared and disappeared, and were also good at fighting, with modern weapons, so the Vietnamese navy could not suppress them... this situation lasted until the French ruled Vietnam" [89: 133]. Patrick J. Honey also said: "The Vietnamese government at that time had great sympathy and favor for England, because British warships often chased away pirates raging along the coast of Vietnam" [89: 142]. However, this opinion may need to be further verified because in reality there are no documents from the government.

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Which Nguyen side is on that? Later, when French ships appeared frequently in Vietnamese waters, Nguyen Dynasty history recorded a number of times French warships fired on pirate ships and it can be said that the advantage of French warships was superior to that of pirate ships.

As mentioned in the beginning, the rather complicated composition of pirates is also a reason why the prevention work encounters many obstacles. Merchant ships can also be pirates when there is an opportunity and they can also participate in smuggling, and are all classified as criminals. It is because of that fragile background that they naturally have a place to live. In the history of anti-piracy, there was also a recorded case that took place from 1874, in Quang Ngai, until March 1877, after careful examination, it was found that it was the mistaken killing of a Qing merchant ship. They were chased by pirates and ran over, but unexpectedly they were mistakenly killed. Even the discussion was still confusing, difficult to distinguish: "According to the plaintiff's claim, it must be a merchant, according to the testimony, it must be a bandit, and the complicated evidence is whether it is a merchant or a bandit, there is still a bit of doubt, only to seek credit and kill in vain, it is truly cruel" [156: 231].

Pirates were rampant at sea, according to author Yoshiharu Tsuboi, not only the very daring Qing pirates but also the Vietnamese. There were even women and children. The document on Bishop Retord's letter quoted by Yoshiharu Tsuboi said: "After the envoys, it was the turn of bandits and pirates, they have been causing a lot of disasters here. Last year (1849), the entire coastal area of ​​Dang Ngoai and Dang Trong was plundered by these bandits; they went in groups of 50 to 60 boats, including small boats of women and children to transport the stolen goods and large boats, fully armed, with many people to fight and continue to plunder" [178: 168].

Based on a Chau Ban , the "chau dep" of King Tu Duc showed the situation of anti-piracy at that time: "According to the report, this time a Qing pirate ship dared to come to the Dai Ap sea area to intercept and rob merchant ships, injuring people like that. The local guards and warships that the province sent to patrol the sea area, and the patrol was negligent, which is truly a crime" [53: volume 12, page 43]. King Tu Duc also criticized the anti-piracy work that must be based on much talking: "Anything that can be solved does not depend on much talking, just need to try hard and reward and punish" [53: volume 170, page 217].

In general, the Nguyen Dynasty tried and had many measures to prevent piracy. Piracy was partly solved but to some extent it was still not

can be radical, even sometimes impotent, and piracy remains a major threat to security in the sea.

3.4. RESCUE WORK

During the Nguyen Dynasty, the State conducted many rescue activities in the sea areas under its management. Many government ships, foreign ships, military ships, and merchant ships encountered distress in the central sea areas because going to sea faced many unpredictable risks. There are many documents about this important work. The Thuc Luc book recorded many rescue and relief activities. The Code recorded a number of typical rescue cases and especially in the Nguyen Dynasty's Royal Records , we found that there were many Royal Records talking about the rescue work of ships in distress at seaports and sea areas under the management of the Nguyen Dynasty. In general, regardless of whether they were government ships or private ships, domestic ships or foreign ships, they were all given timely attention and rescue. Depending on the specific cases, there may be special standards for foreign government ships in distress in Vietnamese sea areas. In general, this is one of the regular and effective humanitarian activities at seaports.

As early as the second year of Gia Long (1803), there were regulations on rescue work at sea. During the reigns of kings Minh Mang, Thieu Tri, and Tu Duc, this important work continued to be carried out. Merchant ships that were drifted by storms, had their ships broken, or lost goods... then local officials at seaports would follow the rescue rules. This was stipulated from the Gia Long dynasty, which was to provide each person with rice according to the number of people on the ship to live, and when the wind was favorable, they would be allowed to follow the merchant ship back to their country. At the beginning of the Minh Mang dynasty, a rescue rule was established: the king "ordered the seaports to reserve money and rice to give to those who were in storms, but had to consider whether the victims were on official or private business, depending on the amount; if they were on official business, the captain and above would be given double the amount of rice" [65: 143-144]. Minh Mang explained further: "The sea route was difficult and dangerous, and the waves and winds were unpredictable. Recently, military officers and civilians, whether on business or in business, have ventured into dangerous and dangerous places out of necessity. Or they have accidentally encountered a storm, and if they live, they have no place to stay, and if they die, who will bury them? I feel very sorry for them, so I have ordered the local officials guarding the seaports to reserve money and rice in case someone