Bruce Swanson - A Plain Sailorman in China: The Life of and Times of Cdr. I.V. Gillis, USN, 1875–1943

A PLAIN

SAILORMAN IN CHINA

A PLAIN

SAILORMAN IN CHINA

The Life and Times of Cdr. I. V. Gillis, USN 18751948

Bruce Swanson with

Vance H. Morrison, Don H. McDowell, and Nancy N. Tomasko

Naval Institute Press

Annapolis, Maryland

The latest edition of this work has been brought to publication with the generous assistance of Marguerite and Gerry Lenfest.

Naval Institute Press

291 Wood Road

Annapolis, MD 21402

2012 by RoseAnn Swanson

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying and recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.

ISBN 978-1-61251-392-8 (eBook)

The Library of Congress has cataloged the hardcover edition as follows:

Swanson, Bruce, 1937

A plain sailorman in China the life and times of Cdr. I. V. Gillis, USN, 18751948 / Bruce Swanson ; with Vance H. Morrison, Don H. McDowell, and Nancy Norton Tomasko.

p. cm.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

1. Gillis, I. V. (Irvin Van Gorder), 18751948. 2. United States. NavyOfficersBiography. 3. Military attachsUnited StatesBiography. 4. United StatesMilitary relationsChina. 5. ChinaMilitary relationsUnited States. I. Morrison, Vance H. II. McDowell, Don H. III. Tomasko, Nancy Norton, 1947 IV. Title.

V63.G53S93 2012

359.0092--dc23

[B]

2011051955

Print editions meet the requirements of ANSI/NISO z39.48-1992 (Permanence of Paper).

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First printing

TO THE LATE BRUCE SWANSON, HIS WIFE, ROSEANN, AND THEIR CHILDREN, ERIN, MEGHAN, SHANNON, AND BRUCE

B ruce Swanson loved working on the story of Irvin Van Gorder Gillis, and, when he visited us in Washington on several occasions while he was performing research there for the book, he was always animated and excited as he discussed Gillis and his exploits. In the late fall of 2007 Bruce fell terminally ill. Shortly before his passing he called a very surprised and saddened Vance Morrison and asked him to complete this book. Vance, a former career naval officer and U.S. naval attach to Chinaas was the books subject, I. V. Gilliswas, according to Bruce, a logical choice. Vance quickly asked Rear Admiral Don McDowell, Bruce and Vances immediate superior in Japan in the 1960s, to assist in this endeavor.

Bruces reasons for writing the book were best described by Bruce himself when he wrote an e-mail to a relative of I. V. Gillis, Mrs. Bonnie Gillis Waters, in January 2006. It read in part as follows:

I come to this from a purely academic view and am not a relative [of Gillis]. First, let me give you some background on who I am. I retired from the U.S. Navy in 1982 and spent much of that time in intelligence as a China specialist. In 1982 I had a book published [Eighth Voyage of the Dragon (Naval Institute Press)] that is a history of Chinas struggle to develop into a maritime/naval power. One of the most fascinating periods was that from 1894 to about 1930. During the course of my research I discovered that Irvin [Gillis] had been the first naval attach to China in about 1907a position he held again from 1911 to 1919 when he retired. While I did not treat him in a lot of detail at that time, I did not forget either and decided that at some point later I would come back and revisit his life in China. (I had to first work for a living and get my children raised and educated before I could do this). Last year I determined that the time was right and promptly discovered the other half of I. V.s lifethat being his collection of priceless Chinese books residing at Princeton University. I visited there and found his almost 20 years of private correspondence for this period of his life.

Bruce went on in some detail about specific discoveries and missing information he sought in his initial research, but we think that this e-mail sets the stage well for his efforts.

When we began to tackle our task, Bruces text was written entirely in hand on yellow legal pad paper because, by his own admission, he was not a typist. His widow, RoseAnn, who understandably was eager to have the book completed, had the manuscript typed. We collected that computer-generated textwith all its typographical and substantive challengesalong with much of Bruces collected research materials and associated notes and created a draft, printable text. Bruce often had several versions of a passage, and we selected the passage we thought was best in each case, hoping it would be the one Bruce would have wanted. For the final chapter, Bruce had written virtually no text. He had assembled a substantial amount of research material, mostly of letters exchanged between Gillis and Dr. Nancy Lee Swann, some of which Bruce had already collected and some of which are located in the East Asian Library at Princeton University. We added to that with the help of Dr. Nancy Norton Tomasko, at the time the editor of the