[ { "id": 204652, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1963", "page_number": 133, "title": "RAS-1963", "content_text": "NAVIGATION ON THE YANGTSE \n\n119 \n\nThe restriction about navigation beyond Ichang was abolished after the Sino-Japanese War by the Treaty of Shimonoseki in 1895, and three years later the indefatigable Little had the satisfaction of taking his Leechuan from Ichang up to Chungking, the first steamer to navigate the Upper Yangtse. The Leechuan was a twin screw, wooden, steam launch only fifty-five feet long, and too small to carry any cargo. Little acted as his own captain and chief engineer, and the Leechuan had to be pulled up the strongest of the rapids by trackers. Two years later, however, a larger paddle steamer Pioneer, built by Little and a group of associates, made the first commercial passage to Chungking. The Pioneer was built by Denny of Dumbarton, and was 180 feet long, 60 feet beam over the paddle boxes, and had a draft of 6 feet. She carried 150 tons of cargo and many deck passengers, and took seven days between Ichang and Chungking on her first trip. There is a photograph of her in Gleanings from Fifty Years in China by Archibald Little (Philadelphia, 1908), p. 141. Shortly afterwards the Pioneer was commandeered by the British government to bring British subjects down the Yangtse during the Boxer troubles, and she finished her career as H.M.S. Kinshi, the headquarters ship of the Senior British Naval Officer on the Yangtse.\n\nIn that same year of 1900 the British river gunboat Woodlark, which was 145 feet long, by 23 feet beam, but had a draft of only 3 feet, also reached Chungking, and in the following year Woodlark and her sister ship Woodcock reached Sui Fu, 100 miles beyond Chungking. It was in the December of that year that the first of many serious accidents occurred on the Upper Yangtse, when the German steamer Suichsiang went on the rocks at the Tungling Rapids, 36 miles above Ichang, and was a total loss.\n\nThe Yangtse has its source in Tibet, not far from the headwaters of the Yellow, Mekong, Salween, and Irawaddy Rivers. When this became known to Europeans it became the ambition of many travellers to go up the Yangtse as far as possible, and then to cross over the Himalayas into Burma or India. This journey had a fascination for Europeans very similar to that exercised by the Nile and Niger over their fathers and grandfathers. The naval expedition of 1861, which went up the river as far as Yochow, landed three Englishmen there who intended to follow the river to its source in Tibet, and then cross over the Himalayas into India. Captain Blakiston, Lieutenant Saral, and Doctor Barton of", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1963.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/4m90m091v", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 204982, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1965", "page_number": 90, "title": "RAS-1965", "content_text": "PIRACY ON THE CHINA COAST\n\n81\n\nThe pirates boarded the ship in Singapore along with the other passengers, and after taking over the ship took her to Bias Bay, where they made off ashore with over $100,000 in cash, and as much more in valuables. During the attack, the chief engineer, chief officer, and a Chinese quartermaster were killed, and the captain seriously injured. For some time after this, ships on this run were provided with guards from the British garrison at Hong Kong, and no piracy was ever attempted on any ship so guarded.\n\nThe piracy of the 4,500-ton Dutch motorship Van Heutz in December 1947 was notable for several reasons. It was the first serious piracy since the war, and the Van Heutz was the largest ship ever to be pirated on the coast. She left Hong Kong on 14th December for Amoy and Swatow with 1,600 deck passengers on board, repatriates from Indonesia, many with their life savings. The pirates, about twenty-five in all, captured the ship only four hours after she had left Hong Kong, and took her to Bias Bay. On arrival at Bias Bay they went ashore in commandeered junks, taking six wealthy Chinese passengers with them. During the few hours they had the ship, the passengers were robbed of cash and valuables worth more than $90,000, but the pirates were disappointed at not getting another $50,000 in currency which they believed was on board. On her previous trip when she had carried an even greater number of repatriates, the Van Heutz had had an armed guard of thirteen Dutch policemen. A few months after the piracy four men were arrested in Hong Kong, found guilty of being involved, and sentenced to long terms of imprisonment.\n\nThese four cases conformed to the traditional twentieth century pattern, where the pirates boarded as passengers, and when the passengers were likely to be well provided with money and valuables. During these same years, however, there were other piracies which did not conform to this pattern - the Tungchow piracies of 1925 and 1935, the Nanchang's of 1933, and the Shuntien's of 1935. All took place in the north, and all the ships belonged to the China Navigation Company. The Tungchow shares the distinction with the Sunning of being the only ship in modern times to have been pirated twice. On the first occasion in December 1925 it occurred between Tientsin\n\nPage 90\n\nPage 91", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1965.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/s752cj653", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 205223, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1966", "page_number": 179, "title": "RAS-1966", "content_text": "173\n\nBENHAM, Miss M. E. M. Harcourt Health Centre, Morrison Hill Rd.,\n\nBENT, Miss Dora\n\nBERTOVICH, Miss R. C.\n\nBERTUCCIOLI, Dr. G.\n\nBEVERIDGE, R. J.\n\nBIRNBAUM, Mrs. S. D.\n\nBLACK, D.\n\nBLACKMORE, M.\n\nBLAKER, D. J. R.\n\nBLUE, A. D.\n\nBOAK, C. D.\n\nBOARD, D. B. M.*\n\nBONSALL, G. W.\n\nBORDWELL, J. H.\n\nBORGEEST, G.\n\nNethersole Hospital, Bonham Road, H.K.\n\nR.D. No. 1, Box 220, Masontown, Pa., U.S.A.\n\nItalian Embassy, Tokyo, Japan.\n\nUniversity Press, Hong Kong University, Pokfulum, H.K.\n\n7, Braga Circuit, Kowloon,\n\nLong Acre, Gullane, East Lothian, Scotland,\n\nDept. of History, H.K. University, H.K.\n\nc/o Gilman & Co., Ltd., P. O. Box 56, H.K.\n\nChief Engineer, M.V. \"World Yuri\", World Wide (Shipping) Ltd., c/o Cornes & Co., C.P.O. Box 158, Tokyo, Japan,\n\nDept. of Modern Languages, H.K. University, H.K.\n\nc/o Education Dept., Battery Path, H.K.\n\nFlat 4-B, 3 University Drive, Pokfulum, H.K.\n\nP. O. Box 25, H.K.\n\nP. O. Box 1058, H.K.\n\nBORRELL, Rev. Bro. O. W. St. Francis Xavier's College, 45 Sycamore Street, Kowloon.\n\nBOXER, Prof. B.\n\nBRAGA, J. M.\n\nBRAUN, F.\n\nBREUIL, Mrs. N. du\n\nBRITTON, Mrs. N. M.\n\nBROMHALL, J. D.\n\nBROOKS, D. E.\n\nBROWN, Miss B.\n\nBROWNE, H. J. C.\n\nBRUCE, Robert\n\nBRUUN, F.\n\nBUNGER, Dr. Karl\n\nDept. of Geography, Michigan State Univ., East Lansing, Michigan 48824, U.S.A.\n\nP. O. Box 951, H.K.\n\n8 Kotewall Road, 4th floor, H.K.\n\n86, Main Street, Stanley, H.K.\n\n6 Peel Rise, The Peak, H.K.\n\nFisheries Research Station, The Fish Market, Island Road, Aberdeen, H.K.\n\nRadio Hong Kong, Mercury House, H.K.\n\nMedical Rehabilitation Centre, L254 Kwun Tong, Kowloon.\n\nc/o Butterfield & Swire, Union House, H.K.\n\nThe British Council, Gloucester Building, H.K.\n\n908 Takshing House, H.K.\n\nConsul General, Consulate General of the Federal Republic of Germany, 1, Duddell Street, H.K.\n\n* Life Member\n\nPlease notify the Hon. Secretary of any inaccuracy", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1966.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/bz60k0811", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 205435, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1967", "page_number": 197, "title": "RAS-1967", "content_text": "190\n\nBENHAM, Miss M. E. M. - Harcourt Health Centre, Morrison Hill Rd., H.K.\n\nBENIANS, S. M.\n\nBENNETT, Frank C., Jr. -\n\nBENT, Miss Dora\n\nBERNADETTE, Sister Maura\n\nBERTUCCIOLI, Dr. G.*\n\nBIRNBAUM, Mrs. S. D.\n\nBLACK, D.\n\nBLACKMORE, M.\n\nBLAKER, D. J. R.\n\nBLUE, A. D.\n\nBOARD, D. B. M.*\n\nBONSALL, G. W.\n\nBORDWELL, J. H.\n\nBORGEEST, G.\n\nBOXER, Prof. B.\n\nBRAGA, J. M.\n\nBRAUN, F.\n\n+\n\nBREGMAN, R. U.\n\nBRIGGS, G. G.\n\n-\n\n+\n\n+\n\n+\n\n-\n\n+\n\nBRITTON, Mrs. N. M.\n\nBROMHALL, J. D.\n\nBROOKS, D. E. BROWN, Miss B.\n\nBROWNE, H. J. C.\n\nBRUCE, Robert\n\nBUNGER, Dr. Karl\n\n+\n\n+\n\n-\n\n-\n\n-\n\nc/o Jardine, Matheson & Co., Ltd., Jardine House, H.K.\n\nc/o United States Consulate General, Garden Road, H.K.\n\nNethersole Hospital, Bonham Road, H.K.\n\nThe Maryknoll Sisters, Waterloo Road, Kowloon Tong, Kowloon.\n\nLungotevere delle navi 30, Roma, Italy.\n\n7, Braga Circuit, Kowloon,\n\nLong Acre, Gullane, East Lothian, Scotland.\n\nDept. of History, H.K. University, H.K.\n\nc/o Gilman & Co., Ltd., P. O. Box 56, H.K.\n\nChief Engineer, M.V. \"World Yuri\", World Wide (Shipping) Ltd., c/o Cornes & Co., C.P.O. Box 158, Tokyo, Japan,\n\nc/o Education Dept., Battery Path, H.K.\n\nFlat 4-B, 3 University Drive, Pokfulum, H.K.\n\nP. O. Box 25, H.K.\n\nP. O. Box 1058, H.K.\n\nDept. of Geography, Michigan State Univ., East Lansing, Michigan 48824, U.S.A.\n\nP. O. Box 951, H.K.\n\n8 Kotewall Road, 4th floor, H.K.\n\nUniversity Surgical Unit, Queen Mary Hospital, H.K.\n\nThe Supreme Court, H.K.\n\n6 Peel Rise, The Peak, H.K.\n\nFisheries Research Station, The Fish Market, Island Road, Aberdeen, H.K.\n\nRadio Hong Kong, Mercury House, H.K.\n\nMedical Rehabilitation Centre, L254 Kwun Tong, Kowloon.\n\nc/o Butterfield & Swire, Union House, H.K.\n\nThe British Council, Gloucester Building, H.K.\n\nConsul General, Consulate General of the Federal Republic of Germany, 1, Duddell Street, H.K.\n\n* Life Member\n\nPlease notify the Hon. Secretary of any inaccuracy", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1967.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/0c488p70g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 205511, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1968", "page_number": 53, "title": "RAS-1968", "content_text": "48\n\nT. J. LINDSAY\n\nOne point that shows up in the accounts is the speed of coaling at Singapore. In 1880 Glencoe loaded 1,130 tons in 103 hours, in 1882 Sterling Castle 1,600 tons in 10 hours, in 1884 Glenogle 1,500 tons in 62 hours. Moyune 700 tons in 5 hours in 1887 as against Glenogle 1,200 tons in 5 hours in the same year. The “Glen\" figures of 220 tons an hour in 1884 and 240 tons in 1887 are remarkable.\n\nWhat of the conditions in these ships racing home? The stoke-hold must have been almost unbearable, so it is no wonder that difficulties with the stokers were reported. In 1882 there was trouble culminating in Singapore when a stoker of Glenogle struck the Chief Engineer. When a European shore policeman came on board the 31 stokers threatened but the policeman \"took his stand in the most daring manner and fairly cowed the men by his determined demeanour\". At Hankow, too, there was trouble in 1883 when some of Glenogle's crew were reported to have mutinied and the Navy had to be called in to deal with the situation.\n\nPassengers, too, had something to complain of. On one occasion in Singapore when two or three passengers had been granted conditional passages they found the saloon and every state-cabin crammed with tea.\n\nConditions in the China tea trade were about to change. In 1881 the North China Daily News wrote:\n\n“It is not so many years since China was the only tea producing country. It was sufficient then for the buyer to watch the deliveries at home and the export from China, to be guided, with little chance of error, in his operations. But the fatal energy of our race has reared up in British India a frightful rival to the Flowery Land, and India not only demoralises China by sending opium here, but demoralises our tea markets by sending tea in increasingly enormous quantities to London. There are no squeezing Mandarins in India, there is European supervision in packing and the firing of the leaf, and the plantations are connected with civilization by the railway and the telegraph. Everything is done to give India an unfair advantage over China. Java is competing too, and Ceylon is threatening. As yet Indian tea is hardly taken on the continent of Europe at all, but here too it will penetrate sooner or later, as it is doing into America and Australia, and then there will be no corner of the earth where the sway of China tea will be undisputed.”", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1968.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/66833948d", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 206144, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1970", "page_number": 224, "title": "RAS-1970", "content_text": "217\n\nBARR, Miss E.\n\n80 Robinson Road, H.K.\n\nBARRETT, Rev. Cyril, S. J. c/o Wah Yan College, Queen's Road, East,\n\nBARRY, Cmdr. R. S. -\n\nBASHALL, Mrs. C. G. BEDLINGTON, Mrs. M.\n\nBELL, G. J.\n\n-\n\nBENANZIO, Dr. M.\n\nL\n\nBERKOWITZ, Dr. M. I. ·\n\nBERTUCCIOLI, Dr. G.*\n\nBEVERIDGE, R. J.\n\nBIRCH, Dr. A.\n\nBIRNBAUM, Mrs. S. D. ·\n\n+\n\nBLACK, D.\n\nBLACKMORE, M.\n\n+\n\nBLAKER, D. J. R. -\n\nBLUE, A. D.\n\nBOARD, D. B. M.*\n\nBONSALL, G. W.\n\nBORDWELL, H. H.\n\nBORGEEST, G.\n\nBOXER, Prof. B.\n\nBRAGA, J. M.\n\nBRAUN, F.\n\nBRIDGES, G. A.\n\nBRIGGS, G. G.\n\nBRIM, J. A.\n\nT\n\n·\n\n-\n\n·\n\n+\n\nH.K.\n\nc/o Hong Kong Club, H.K.\n\nc/o H.M. Prison, Stanley, H.K.\n\nUnknown.\n\nc/o Royal Observatory, H.K.\n\nUnknown.\n\nc/o Dept. of Sociology, University of Pittsburg, Pa., U.S.A.\n\nLungotevere delle navi 30, Roma, Italy.\n\nc/o 4A, Horsburgh Grove, Armadale, Melbourne, S.E. 3, Victoria, Australia.\n\nc/o Dept. of History, University of Hong Kong, H.K.\n\n7, Braga Circuit, Kowloon,\n\nLong Acre, Gullane, East Lothian, Scotland.\n\nc/o Dept. of History, University of Hong Kong, H.K.\n\nc/o Gilman & Co., Ltd., P. O. Box 56, H.K.\n\nChief Engineer, M.V. “World Soya\", World Wide (Shipping) Ltd., c/o Cornes & Co., G.P.O. Box 158, Tokyo, Japan.\n\nc/o Education Dept., Lee Gardens, Hysan Avenue, H.K.\n\nc/o Hong Kong University Press, Pokfulum, H.K.\n\nP. O. Box 25, H.K.\n\nP. O. Box 1058, H.K.\n\nc/o Dept. of Geography, Michigan State University, East Lansing, Michigan 48823, U.S.A.\n\nc/o National Library of Australia, Canberra, Australia.\n\n8 Kotewall Road, 4th floor, H.K.\n\nc/o The British Council, Gloucester Building, H.K.\n\nc/o The Supreme Court, H.K.\n\nc/o Dept. of Anthropology, Stanford Univ., Stanford, California, U.S.A.\n\n+ Life Member\n\nPlease notify the Hon. Secretary of any inaccuracy", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1970.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/ww72j0241", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 207410, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1975", "page_number": 178, "title": "RAS-1975", "content_text": "170\n\nDONALD C. BOWIE\n\nletter, for this showed that I did not owe my position to Japanese choice. They had been known not to be guided by seniority in the British army when selecting individuals with whom they chose to co-operate in running prisoner camps. The A.D.M.S. and Shackleton left with me letters expressing their admiration of the way the staff in the hospital were carrying on the work, and this was much appreciated.\n\nI had asked in writing for six nursing sisters to be left in the hospital to take charge of nursing but this, like many other requests in the future, was met by complete silence, and all were removed. The staff and the patients who could make the trip gathered in the forecourt to take leave, first of the male staff and patients and second of the women staff 48 hours later as they left in their lorries.\n\nAnd so by 10 August 1942 I found myself in charge of 211 patients including 25 officers, with a staff of 6 medical officers (including myself), one dental officer, a quartermaster, a Church of England chaplain, 55 other ranks R.A.M.C. and R.A.D.C. and 6 Royal Engineers plus one civilian engineer,\n\nThe staff remaining included two very well known Hong Kong doctors, Majors James Anderson R.A.M.C. who thereafter carried out all necessary surgery, my contribution coming when he was unwell or when acting as his assistant, and John Durran, a Hong Kong Volunteer who was both physician and eye specialist. Gerald Harrison was the specialist physician, James Swyer the specialist radiologist, Jack Fraser the specialist ophthalmologist, Norman Fraser the dentist, F.J. Campbell the quartermaster and James Squires the padre. Mr. J.L. Muxlow was the senior warrant officer, he had been in charge of the A.D.M.S's office at China Command. Mr. W.L. Bartley had been promoted warrant officer on the spot by Shackleton during hostilities to act as executive warrant officer in order to cope with the varying and awkward, not to say dangerous situations which suddenly developed and he had played his part well. He held his post until our release, but I imagine that his local promotion did not advance his army career for the same reason as held good in my case. We had a splendid, well qualified man, G.P. Shorthouse to take charge of nursing duties, G.W. Forknall was the chief cook and J.H. Platt lived in the food stores and was responsible for all receipts and issues from them. We had an excellent dispenser, D. Harper, and most of the skills needed in a hospital were to be found among our medical and dental staff.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1975.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/j0995146d", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 207793, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1976", "page_number": 181, "title": "RAS-1976", "content_text": "166 \n\nA. D. BLUE \n\nIn 1868 T. T. Cooper, a British merchant in Burma, came to Shanghai and attempted to improve on Blakiston's feat. His venture was partly financed by the Shanghai Chamber of Commerce. Cooper went up the Yangtze to Chungking, and then overland to Chengtu, the capital of Szechwan. Here he received permission from the Governor General to travel on through Szechwan and Tibet to India; but he met such determined opposition and hostility from the lamas on the Tibetan border, where he was imprisoned for five weeks, that he was forced to turn back. \n\nIn the following year, Sir Rutherford Alcock, British Minister at Peking, sent Robert Swinhoe of the China Consular Service to investigate trade prospects on the Upper Yangtze. Vice-Admiral Keppel, R.N. was making a survey of the river, and Swinhoe's party, which included Alexander Michie and Robert Francis of the Shanghai Chamber of Commerce and two naval surveyors, travelled to Ichang on H.M.S. Opussum. This was the first time a steamship had reached Ichang, and the Chinese pilot refused to go any further. A junk was hired for the passage through the Gorges to Chungking, and soundings and surveys taken en route. The surveyors, however, gave an unfavourable report on the feasibility of steam navigation on the Upper Yangtze. They particularly commented on the force of the current, lack of suitable anchorages, intricacy of navigation because of the changeable channel, and so on. They also thought descent would be even more difficult than ascent. The chief engineer of Opossum described a sample of coal obtained half way between Ichang and Chungking as resembling good anthracite in appearance, but requiring large furnaces and a long time for combustion. \n\nThis was the most thorough navigational survey of the Upper Yangtze, and many of the factors militating against steam navigation between Ichang and Chungking were investigated and made known. The bed of the river falls 470 feet in the 360 miles between the two places, and this fall of one and a third feet per mile is the cause of the strong currents and rapids in this section of the river. The most difficult stretch is the first half of the Upper River between Ichang and Wanhsien, where the most difficult rapids and gorges are encountered. The Ichang Gorge begins five miles above Ichang, and then come the Ox Liver and Horse's Lung Gorges, and the Hsintan Rapid immediately after the latter. The most spectacular", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1976.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/hq382988q", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 207798, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1976", "page_number": 186, "title": "RAS-1976", "content_text": "LAND AND RIVER ROUTES TO WEST CHINA \n\n171 \n\nwhich was brought out in sections and assembled in Shanghai. The Chinese, however, refused to allow the Kuling above Ichang, and after a year of wrangling, Little sold her to the China Merchants Steam Navigation Company, reputedly at twice she had cost him, and she was put on the Hankow--Ichang service. \n\nLittle was not disheartened, however, and set himself up in business in Chungking, among other activities specialising in insuring cargoes on the Upper Yangtze. At last in 1898, three years after the Treaty of Shimonoseki, he had the satisfaction of taking his wooden twin-screw launch Leechuan through the gorges to Chungking, acting as his own captain and chief engineer. The Leechuan was too small to carry any cargo, and needed trackers to pull her up the rapids; but this success enabled Little to enlist support from friends and form the Upper Yangtze Steam Navigation Company. The new company built a much larger steamer in Britain, the Pioneer, at Dennys of Dumbarton. This was a paddle steamer 180 feet long, sixty feet across the paddle boxes, drawing six feet when carrying a full cargo of 150 tons deadweight, and several hundred deck passengers. \n\nThe Pioneer made her first voyage between Ichang and Chungking in 1900, a few months after two British river gunboats, Woodcock and Woodlark had also made the passage; but these only drew two to two and a half feet of water. These gunboats, later, sometimes went a further 130 miles above Chungking to Suifu, at the junction of the Yangtze and Min Rivers. A similar type of French river gunboat also made the passage between Ichang and Chungking in 1901, the Orly, under the pilotage of Captain Plant who had commanded the Pioneer on her successful voyage. In later years these, and similar gunboats, made regular patrols along the open stretch of the Upper Yangtze above the rapids and gorges, between Wanhsien and Suifu. \n\nIn December 1900 the first of many serious casualties occurred on the Upper Yangtze, when the German steamer Suichsiang was wrecked at the Tungling Rapid thirty-six miles above Ichang on her maiden voyage. This and the Boxer and other political troubles delayed further attempts to establish a regular steamer service on the Upper Yangtze for many years. When this eventually came about in 1908 it was through the initiative of Captain Plant of Pioneer fame. The Pioneer was requisitioned by the Royal Navy during the Boxer troubles, and used to evacuate British subjects down the Yangtze, and rechristened H.M.S. Kinsha. Afterwards", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1976.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/hq382988q", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 212199, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1990", "page_number": 141, "title": "RAS-1990", "content_text": "118\n\n1 left by steamer for Canton, the great southern Chinese town, which sprawls along the shore of the Pearl River; and spent a few days on the Shameen mud-bank, just off the city, where the small British and French Concessions are. The Concessions were untouched; but, across the narrow creek that separates them from the shore, the city had suffered heavily from bombing, and from the fires which raged furiously in the congested native districts after each raid. One morning I crossed to the South bank and took the branch line to Samshui on the West river, where I caught the steamer for Wuchow in Kwangsi province.\n\nAlthough owned by a Chinese company, the small river steamer flew the British flag. That was a phenomenon common enough on the inland waters of China. The foreign flag protected the ship from being commandeered by the local war lord. Sometimes for months on end steam traffic, on this water-way or that, would be completely disorganised. The Chinese ships would be impressed to carry the troops of the various armies contending for power. It was only under a foreign flag that they could find the security which would justify their remaining in operation at all. The British government did not welcome this use of the British flag, and introduced regulations to control abuse of the privilege. In order to qualify for British registry a ship must at least carry a British captain and a British chief engineer, and must comply with the Board of Trade regulations in regard to safety measures. But even so, the Chinese owners would make every effort to obtain British registry for their ships, thus in one direction taking advantage of the treaties between Britain and China while, in the other, probably contributing to the Kuo Min Tang party funds, which were used to denounce the iniquities of those very same treaties. In order to comply with the letter of the regulations, the particular ship I now found myself on carried three British officers, whose aggregate age exceeded 200 years. They were, of course, mere figure-heads, the actual work being done by the Chinese officers and crew. These river-boats kept communications open and provided a measure of security for travellers - owing to the presence of British gunboats these small ships moving on inland waters were seldom attacked by bandits which otherwise would have been lacking.\n\n―\n\nIn Kwangsi the road system had been extended to connect Wuchow with the other large towns of the province and I left by car for Kweilin, the capital. An American aviator, who had been down to Hongkong on a shopping expedition, travelled with me as far as", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1990.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/d79206299", "rank": 0 } ]