May 1, 1963, West Flower Hall in Zhongnanhai. Although it was May Day, and it was the time for the whole country to celebrate, Premier Zhou was still unwilling to put down his work and fought against time on the document.

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May 1, 1963, West Flower Hall in Zhongnanhai.

Although it was May Day, it was the time when the whole country celebrated, Premier Zhou was still unwilling to put down his work and fought against time on the document.

Every time, the Prime Minister will stand up and move his somewhat stiff muscles. From time to time, he stares out of the window and his thoughts float across the ocean and fall on the " Jumping " freighter that had just set sail.

Premier Zhou

Just late at night on April 30, my country's first 10,000-ton giant ship "League" set sail for Japan for the first time. Just like a mother caring about the children traveling far away, Premier Zhou was very concerned about the voyage of the Yuejin.

At around 2 pm, the phone ringing from the Prime Minister's office suddenly rang. After answering the phone, listening to the urgent report on the other end of the phone, the Prime Minister's brows went from relaxing to tight frowning, like a lake turning into a mountain with gullies, making people sigh at the changing world.

put down the phone, the Prime Minister called all the secretary, and he announced seriously: "The Yuejin encountered an accident on his way to Japan and has now sunk. Notify all departments to take action immediately and investigate the truth!" Why did the

,000-ton ship sink on his way to Japan? What horrifying truth is hidden under the water? Let us return to that ups and downs and find out the truth of the accident.

A shipwreck accident filled with clouds

At around 1 pm on May 1, 1963, the Yuejin was sailing in the southwest waters of Jeju Island, South Korea.

seems to be to celebrate the first 10,000-ton ship. God gave him enough face. The entire sea area was clear and the good weather conditions made the tense crew members breathe a sigh of relief. After all, no one wants to go on the battle for the first time.

This time, Yuejin set out from Qingdao and planned to sail towards the port of Mensi, Japan. The giant ship was loaded with a large amount of minerals, fruits and vegetables and other goods. In the current unpredictable political environment, this also represents the gradual restoration of the two countries' diplomatic relations and friendship.

, at this moment, changes arise.

On the calm sea surface, the hull suddenly began to shake violently, and then the entire hull began to tilt slowly towards the sea surface.

The sudden situation left the crew on the deck at a loss. Not to mention how to rescue the ship that was about to sink, even the safety of the crew's lives could not be guaranteed, because at this time the nearest island was hundreds of nautical miles away.

Fortunately, the correspondent on the ship took the lead in stabilizing his emotions. Not long after the accident, the current situation was transmitted back to the mainland headquarters by telegram, and then used SOS international general distress signal to request rescue of the surrounding ships.

Premier Zhou, who was far away in Beijing, was shocked and puzzled when he learned about this. There were millions of possibilities in his mind. Has hostile forces taken action? Who is it? The United States, the Soviet Union or Japan?

In any case, the Prime Minister is well aware that if this matter is handled improperly, it is very likely to rise to the international level.

Xiao Jinguang

In order to protect the dead crew and to deter possible hostile forces, the Prime Minister immediately contacted the Navy Commander Xiao Jinguang and ordered him to send four frigates, No. 205, 206, 211 and 224, to go to the wrecked waters at full speed for rescue.

Just as the rescue was in full swing, before we could make a statement, Japanese media reported in a hurry: China's first ocean-going cargo ship was hit by torpedo on the way to Japan and has now sunk.

Then, the Japanese government stood up again and said that this matter had nothing to do with Japan.

Japan's move is a typical example of watching the show, because my country has not yet produced a clear investigation result, and it is still impossible to judge whether it has been attacked by the enemy submarine . The truth is not yet determined.

At this time, Japan jumped out and said it was hit by a torpedo, which means there must be a murderer.The report of

is like a Mars igniting the entire explosive barrel. The matter has been speculated by media from various countries and has risen directly into an international political event. Conspiracy theories are flying all over the world, guessing which one has the motive and ability to commit crimes.

In fact, this is similar to the incident when the Russian Nord Stream No. 1 and 2 natural gas pipelines were blown up some time ago. As the lifeline of natural gas in Europe, Nord Stream No. 1 and 2 were blown up. It is said that at least 80,000 tons of methane gas have been leaked, which is even more uncomfortable than killing European countries.

Then at this time, countries also jumped out and said it was a man-made bombing, so it was the popular link to find the murderer, but there was also a problem. If the murderer could not be found, it was equivalent to slapping European countries in the face, proving that they were all a bunch of pigs who were having a good meal; if they were found, what should be dealt with would become another problem.

Although it is not the same time and not the same place, when the Yuejin sinks, Premier Zhou and other national leaders are also worried about the same problem.

The United States, South Korea, Japan and even the Soviet Union all stood up to express their opinions, and they tried their best to clear their suspicion.

Obviously, the scope is narrowed in countries with submarines, namely the United States, Japan and the Soviet Union.

1963, Sino-Soviet relations had broken down. Not only were the two sides tense in the north, but the Soviet Union even provided military assistance to India that invaded China, so their suspicion was naturally the greatest; the United States had no relationship with us at that time, but for strategic checks and balances, the United States, which maintained the balance of Sino-Soviet contradictions, had no motive for the crime; although Japan had submarines, it was basically bound to the United States.

Putting aside Japan, if the investigation results show that it is really a move by one of the United States and the Soviet Union, how should our government act when facing the polarities of the world? Swallow this breath or start a war directly? These are all solutions, and they are the difficulties that leaders are in trouble.

However, in any case, it is imperative to find out the truth of the accident and break the fog for the development of the country's maritime industry. After all, this "Leap Forward" is hard-won.

The success of struggling

"Leap Forward" was built in 1958. As my country's first 10,000-ton ship, it is also a product of the times.

In the early days of the founding of the People's Republic of China, the capitalist camp led by the United States blocked the new red China in all aspects. The United States even sent the Seventh Fleet to Taiwan Strait to block the island chain.

Even so, third-world countries such as Southeast Asia, Africa, and South America are still willing to communicate with China.

However, at that time, most of the cargo ships that had ocean navigation were purchased from the Soviet Union and other countries and did not have the ability to build independently.

As the saying goes, "It is better to buy than rent, and it is better to build than buy." If we want to break the Western trade blockade, our country must master the ability to build giant ships independently, which is also laying the scientific research foundation for the research and development of the New China Navy's ship .

Today's Dalian Shipyard

Therefore, during the "Second Five-Year Plan" , my country will put the goal of building a 10,000 tons of ships on the agenda.

At that time, Sino-Soviet relations had not yet broken down. The Soviet Union was extremely concerned about China's five-year plan and even wanted to help us build the entire core industrial system.

After all, as long as China stands aside with them, the Soviet Union will have enough voice to compete with the United States in Far East . Therefore, the Soviet Union naturally strongly supports this project at this time.

At that time, the shipbuilding project was assigned to the Dalian Shipyard. Through the guidance of Soviet experts and the efforts of shipyard workers, a 10,000-ton ship took only 58 days from the initial outline until the entire hull was completely completed and launched and tested successfully, which was also a milestone in the history of China Shipbuilding.

Khrushchev

Just as the interior design of the ship was in an orderly manner, bad news suddenly came.

On July 21, 1958, under the instruction of Khrushchev , the Soviet ambassador formally proposed to China to set up a naval base along China's coast and form a Sino-Soviet joint fleet .

The Soviet Union's intention was clear to completely build China into a bridgehead for camp confrontation, but the central leaders were clear in their hearts. If this military base and joint fleet were built, it would be a precedent. Next, there will be a second and third military bases successively established, which is equivalent to being colonized by the Soviet Union, which completely violates our country's independent development path.

Therefore, our country strongly rejected the Soviet Union's proposal, and the relationship between the two countries has since broken down.

Soviet experts aiding China

Since the relationship has broken down, there is no need for the Soviet Union to continue to support my country's construction. Experts have been withdrawn one after another, and countless industrial projects have been affected, including the research and development of the "Leap Forward".

Although the general framework of "Leap Forward" has been completed, there are still many details that need to be studied urgently. The expert's departure instantly caused the shipyard to lose its backbone, just like a lighthouse on the sea extinguished, and the ships navigating in the fog lost their direction to move forward.

After a brief chaos, the shipyard quickly stabilized, just like China's nuclear project, even if the foundation was completely destroyed overnight, even if it was done over the beginning, it would have to be done.

For this reason, Premier Zhou visited the shipyard twice, encouraging experts and workers to exert subjective initiative and overcome technical difficulties independently.

In other words, perhaps we also have to thank the United States, the Soviet Union and other countries for their technological blockade on our country. It is under their "stimulation" that our country has strengthened its self-reliance, and has overcome all obstacles along the way, independently and independently improved the entire industrial system.

Otherwise, perhaps our country is like India today, with weapons and equipment all "Wanguo Cards", and no one can even be found for maintenance, and once there is a malfunction, it can only be scrapped.

After all the technicians' hard work, the "Leapfrog" was finally completed.

According to records, the Yuejin cargo volume reached an astonishing 13,400 tons, which can travel 18.5 nautical miles per hour and a range of 12,000 nautical miles. It can directly reach major ports in the world without docking and replenishing fuel. It can sail through ice in frozen areas. The ship is equipped with the most advanced mechanized and electrified facilities in the world at that time, and is the benchmark for Chinese manufacturing in that era.

Then, "Leapfrog" passed four years of technical inspection until it finally obtained the ship inspection certificate in December 1962.

As the first long-distance voyage of the Jumping Time, although it only crosses the Sea of ​​Japan, it is an important step in demonstrating China's technical capabilities and cannot be missed.

As Murphy's Law says: "The more you fear, the more likely things will happen."

Although it has been prevented from it, Yuejin still encountered an accident.

Going to sea for investigation and truth

Late at night on May 2, 1963, when the surviving crew of Yuejin returned to Beijing on a plane, Premier Zhou met with the third deputy of the "Yuejin" and the three-pipe wheel or above overnight to understand the situation at the time of the accident.

Premier Zhou condolences to the crew of the "Yuejin"

Before the conversation began, Premier Zhou first comforted him: "The first issue now is to find out the truth of the accident, so don't be nervous, let go of the conversation."

Prime Minister's words seemed to give everyone present peace of mind, and everyone told them what they saw and their speculation about the accident at the time of the incident.

Several of the managers said that they heard a loud bang and then the hull vibrated. When they checked the damage to the ship, they found a gap in the port side of the hull, so they inferred that it was very likely that it was attacked by the enemy torpedo.

Some people even said that when the ship was attacked, he happened to stand on the deck and found a strange black shadow under the sea not far from the ship. It looked like a submarine. The claim that

was attacked by an enemy submarine was recognized by most crew members after the incident.

So, when the crew members were rescued by Japanese fishing boats and sent ashore, a steady stream of Japanese reporters came to interview. At that time, people did not have a strong media awareness, so they informed Japanese reporters of their speculation, and there was a report that the "Leapfrog" was attacked by a submarine.

But the captain and the first mate did not agree with this speculation. The captain learned through the deputy chief of staff of the Navy Liu Huaqing that there is no torpedo in the world with a low explosion sound but a powerful enough to explode the Shen Yuejin, so he believes that the possibility of hitting the reef is greater.

Although both sides have different opinions, Premier Zhou has roughly understood the situation. Whether it is torpedoes or hitting the reef, they need to be supported through on-site investigations.

Liu Huaqing

On May 12, 1963, Premier Zhou personally rushed to Shanghai to direct the investigation.

According to the instructions of the Prime Minister, East China Sea Fleet , Shanghai and Shanghai Transportation Departments drew 10 ships and 1,097 personnel formed a joint search team. At 9 a.m. on May 18, he set sail from Shanghai Wusong Wharf to investigate the accident site.

Around May every year, since the surface water temperature and other 20℃ lines are moved to the coast of Zhejiang and the central part of East China Sea , this is also the heyday of the East China Sea fog. From a distance, the entire sea area is swaying like a fairyland, which is so beautiful.

But for the search team, sailing in a sea with visibility less than 100 meters is like crossing a river by feeling the stones, taking one step at a time, casting a haze for the investigation.

After strangling the sea for a day and night, the search team barely arrived at the wrecked sea area.

Using an echo detector, the search team locked the search range around the Suyan Reef waters, and finally determined that the exact location of the metal echo was 32°06〃 north latitude and 125°24〃 east longitude. At the same time, the search team found a large amount of oil floating on the sea surface.

Reminding the grain loaded by Yuejin, the wreckage location is probably almost the same.

Through 72 dive detection in 4 days, the search team found the sinking hull and obtained key evidence to explain the sinking of Jump Forward.

Not far southwest of Suyan Reef, divers found a submarine reef about 3.5 meters long and less than 1 meter wide. There were obvious fracture marks on the surface of the reef, and many scattered small stones and red patent leather dropped by the hull were found around it.

Suyan Reef

On the hull that Yuejin sank, divers found 3 holes, 5 depressions, and 1 broken keel bone, and the rest were basically not damaged. Most importantly, the lower part of the hull has an extremely long inward curling crack, which is enough to prove that the Jump Forward hit the reef and caused the sinking.

Generally speaking, if it is attacked underwater, just a 180-kilogram torpedo will be enough to destroy a 50,000-ton ship. Therefore, the "injury" of the hull of the Jump Forward is obviously impossible to be caused by the torpedo.

lasted for nearly half a month. The search team took out the "Leap Forward" heading record book, national flag and relevant data, and successfully completed the task and returned home, but this does not mean that the matter was left alone.

The truth behind

After confirming that the Yuejin number was sunk due to the impact of the reef, Premier Zhou immediately transferred relevant personnel to dig deep into the strange things.

For sailors who are well versed in sea navigation, hitting a reef is the most common sea accident. Although it is dangerous, it is not surprising.

However, the suspicious point of this accident is that the voyage routes of Yuejin are all planned, and the sea areas of the routes are all safe routes summarized by previous generations. Except for natural disasters caused by force majeure, problems are basically impossible.

According to the post-confirmation and on-site exploration of the crew of Yuejin, the actual route of Yuejin deviates from Suyan Reef 7 nautical miles away, which is simply a great example of the world.

In the face of Premier Zhou’s doubts, the ship managers hesitated and only blamed the blame on factors such as meteorology, hydrology, and instruments.

It is true that hydrology and ship-borne equipment have indeed had an inevitable impact on the voyage of the Yuejin, but Premier Zhou is well aware that if there were problems with the Yuejin, which had been preparing for several years, would have been discovered in the test a few years ago, and it would never be possible to lose the chain at a critical moment.

As expected, Premier Zhou found that the proportion of human factors in the accident is more critical.

It turned out that shortly before departure, the crew members who had a high degree of running-in with the Yuejin were transferred for special reasons. Most of the sailors who replaced them lacked navigation experience and did not know how to adapt when encountering problems. It was their dereliction of duty that led to the tragedy, and many of them were also killed and sacrificed in the accident.

As the saying goes, "Ten years of army, a hundred years of navy", an army, as long as it is properly trained, it takes only a few months to exert combat effectiveness, but for the navy, it is far from being mature without more than ten years of accumulation.

For example, my country's first independently developed aircraft carrier "Shandong" was officially launched in 2019, but it is still in the running-in period until today, which shows its difficulty.

The same principle applies to ship navigation. It is equivalent to self-destruction to transfer a group of sailors who lack navigation experience onto the ship.

Prime Minister Zhou was furious when he learned the truth because he knew very well that the real mistake was not the crew, but the officials in charge of the matter.

Those who do not know the military should not speak up easily. If the responsible officials are familiar with maritime affairs, they will not cause a disaster.

For this reason, the Prime Minister severely criticized this group of officials at the wreck report meeting: the sinking of the "Leap-Jin" cargo ship is the most profound lesson, and it is attributed to the problem of bureaucracy. In a word, it means taking the mass line with leadership. The leader takes the lead, everyone takes action, work together to ensure safety. Remove the official airs and establish a new atmosphere.

At the same time, after the truth was revealed, the Prime Minister ordered Xinhua News Agency to respond to external doubts, confirming that the "Leapfrog" sank due to the impact of the reef, and the so-called submarine conspiracy theories are all false.

Although the sinking of Yuejin has caused major losses to personnel and property, since the situation is inevitable, it is better to treat it as a shocking education and learn from it, so as to promote China's maritime affairs to a longer-term future.

Source:

[1]: "Analysis of the reasons for the breakdown of Sino-Soviet relations" J Wang Zhenyu Tongji University Anhui History

[2]: "Development of my country's Navigation Culture and Shipping Industry" J Qu Qunzhen, Li Lixin School of Economics and Management, Shanghai Maritime University Transportation Enterprise Management