One of the most difficult waterways in the world because of both its harsh geographical setting and the incessant hostility of bandits and warlords along its banks, the upper Yangtze River had only grudgingly yielded the use of its waters to merchant shipping at the turn of the 20th Century. The river had been open to foreign ships since the mid-19th Century, when the so-called "unequal treaties" internationalized this waterway, but the upper river was not conquered until shipbuilders were able to achieve the right combination of shallow draft and power to overcome the rapids, which could sometimes run as fast as 14 knots. Technical improvements come slowly; before World War Ⅰ, only a handful of steamers had operated between Ichang and Chungking in the famous gorges of the Yangtze. In 1918, Joseph Miclo went to work for Standard Oil of New York as the captain of the 135-foot river tug Mei Tan. Only the previous year, this vessel had become the first American merchant ship to operate through the gorges to Chungking, the treaty port which was almost 1400 miles from the sea.
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