[
    {
        "id": 207121,
        "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-1974",
        "page_number": 192,
        "title": "RAS-1974",
        "content_text": "NOTES AND QUERIES\n\nTHE EUROPEAN GRAVE ON SHEK KWU CHAU, HONG KONG\n\nSacred\n\nTo the Memory of Elizabeth Ann The Beloved Wife of\n\nCapt. A. McIntyre\n\nWho Died at Sea\n\n21st of October, 1845\n\non Board the Ship “Castle Huntly” Aged 23 Years and 9 Days.\n\nThese words appear on a granite tombstone situated near the N.W. shoreline of Shek Kwu Chau, an island about two miles west of Cheung Chau. The island was generally barren and uninhabited until 1963, and the existence of the stone and inscription was unknown except, perhaps, to local fishermen. An old name for the island was Coffin Island, and it is tempting to think that the name was derived from this grave.\n\nThe island was taken over in 1962 by the Society for the Aid and Rehabilitation of Drug Addicts and it was quite by chance that a member of the staff, while exploring the territory, stumbled on the grave.\n\nSince then several people have made attempts to trace the history of the \"Castle Huntly”, but it was not until recently that any firm information came to light. An Australian friend, after visiting Shek Kwu Chau, thought of contacting the Board of Trade in Cardiff and they were able to provide the following details.\n\nThe \"Castle Huntly” (or “Castle Huntley\") was a three-masted wooden carvel of just over thirteen hundred tons, built at the Port of Calcutta and owned jointly by Thomas Garland Murray of London and John Paterson of Castle Huntley, North Britain. John Paterson was her first Master. Later she passed through the hands of various owners and, in 1838, was re-registered at Bombay.",
        "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1974.txt",
        "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/x633mp077",
        "rank": 0
    },
    {
        "id": 207122,
        "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-1974",
        "page_number": 193,
        "title": "RAS-1974",
        "content_text": "NOTES AND QUERIES \n\n187 \n\nas the property of three Parsee merchants. Later, it appears, two of the owners sold out and she became the sole property of one Cursetzee Cawasjee. The closing entry says that the “Castle Huntly” was lost on Lincoln's Shoal some four hundred miles south of Hong Kong on 23rd October 1845, while on a voyage from China to Bombay. \n\nLloyd's List confirms that the Master of the ship at the time of her loss was a Captain McIntyre and adds that the Master, Officers, Passengers and part of the crew were saved and landed at Hong Kong. \n\nSome further details obtained from another source indicate that before 1829 the \"Castle Huntly\" sailed with the East India Company, and log books up to that time are still extant. These reveal that in 1829 the Governor of Mauritius was a passenger, and that later in the same year there was a mutiny by the crew. \n\nThe ship is mentioned in a book by Basil Lubbock entitled Opium Clippers, as having sailed regularly in this trade between Calcutta and the Canton River in 1835. It seems probable that when she met her end she was still engaged in carrying opium to China. \n\nThis is the story as well as we have been able to discover it, but it leaves some very interesting questions unanswered. The ship was lost on 23rd October, but the date of Elizabeth Ann's death is given as 21st October. Did she die in Hong Kong waters, and was her body put ashore on Shek Kwu Chau at the start of what was to prove the ship's last voyage? And why choose Shek Kwu Chau, which at that time was Chinese territory? It may have been that the master was anxious to make full use of the northeast monsoon which could well have been blowing at that time of the year. \n\nAgain, whence came the tombstone? It is of granite, but a University geologist has given his opinion that it is not of Hong Kong origin. Was it brought to the island at a later date and placed over the lonely grave? These questions may never receive an answer, but to us of a later generation the odd fact is that Elizabeth Ann's remains are to be found on an island now given over to repairing the damage caused by the trade in which her husband was engaged. \n\nJEAN MOORE",
        "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1974.txt",
        "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/x633mp077",
        "rank": 0
    }
]