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SAN PABLO gunboat  

Not all San Pablo models are of the same caliber. Some out there are seriously wrong. They might look good from afar but linger a bit more and you will notice serious problems. Those models' waterline is ridiculous, which says a lot about the basic nautical knowledge of the model's maker. Details and finish are like that of a plastic toy. By the way, the color of the real ship was light gray, not white. We understand that all scale models have imperfection but they don't have to suffer from grave errors like that. That's structural; now the details: they lack so many parts such as boxes, guns, bell. After you compare our model with those, you'll see that ModelShipMaster produces work of art, not a toy.

The USS San Pablo was featured in the 1966 film "The Sand Pebbles." She was a 150-foot steel-hulled gunboat, built by Vaughn & Yung Engineering Ltd. of Hong Kong. A replica of one type of U.S. navy gunboat used in China in the 1920's, the USS San Pablo was an ocean-going vessel powered with a diesel engine, capable of ten knots. She made the voyage by sea from Hong Kong to Taiwan and then back to Hong Kong. She had such a shallow draft (about 3 feet) that there was no deck below the main deck. Much of this space was occupied by machinery and the diesel power plant, otherwise depicted in film as the crew quarters.
 

"The Sand Pebbles" is based on an award winning novel by Richard McKenna, a former China Hand who served on the Yangtze Patrol in the 1930s, although the story is set a decade earlier. The novel was published in 1962 and won the Harper Prize for fiction, chosen over 544 other competitors. It was republished in 2000 by the Naval Institute Press, perhaps due in part to the title being included in the CNO's (Chief of Naval Operations) Professional Reading Program, listed as #9 on its Recommended Reading List.

The biggest talent search ever staged by Hollywood was in connection with “The Sand Pebbles.” A working steam engine, weighing 41,280 pounds and of the 1926 vintage, was finally found in Vancouver, British Columbia. It was aboard a fifty-year old Norwegian whaler on its way to the scrap-yard.

The San Pablo may be best described as a creative abstraction of the actual prototype gunboats, incorporating design elements from them. It is chiefly the work of production designer Boris Leven, well known for his contributions to blockbuster movies such as "Giant" and "West Side Story", which was directed by Robert Wise, who also helmed "Sand Pebbles." Of the San Pablo's fictitious design Leven commented that his objective was to both simplify and accentuate the gunboat's appearance while staying true to its historic roots and function.

The Sand Pablo was the most expensive movie prop built at the time of the movie's production. She alone cost a quarter million dollars. The gunboat was permanently manned by a crew of six.
 

San Pablo crossed the Formosan Straits in a storm and was overdue by a day while an anxious company awaited her arrival. In her period as a prime action prop, she ran aground numerous times in the shallow Tam Sui River. In Hong Kong waters, she was deliberately set afire. In total, she was completely repainted eleven times during the course of filming.

The “junk fight” at Sai Kung, wherein the USS San Pablo is faced with a blockade, is one of the most unusual sea battles ever staged. In the 1800’s and through the early 1900’s, river pirates sometimes blocked off waters with an array of junks bound together by a heavy bamboo rope. The opposing forces in “The Sand Pebbles” used this technique to blockade the gunboat.

The battle alone took two months of preparation and the 1,000-foot bamboo rope which linked the junks together weighed twenty-five tons. Battle filming by the First Unit lasted a month in Sai Kung waters. First Unit work was completed May 15, 1966.

After the movie San Pablo was sold to the De Long Timber Co. in the Philippines.  It was renamed the “Nola D” after Nola Dianne Delong the owner's wife or daughter. She was later sold to Seiscom Delta Exploration Co. and used as a base camp in Indonesia until the mid 1970’s. The Nola D was taken to Singapore and broken up in 1975.

The USS San Pablo was based on the USS Panay (PG-45). And here is a brief history of the USS Panay:

The United States was not a participant in the mid-19th century wars against China, but it was quick to take advantage of China's undoing. The USS Susquehanna was the first U.S. warship to steam up the mighty Yangtze River, in 1853; a motley collection of ships followed over the years.

The first "modern" U.S. warships arrived on the Yangtze only in 1903, when the USS Villalobos and USS Elcano arrived from the Philippines. The ships were hot, dirty, and poorly ventilated. They also were underpowered, underarmed, and generally unsuitable for river duty; but they patrolled the Yangtze for a quarter-century nonetheless.

By the turn of the century the China station was perhaps the most sought-after assignment in the USS Navy. Americans were above the law there, and most hedonistic pleasures were readily and cheaply available. Thus there was a need of increasing gunboats there.

In 1918, the Navy requested six gunboats. The Bureau of Construction and Repair then agreed that the boats could be built most economically in China.

The design took detailed form during preparation of the 1924 ship-construction proposal. In October 1924, the Bureau of Construction and Repair reported to Secretary of the Navy Curtis D. Wilbur that the General Boards recommended characteristics were being met, with some alterations. These included reduced bulletproof protection to meet weight limitation, diesel (instead of steam) engines capable of driving the vessel at 15 knots, and three (as opposed to four) rudders. Not only did these changes reduce the ships' maneuverability and defensive protection, but Washington officials overlooked the almost complete absence of diesel repair facilities and personnel in China."

The bureau by this time had produced a ship's plan based on the Kiangnan design, resembling closely a typical shallow-draft Yangtze River steamer. The Navy's appropriations request for 1926 included $4.2 million to build six such ships. Congress approved this request in December 1924.

The ships would be built in Shanghai, with the main propulsion machinery (boilers, engines, and pumps), ordnance equipment, bulletproof steel, and various other "articles of outfit" furnished by the U.S. Government.

The United States ordered the first hull material on 12 March 1926. The shipbuilding contract allowed Kiangnan 12 months to build each gunboat, with the first, hull number 43, scheduled for launching 1 November 1926 and delivery to the Navy 1 March 1927.

The gunboats were named officially on 10 May 1927: Guam (PG-43), Tutuilla (PG-44) Panay (PG-45), Oahu (PG-46), Luzon (PG-47), and Mindanao (PG-48) all Pacific Islands. Construction delays resulting from material delays, labor unrest, design changes, and Kiangnan's inexperience resulted in the ships being delivered to the Navy from 10.7 months (Guam) to 15.4 months (Tutuilla) late. 

The six new gunships served on China's rivers throughout the 1930s, attempting to deal with the disruptive effects of the fractionalized Nationalist government and its struggles with the communists and the Japanese. The ships protected merchant steamers, rescued U.S. and other foreign citizens, and exerted a stabilizing influence along China's waterways. Although U.S. naval and diplomatic officers sought to carry out these tasks without interfering in the country's internal affairs, this was a forlorn hope, since the U.S. gunboats were interfering in China simply by being there.

The squadron of six new gunboats for the Yangtze Patrol was subdivided into three pairs of different sizes, primarily in terms of length and displacement, though similarly armed with two 3 inch guns for main armament and with equivalent propulsion plants. The reason for the subgroups appears to be their suitability for ease of navigation along different segments of the Yangtze River, whose enormous length – over 1,700 miles – presented challenges for the larger sized boats, due to shallow water levels and narrow spaces in the upper reaches during the dry season, roughly from mid-October to mid-March, when the level could drop to as low as 10 feet. It was not only the matter of the need for hulls with shallow drafts, but also of sufficient space for them to turn around in.

There also areas of swiftly running currents, particularly in the Three Gorges region where they could run as high as 14 knots, which meant the gunboats’ top speed of 15 knots became highly problematic if no emergency power was available and the need to traverse this length was urgent.

The war with Japan claimed four of the gunboats. The Panay, sank in December 1937, was the U.S. Navy's first World War II casualty.

Japan's 1941 aggression marked the end of the U.S. gunboat presence in China. The Japanese Navy destroyed the Asiatic Fleet and the gunboats of the Yangtze Patrol met varying fates. The U.S. Navy returned to China in 1945, but the "unequal treaties" had been revoked and the foreign presence drastically reduced. An era had ended for the Navy with the loss of the gunboats in 1941. The Asiatic Fleet and Yangtze Patrol existed thereafter only in myth and legend.

This primarily wood model is 31" long x 11" tall x 6" wide. $3,290 shipping and insurance in the USA included, 0ther countries $300 flat rate. This model is in stock and can be shipped within 5 business days.

24" long x 9" tall x 5" wide. $2,790 shipping and insurance in the USA included, 0ther countries $250 flat rate. This model is built per commission only. We require only a small deposit (not full amount, not even half) to start the process $500  The remaining balance won't be due until the model is completed, in about 5 months. If you'd like to use with Paypal, let us know and we'll send you a bill.

Learn more about the USS Panay here: https://www.thesandpebbles.com/

Learn more about the USS San Pablo here: https://industrialhistoryhk.org/sand-pebbles/

For great details on the historical background of The Sand Pebbles movie, such as a map of the locations where many of incidents in the film took place, including several ports, the China Light Mission and the Battle of the Boom: https://issuu.com/navalhistoricalfoundation/docs/nhf_flix_the_sand_pebbles