To H.M.S. Fame and H.M.S. Whiting fell the unenvious task of capturing four Chinese Destroyers that threatened the Allied attack on the Taku Forts. Commanded respectively by Lieutenants Roger Keyes (afterwards Admiral of the Fleet) and MacKenzie, each ship towed a whaler manned by a boarding party of 12 men - with one or two notable exceptions, such as the Altmark incident off Norway in 1940 - it was to be one of the last occasions on which Bluejackets boarded their foe equipped with cutlasses. In his official despatch reporting the action, Keyes wrote:

'After a slight resistance and the exchange of a few shots, the crews were driven overboard or below hatches; there were a few killed and wounded; our casualties, nil; no damage was done to the prizes, Fame's bow was slightly bent when we closed to board and the Whiting was struck by a projectile about four to five inches abreast a coal bunker. This was evidently fired from a mud Battery on the bend between Taku and Tong-ku, which fired in all about 30 shots at us, none of the others striking, though several coming very close. I could not reply for fear of striking the Russian Gun Vessels lying behind it. There was a good deal of sniping from the dockyard, so I directed all cables of prizes to be slipped and proceeded to tow them up to Tong-ku'.