St. Aubin on March 25 and reaching the Thames on March 28.
She went subsequently to Liverpool and other English ports, was then taken back to the Mersey for sale, and was purchased by Messrs. Redhead, Harland and Brown for breaking up. Her teak planking was used for building two ferry boats, one of which was named the "Victory", while odds and ends of her timber were made into workboxes and other small articles which must have found a ready sale.
It is shown from the records at New York that the English master had to contest the legal action by the Chinese crew, who claimed wages and demanded to be sent back to Canton. The courts found in favour of the Chinese, but apparently the matter was settled amicably, as part of the crew eventually reached England in the craft. The proceedings also mention a "Chinese captain" named So Yin Sang Hi, and it would seem that most of the navigation, and certainly the control of the ship's "hands," was in charge of a Number One, pilot or quartermaster.
The success of the "Keying" may have inspired an effort to emulate her at a later date. I find the following mention of the departure of another Chinese craft from Hongkong in the press report dated April 5, 1870:
The "Fung Shuey" cleared the Harbour for London to-day. The craft is a Chinese lorcha of 34 tons burthen, built in Macao specially to go to the great commercial metropolis of the world. She is 50 feet long, 12 feet beam, has mat sails and flies the American flag. Her crew consists of four foreigners and three Chinese; and she is commanded by Capt. Norton. It is intended to exhibit the craft in London, and with this end in view, the cargo is said to consist principally of Chinese curios.
Unfortunately, there is no record to hand as to what became of this craft, or how far she got on her way to London.
Perhaps some nautical reader will be able to supply the missing record - any such information will be welcomed.
Page 958
In these days of regular Pacific sailings, it is interesting to find references in the old records to the pioneer steamship concern which connected Hongkong and the Pacific coast of America, in the late Sixties. This was the Pacific Mail Steamship Company, which went out of business in 1925, but opened its connexion with Hongkong as far back as 1867. From the old plans in the Land Office, I have been able to sketch the original site of the company's office, godowns, and wharves, alongside the former Harbour Office. This site now marks the western end of the Praya Central Reclamation.
The golden jubilee of the trans-Pacific traffic occurred in January 1917, but the event was allowed to pass unnoticed in the stress of events connected with the World War. The Pacific Mail Steamship Company was incorporated in New York on April 12, 1848, with a capital of $500,000; Congress had passed an act authorising the opening of a new mail route between New York and Portland, Oregon, with San Francisco as port of call. By the Act, a subsidy of $200,000 per annum was to be paid with the intention of perpetuating the American flag on the waters of the Pacific. Incidentally the policy was abandoned many years ago, and the American merchant marine declined, until in the year 1915 there were but six vessels in foreign service flying the American flag. Within recent years the stars and stripes have again come to the front on the world's seaways.