[
    {
        "id": 207799,
        "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": 187,
        "title": "RAS-1976",
        "content_text": "172 \n\nA. D. BLUE \n\nshe was retained as the headquarters ship of the Royal Navy's Upper Yangtze squadron. \n\nThe Royal Navy had always maintained a strong presence on the river, since British ships commenced to trade on the Yangtze in the early 1860s. So far as the Yangtze was concerned, ‘trade followed the flag\". Naval ships were the first British ships to navigate the lower Yangtze, and continued to lead the way as British shipping extended its operations further up the river. As we have seen, H.M.S. Woodcock reached Chungking and beyond to Suifu a few months before the Pioneer made the first successful commercial passage of the Upper Yangtze. By the mid 1920s, when British shipping had reached its peak there, the Royal Navy's Yangtze Squadron consisted primarily of six general purpose gunboats of the \"Insect\" class based on Hankow. These had been built originally for service against the Turks on the Tigris and Euphrates in World War 1. Each carried fifty-four officers and men, and had two six-inch guns, and they were powerful little ships in flat country. For the Upper River there were several smaller ships of the \"Bird class\", which carried twenty-six or thirty-one men. Two operated on the Tungting Lake and on the Siang River to Changsha, and another two on the Upper Yangtze to Chungking, with occasional trips to Suifu. In the high water season the \"Insect\" class ships could also operate on the Upper River. \n\nThis force was commanded by the Rear-Admiral, Yangtze, at Hankow, who came under the overall command of the Commander-in-Chief of the British naval forces in the Far East at Hong Kong. The Yangtze Squadron, therefore, consisted of about 500 officers and could be quickly reinforced from Shanghai and Hong Kong if necessary. It was also possible for a 10,000 ton cruiser to reach Hankow in the high water season. The Royal Navy was frequently called on to protect British ships and British interests on the Yangtze, sometimes against rebels, pirates, war lords, or threats from other foreign powers. The term 'gunboat diplomacy' probably originated from the operations of the Royal Navy on the China coast and on the Yangtze. \n\nThe most notable naval occasion on the Yangtze, since the First China War of 1839-42, was the Wanhsien Incident of 1926. This originated in the refusal of the captain of the China Navigation Company's Wanliu to carry soldiers of Yung Lin, one of the war",
        "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1976.txt",
        "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/hq382988q",
        "rank": 0
    },
    {
        "id": 216480,
        "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-2003",
        "page_number": 239,
        "title": "RAS-2003",
        "content_text": "189\n\nbair mentioned in the letter in the pocket of her New Ladies Companion Book where it is still kept.\n\nPersian adventures\n\nCornell Plant remained in the Reigate for another two years leaving her as an Ordinary Seaman in 1883. He then spent a year in the SS Iberia on the Pacific Steam Navigation Company's Australian Service and another year in the iron ship Mermerus as an Able Seaman. In 1885 Plant returned to the Reigate as Third Mate and left the following year after having obtained his Second Mate's certificate. From there he joined Lynch's Euphrates and Tigris Shipping Company, serving in the River Steamer Khalifa.\n\nIn 1891 he was offered the command of Shushan, a stern wheel paddle steamer, built by Alfred Yarrow on the Thames and shipped out in parts to Egypt for the expedition up the Nile to relieve General Gordon at Khartoum.\n\nShushan was 98 feet in length including the paddle wheel, 18 feet in width and had an eighteen inch draft. A boiler with a tall funnel was at the bow end of the flat main deck with the engine that drove the stern mounted paddle wheel at the after end. A wooden saloon containing some cabin accommodation stood in the centre of the main deck with the conning position above it from where the wheel controlled a triple rudder. Access to this position was by a wooden ladder and awnings to protect the main deck were spread forward and aft although how they were kept clean and white just astern of a wood fed boiler is hard to understand. No photograph or drawing of the Shushan has yet been found although there are representations of many of the other similar river craft built by Alfred Yarrow. He was acknowledged at the time as the best builder of those vessels that were used to extend and protect British interests along the rivers of Africa, Asia and beyond. They were built to a standard pattern in watertight sections that could be shipped anywhere in the world and bolted together on site. It was claimed that those required by the expedition to rescue General Gordon were ready for shipment within 17 days of the order being placed. (Yarrow - the first 100 years)\n\nIt is quite evident that young Cornell Plant was immensely proud",
        "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2003.txt",
        "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/2v242g390",
        "rank": 0
    },
    {
        "id": 216481,
        "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-2003",
        "page_number": 240,
        "title": "RAS-2003",
        "content_text": "190\n\nof his first command and the position of trust in which his employers had placed him. The Euphrates and Tigris Shipping Company had come into possession of the Shushan after it was no longer required for the Nile expedition and decided to use it to extend their operations into South West Iran up the Karun River beyond Ahwaz. They were already running a regular passenger and freight service up to Ahwaz but were unable to proceed further because of a series of rapids that had effectively closed the river to conventional steam traffic.\n\nPlant picked up his new command at Basra and was introduced to his engineer officer, a young Englishman called Stanley Webber with whom he would be sharing his Persian adventure. Together, they and a temporary crew from Basra, made their way down the Shatt al Arab to Mohammerah, a town at the mouth of the Karun River and from there, up river to Ahwaz. His next task was to take the Shushan up and over the rapids at Ahwaz, where the water rushed down a seemingly impenetrable rocky slope although, it was said, there were a few fast water channels through which the craft might proceed with safety provided it had sufficient paddle power. To be on the safe side he obtained some long safety lines and hired a crowd of pullers and heavers to man them should the craft not be able to manage the rapid under its own steam.\n\nRiver pilotage\n\nThus, all was made ready for the assault on the feared Ahwaz rapids. The great day came and so did the crowds to see the fun - but his hard work and planning paid off. With a full head of steam and Plant on the wheel the Shushan climbed the first rapid and then went full ahead upstream for the next gap between two great rocks where the river 'poured through like a sluice.' She just made it and then moved up to through the next rapid that was just a little easier and finally entered the calmer waters above the town. Here, the crew was discharged and sent back to their home port while Plant made preparations for taking the Shushan on its first trip to Shuster some 50 miles up river.\n\nFirst, he had to find and train a permanent crew, including someone with knowledge of the river and a Tindal (bo'sun) to take charge of the deck hands. He also needed an interpreter, through whom he could give instructions to the crew, most of whom spoke no English. He would\n\nPage 240\n\nPage 241",
        "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2003.txt",
        "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/2v242g390",
        "rank": 0
    },
    {
        "id": 216484,
        "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-2003",
        "page_number": 243,
        "title": "RAS-2003",
        "content_text": "193\n\ndown the bank opposite the ship and fearing surprise, gave voice to his warning. It proved to be a false alarm, the supposed marauders turned out to be some jackals stealing down to the river to drink.\n\nMarriage and home again\n\nAt some time during his time in Iran, Cornell Plant met Alice Peters, the daughter of a shoe maker from Hertford. They were married at Bandar Bushire in 1894 by Colonel Wilson, the acting consul. Cornell was 28 and Alice was 24. What she was doing in South West Iran has not yet been satisfactorily explained - perhaps she had travelled with an expatriate family as a lady's maid or a children's nurse. Whatever her background and her reason for being in the Persian Gulf, for the next 27 years she was Cornell Plant's loyal wife and good companion in strange places and through turbulent times. There is a photograph of Cornell Plant at about this time taken in Iran by Joseph (Photographer, Est 1875, Gold Medals - Shah of Persia). It shows a chubby young man in a crumpled uniform and is one of only a very few photos of him that are in the family record.\n\nThe exact movements of Captain and Mrs Plant in the years following their marriage are not certain. He wrote an 80-page account of his Persian adventures some seven years after he was first offered command of Shushan. At the end of this account he says that he became ill and returned home to the UK. He says his illness was diagnosed as typhoid fever, not the malaria that he suffered throughout his later life and which he mistook for the pneumonia that eventually brought his life to a close. Perhaps they returned home in 1896 or thereabouts. While recuperating back in England, Plant will have taken stock of his position and his future prospects. His selection by the Euphrates and Tigris Shipping Company to command the Shushan was evidently based upon his ability as a seaman, because the only formal certificate recorded in his name is that of Second Mate. Perhaps he did not wish to return to a life at sea after his experience in command and the success he had achieved in river pilotage. This may be the reason why in 1898 he wrote the long and detailed account of his Persian adventures - almost a description of his suitability for similar employment elsewhere.",
        "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2003.txt",
        "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/2v242g390",
        "rank": 0
    }
]