 She sailed with another ex-Spanish gunboat——and the collier ; the little flotilla arrived in Shanghai in February 1903.The gunboats' task was primarily to protect American lives and property in China, especially American-flagged vessels operating on the Yangtze River.The U.S. had sent gunboats to China in the past, but this flotilla was the first that the U.S. Navy had created specifically to patrol the Yangtze.