1841
Battle of the Bogue
The setting
The Humen strait (the Bogue), Pearl River, Guangdong
The fortified narrows guarding the river approach to Canton. Masonry forts with heavy guns on fixed mountings, sited to fire on sailing ships working up a channel.
Reveal the outcome
Recorded sideUnited Kingdom and the East India Company
Recorded resultvictory
British victory. The river to Canton was opened.
How the atlas explains it
The forts were built to stop sailing ships in a channel, and were answered by a shallow-draught iron steamer that did not need the channel. Nemesis could move against wind and current, work the flats, and take the batteries in enfilade from positions no sailing warship could reach. The Qing guns were heavy and largely immovable on their mountings; a target that chooses its own bearing defeats a gun that cannot traverse. ⚠ THE MISMATCH WAS NOT COURAGE OR EVEN METALLURGY. It was that one side's weapon system assumed the other side's ships obeyed the wind.
What followed
⚠ THE DEFEATED COMMANDER IS THE ENTRY. Guan Tianpei had been the Qing naval commander-in-chief since 1838, had received British officers courteously, and died with a bayonet wound in the chest meeting the assault at the gate. British accounts of his death are respectful, which puts him in the same category the Nepal lane will need — a defeated commander commemorated by the winner.