Don Det—Don Khone bridge, Champasak, Laos, Explore No. 12

The Mekong Expedition (1866-1868)

By the mid-1800s, the British controlled foreign trade along China's coast, and French merchants sought a commercial toehold in Asia. Napoleon III's navy, eager for colonial glory, set its sights on Vietnam and captured Saigon in 1861. A young naval officer, Francis Garnier, enthusiastically advocated exploring the Mekong as a potential route to tap the fabled riches of China. In 1864, he presented his plan to the colony's governor, Admiral La Grandiere, and the "Mekong Expedition Commission" was soon approved. La Grandiere placed Commander Ernest Doudart de Lagree in charge with Garnier as second-in-command, and the crew of 20 set sail aboard two steamers on 5 June 1866.

 

De Lagree knew about "Khone Falls", but had never seen the so-called impassable rapids around the 4,000 Islands, and assumed he could easily surmount the obstacle. The expedition landed in northeastern Cambodia's Kratie on 7 July, and transferred to canoes to tackle the Sambor rapids. The rainy season current slowed progress, forcing the expedition to hug the eastern bank and push their boats with poles. Gamier thought a strong steamer could overpower the torrent, but as the ride turned rougher, his journal entry states "navigating the Mekong to China seemed gravely compromised." They reached calmer waters just below Stung Treng, but as they continued upriver, Garnier became extremely ill and lost consciousness, only to recover in time to face Khone Falls, where the river rushed through rocky cataracts, with drop-offs reaching 20 meters. The expedition realized that this wide, turbulent stretch of the Mekong was nearly insurmountable by steamer. They travelled along the fall's bank past DonHang Khone to Hua Don Khong and calmer waters. The expedition reached Vientiane on 2 April 1867, Luang Prabang on 28 April, and Yunnan on 7 October. De Lagree died from severe dysentery in early 1868, after they passed Kunming on the way to Dail via land, where the now Gamier-led expedition arrived on 1 March. However, the locals refused them passage, leaving a boat ride down the Yangtze to Shanghai as their only way out.

 

Claiming Strategic Don Khone

During the 1 870s, the French were concerned that the British were eyeing the Mekong in northeastern Laos from their Burmese colony while increasing their influence in China and Siam with its disputed border with Laos.

 

Meanwhile, France's only solid Asian claim was southern Vietnam, (Cochinchina) and a "protectorate" over Cambodia. They wanted to continue the Mekong Expedition's legacy by linking to inner China via the Mekong through Laos, which they needed to control.

 

In the 1880s, France moved to dominate Vietnam's central (Annam) and northern (Tonkin) regions. They also firmed up their Cambodian position by seizing power from King Norodom with a show of gunboat force, which piqued further interest in the Mekong and overcoming Khone falls.

 

French Navy Lieutenant Campion first powered a small steamer up Cambodia's Sambor rapids in 1884, and Captain Paul Reveillère guided a steamboat to Don Khone's western shores, anchoring in what he named "Marguerite's Bay" in 1887. Onboard was a representative of Messageries Fluvial de Cochinchine, which held the Mekong navigation concession in Cambodia and Vietnam.

 

That same year, a French businessman, Camille Gauthier, set off from Luang Prabang by raft and managed to survive Khone Falls to reach Phnom Penh in January 1888. The efforts of both Gauthier and Reveillère led to the same conclusion; forget beating the rapids by boat.

 

Meanwhile, the French continued negotiating with Siam over the disputed Mekong borders, the failure of which prompted a French blockade of the Chao Praya River below Bangkok in July 1893. The Siamese relented and signed a treaty on 3rd October renouncing any claims on the Mekong's east bank. To hold the river, the French urgently needed gunboats above Khone Falls.

 

Steaming Ahead

From 1890-1892, Dr Mougeot tried to find a hidden passage around Khone Falls with the French steamboat, Argus, but he failed. The 1893 treaty in which Siam relinquished the Mekong's east bank urgently required gunboats above Don Khone, and the Gouverneur General de l'Indochine sought a new approach. Naval Lieutenant Georges Simon was tasked with the "mission hydrographique du haut Mekong" to take two gunboats up the Mekong to Don Khone, disassemble them, cross the island, then re-assemble and launch the boats in calmer upriver waters.

 

In March 1893, the gunboats were ordered from France. Each weighed 22 tons, measured 26 meters, and could be dismantled into five pieces. La Grandiere and Massie arrived in Saigon on 30 July, where they were assembled, armed, and then cast off on 22 August. Meanwhile, Lt Simon contracted Messagieres Fluviales de Cochinchine in Saigon to quickly supply rail tracks and a carriage capable of hauling 35 tons, in the hope of moving the boats in one piece. He completed the 3-km line from Marguerite Bay to Ban Khone in August. La Grandiere and Massie suffered significant damage in the lower Mekong, but reached Marguerite Bay, and on 12 September, Lt Simon tried and failed to hoist the Massie ashore. He then selected Hang Khone as the landing site and began rerouting the tracks. He also replaced the out-of-order La Grandiere with the heavier Ham Luong, a boat in local service that needed to be disassembled into two pieces for rail shipment. Using manpower to move the train, the boats reached Ban Khone in late October and were re-floated on 1 November in Hou Behanzin Channel separating Don Khone and Don Det. A repaired La Grandiere completed the rail trip on 5 September 1894, and continued to Vientiane, Luang Prabang, and the Tang Ho rapids near China, the final point for Mekong steamboat navigation. On 15 July 1920, La Grandiere and its valuable cargo sank near Ban Thadeua, some 80 km south of Luang Prabang. Expeditions as recently as 2002 have tried salvage its remains.

 

The Railway's Rise and Fall

By early 1894, Lt Simon and hundreds of Vietnamese workers completed and improved Don Khone's rail line from Hang Khone to Ban Khone, and upgraded the boat ramps, and their foundations and walls. After the successful three-hour transfer of La Grandiere to Ban Khone Tai in early September, Messageries Fluviales de Cochinchine was contracted on 25 September "for the postal service of the connecting rivers of the upper Mekong," which included rail transport on Don Khone. They then ordered three 60-ton steamboats: the Garcerie, Colombert, and Trentinian.

 

This required further upgrades to the tracks and piers, which were undertaken from August-October 1896, and the three boats were launched in Ban Khone on 25 October.

 

Looking to meet growing commercial demand, Messageries Fluviales renewed its Mekong contract in July 1897 and adapted the tracks for steam locomotives, the first of which, the Paul Doumer, was purchased that year. Within a decade, couriers, cargo, and tourists began arriving in Hang Khone, trained to Ban Khone Tai, and transferred to steamers bound for Savannakhet and onward to Vientiane and Luang Prabang. The increased traffic at the beginning the century prompted Messageries Fluviales to extend the railway 2 km to Ban Don Det on northern Don Det Island in 1910. This required the construction of a 13-arch, 158-meter-long, reinforced concrete bridge across Hou Behanzin and improvements to the Hang Khone and Ban Don Det piers. To meet anticipated future demand for passengers and freight, Messageries Fluviales purchased more locomotives. The Ban Khone pavilion's locomotive was Ordered and delivered in 1,929 during the rail line's peak. However, demand never materialized, with dry season (December-May) traffic mostly servicing couriers and passengers, while rainy season brought floods. The construction of a 22-km road bypassing Khone Falls, and the 1937 integration of the road into Colonial Route 13 from Saigon to Luang Prabang dealt the death blow. During World War II, the Japanese controlled Don •Khone, and seem to have used the train for military purposes: When the Japanese left, the jungle moved in, engulfing the locomotives in plant growth and relegating the train tracks to recyclable junk.

 

The Birth of a Railway

The Don Khone-Don Det railway was born of French colonial necessity, opening the door to Mekong River transport by bypassing the impenetrable "Khone Falls". Until 1893, the Khone Falls' rocky rapids blocked French steamboat navigation up the Mekong from Saigon to inner China, thus hindering its Indochinese ambitions. Tensions were also mounting between France and Siam over disputed land on the Mekong's eastern bank. An 1893 naval blockade of Bangkok led to a border treaty favouring France, and an urgent need to move gunboats abo e Khone Falls to control the Mekong.

 

Earlier that year, France's "Mission Hydrographique du haut Mekong" ordered a pair of 26-meter-long steam gunboats, La Grandière and Massie, from France, which could be disassembled into five pieces for overland transport past the rapids via Don Khone Island.

 

Leading the mission was Naval Lt Georges Simon, who wanted to transfer the vessels in one piece along a 3-km railway from the island's western Marguerite Bay to Ban Khone. He ordered 1-meter-wide railway tracks and a 14-wheel carriage with a cradle formed to fit the two boats from Saigon-based Messageries Fluviales rather than prefabricated Decauville narrow tracks from France, due to cost, delivery time, and heavy load requirements. Lt Simon and some 500 Vietnamese workers, many of whom died due to the harsh conditions, spent from June to August 1893 clearing the jungle, building embankments, laying the tracks, and constructing boat ramps at Marguerite Bay and Ban Khone.

 

The gunboats arrived in Marguerite Bay in early September but attempts to hoist the 22-ton Massie ashore failed. Lt Simon dismantled the tracks and extended the line south to Hang Khone, where the Massie and the heavier Ham Luong, a two-piece replacement for La Grandiere, could be pulled to land. As the Vietnamese manhandled the boat-laden carriage towards Ban Khone, their workmates dismantled the southern tracks and scurried to complete the northern end. The vessels finally reached Hou Behanzin Channel at Ban Khone and were launched on 1 November 1893.

 

Hang Khone's Heyday

Hang Khone was not France's first choice for landing two gunboats on Don Khone Island in its attempt to bypass "Khone Falls" and transport them to calmer upriver waters. In 1893, French Naval It Georges Simon laid railway tracks from Don Khone's Marguerite Bay to Ban Khone for transferring the 22-ton La Grandiere and Massie.

 

Hoisting the Massie ashore proved fruitless, and It Simon rerouted the tracks south to Hang Khone, where his Vietnamese workforce pulled the Massie and two-piece Ham Luong—a heavier replacement for the damaged La Grandiere — to the waiting rail carriage and over the island to be launched near Ban Khone.

 

Lt Simon ordered more materials and the Vietnamese completed a track and embankment upgrade by early 1894. On 5 September, they transported La Grandiere along the Hang Khone-Ban Khone railway in just three hours. That same year, France contracted Messageries Fluviales de Cochinchine to oversee transport on the Mekong's Lao stretch including Don Khone's railway and ports. The company added three 60-ton steamboats, and to accommodate the larger vessels, which were dismantled at Hang Khone for the move, Lt Simon enlarged the pier's ramps from August-October 1896. Upon renewing its contract in 1897, Messageries Fluviales bought its first steam locomotive; installed reinforced concrete piers, storage depots, and cranes; and improved the river bank to facilitate docking boats in low water. This transformed Hang Khone into the sole gateway for cargo and passengers heading up the Mekong into Laos.

 

According to villagers' accounts, the pavilion's train engine was originally a French model refurbished by the Japanese during WWII. The structure above the pier housed an engine that drew underground cables through still-visible pulleys up the low-water ramp. Cranes on rails lifted cargo during high waters, and though the track is gone, its position can still be seen, as can the reservoir on the hill.

 

Conquering Khone Falls

The first of very few steamers to ever conquer Khone Falls was a feat performed by Norwegian Peter Hauff. Born in 1873, Hauff landed a job in 1894 with a large commercial trading firm in Saigon, where he immersed himself in the culture and language, which gained the respect of locals. In 1898, Hauff took a passenger steamer to Hang Khone, hopped on the new locomotive to Ban Khone, and boarded a steamboat to Bassac (Champasak). With trade on the rise with the upper Mekong, Hauff ordered a 16-meter freighter from the experienced Niger River Company in 1902.

 

Hauff and his 11-man crew received the dismantled vessel, Si-thanh, in Saigon, assembled it and set off to Phnom Penh with an Annamese pilot. During the slow 10-day trip, Hauff fell ill, they lost their way, and the firewood got wet. Hauff hired a Cambodian pilot for the Don Khone voyage, where the French railway would transport Si-thanh. However, Messageries Fluviales, which controlled the island's railway, wanted an "impossible price", and refused to sell him oil or firewood. Hauff declined the exorbitant offer, though he knew about the failed attempts to navigate the falls. Undaunted, he headed to nearby Don Sadam, where an elder suggested he try Hou Sadam Channel, which separated Don Sadam and Don Phapheng islands. With the river level starting to recede, Hauff had little time. He ordered his men to buy coconut oil for lubricant and collect dry wood. They departed the next morning, and fought a strong current, relying on tying ropes to trees to progress one mile. Tree chopping and an anchor chain and winch shortened the second day to some 150 meters. An easy Day 3 preceded a stretch of shallow water that required building a dam of trees behind the boat to move ahead.

 

Hauff, his crew, and Si-thanh arrived in North Don Khone on their fifth day, and received a hero's welcome at the French government shop. Hauff had accomplished the impossible.

 

The Railway Reaches Its Peak

After the successful transfer of La Grandière in early September 1894, Messageries Fluviales received the concession for Mekong transport in Laos, including the Don Khone railway. The company decided to upgrade its fleet, adding massive 60-ton steamboats — Garcerie, Colombert and Trentinian. This required rectifying the 1-meter tracks, improving the embankments, and enlarging the piers' ramps from August-October 1896, with the boats launched in Ban Khone on 25 October.

 

This kicked off a commercial era on Don Khone, as the railway terminals became mandatory transit points for goods and passengers traveling up the Mekong into Lao, while the island's strategic significance remained high.

 

Eyeing Don Khone's economic potential, Messageries Fluviales renewed its contract in July 1897, and adapted narrower 0.6 meter-wide tracks needed for Decauville locomotives into the line, rather than relying on manpower, and purchased its first steam engine, the Paul Downer. The train now transported cardamom, hides, ivory, precious wood, and benzoin gold from Laos to downriver steamers, while hauling Cambodian and European fabric as well as Western household utensils, tools, and glassware to Don Khone's upriver port. The rising traffic congested the Ban Khone terminal, prompting Messageries Fluviales in 1910 to construct a 13-arch, 158-meter-long, reinforced concrete bridge across the Hou Behanzin Channel to Don Det Island and extend the railway 2 km to Ban Don Det. They also built reinforced concrete piers, low-water docking facilities, storage depots, and gantry cranes, while firming up older tracks for the increase in traffic. Hang Khone's bright future soon dimmed as annual traffic never reached expectations and started declining in 1930. Further, the Mekong's shallow waters (December-May) limited traffic, and rainy season flooding interrupted service. Then in 1937, Colonial Route 13 bypassing Don Khone sealed the train's fate. Local people used some of the old rails for building bridges and other structures. However, remnants of Hang Khone and Ban Don Det's port infrastructure still stand.

 

Sitting in Ban Khone Tai's railroad yard, where repairs took place, is a locomotive produced for the wider 1-meter track, and dates to 1929 during the railway's glory years. The Japanese modified Hang Khone's engine for military purposes during World War II, after taking control of Don Khone. When the Japanese left, the jungle moved in, engulfing the locomotives in plant growth and relegating the train tracks to recyclable junk.

 

Primary Source: "Laos, le Chemin de fer des canonnieres" by Jean-Michel Strobino, la Vie du Rail, issue 2329, 23-29 January 1992.

 

Text from information around the remains of the trains

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