Battle of Kowloon

4 September 1839, Off Kowloon, opposite Hong Kong Island

Inconclusive

The first shots of the war. Chinese officials had stopped food reaching the British merchant ships sheltering off Hong Kong, and Captain Charles Elliot, the British superintendent of trade, went to Kowloon with a cutter, a schooner and a frigate's pinnace to demand supplies. When the junks there would not let them through he opened fire. The British boats ran short of ammunition and drew off, and both sides claimed the day.