The Paknam Incident was a military engagement fought during the Franco-Siamese War in July 1893. While sailing off Paknam on Siam's Chao Phraya River, three French ships violated Siamese territory and a Siamese fort and a force of gunboats fired warning shots. In the ensuing battle, France won and blockaded Bangkok, which ended the war.
Background
Conflict arose when the French Navy aviso Inconstant and the gunboat Comete arrived on July 13 at Paknam with the intention of crossing the bar into the Chao Phraya River and join the French gunboat Lutin already anchored off the French embassy in Bangkok. The Siamese forbade the French gunboats to cross the bar, a contravention of the Franco-Siamese Treaty of 1856 which permitted the French free passage up as far as Paknam Island. The French commander, Captain Borey, did not receive a telegram of updated instructions from Paris to hold his position at the mouth of the river, as it was not received by the French consul Auguste Pavie until the following day. But Pavie did advise him of the Siamese stance and suggested he anchor off Koh Sichang and await further instructions. Borey was under pressure since his ships could only cross the bar at high tide and chose to follow his orders from Rear Admiral Edgar Humann in Saigon rather than Pavie's counsel.
The French in Bangkok believed that the Siamese were well-prepared for battle. Chulachomklao Fort had just been modernized with seven 6-inch Armstrong Whitworth disappearing guns and was under the command of Andreas du Plessis de Richelieu, a Danish naval officer granted the noble title of Phraya Chonlayutyothin. Further upriver at Paknam Island, the smaller Phi Seua Samut fortress had also been fitted with three of the same guns. The Siamese had also sunk mines, barrels of gas, and dynamite in the river, from below the fort to the center of the river. Above this, two chain and stake barrages plus several sunken vessels off both banks left only a narrow passage available to the French.
Reports are contradictory about the strength of Siamese naval forces that day. Contemporary French accounts suggest that five gunboats were anchored just beyond the sunken vessels, almost the entire Siamese fleet. Herbert Warington Smyth who visited Paknam that day disputes this, reporting that only the Siamese gunboats Makut Ratchakuman and Coronation were present, together with "two very old-fashioned gun flats with a big gun each, and the training barque, lying farther up river, armed with six brass carronades for saluting purposes".
Incident
The French chose to cross the bar with the high tide just after sunset on July 13. The weather was overcast and raining. By this time the Siamese were on high alert and at battle stations. The French ships were led by the small mail steamer Jean Baptiste Say. At 18:15 the rain stopped and the Siamese gunners observed the French ships passing the nearby lighthouse. A few minutes later, the French were off Black Buoy when they entered the range of the fort's guns. Siamese gunners were ordered to fire three warning shots; if they were ignored, then a fourth shot would signal their gunboats to open fire.