with Columbine in tow and Fury astern followed by the eight Qing navy junks. Ten minutes later at 4:40 pm over thirty ships from the Chinese fleet opened fire. The initial shots mostly went over the decks of the British and Qing ships but as the expedition drew nearer the pirates began to score several hits. By this time the British and Chinese had begun accurate counter battery fire, several junks were sunk outright while others caught on fire and then sunk. After only twenty-five minutes of combat Shap Ng-tasi's flagship was hit several times and exploded with a loud boom. Shap Ng-tsai survived though and transferred his flag to one of the third-rate junks. The battle on the 20 lasted until just before 8:00 pm and a total of twenty-seven pirate junks were sunk and hundreds killed. While the Qing navy suffered a few casualties the British lost no one killed or wounded. When it became dark that night the expedition disengaged, lowered anchor and began a blockade of the river. October 21 Though they had lost almost half of their fleet, the pirates of Shap Ng-tsai chose to continue the battle. On October 21, the expedition attacked again. This time several of the junks were in too shallow water to be chased by large warships so several boats were lowered and armed with one cannon apiece and crewed by sailors and marines. They, under Lieutenant George Hancock and Captain Moore of the marines attacked several of the pirate junks in close quarters boarding actions. Nine junks were taken by the lieutenant's flotilla of boats that day and another fifteen were destroyed by other elements of the expedition. Having taken heavy losses the pirates chose to flee further up the river. Two of the second-rate junks were ordered to head for Tonkin Bay and fend off the attacking British sloops while the remaining junks fled. Both of these vessels were boarded and then sunk by gunfire after an hour and twenty minutes of fighting. During the three days of battle over 1,400 pirates made it ashore onto the small islands at the river's mouth when their junks were sunk. Armed with only muskets and matchlocks they fought from the coasts by firing their rifles at the expeditionary forces until attacked by Tonkinese land forces and several armed boats. At least 700 pirates were killed on land and about 300