[ { "id": 204537, "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": 18, "title": "RAS-1963", "content_text": "PROTESTANT CEMETERY IN MACAO\n\nexplore trade possibilities outside the Americas.\n\n13\n\nThe New England states especially took the lead in this expansion of maritime trade, and towns like Salem and Boston soon became busy ship-building and overseas ports. Boston ships sailed east to the Pacific via the Cape of Good Hope, while those from Salem sailed west round the Horn; when, as was inevitable on a globe, east met west in the Far East, they agreed to an east-west boundary line which ran south of Canton and the Philippines; the area of South China was thus in the Salem sphere, and hence most of the early American traders in this area belonged to early Salem, Beverly, and Danvers families.\n\nThe procedure that had to be followed by foreign ships trading with Canton was briefly this. They made their first China landfall amongst the Ladrone Islands; here they took on a pilot from a junk, and he brought them to Macao; anchoring in the roads off Taipa, they made contact with the Chinese officials who were at that time established on the Praya Grande at Macao; on being cleared by them for Canton, the ships were allowed to proceed to Bocca Tigris at the river mouth, where, after a further delay, they were eventually given a Grand Chop, which was the permit to sail up river. The ships anchored at Whampoa, and the almost endless negotiations for discharging their cargoes and reloading with their purchases began. In the early part of the nineteenth century, the foreign floating population of Whampoa ran into thousands, and the sickness, accident, and mortality rates were very high.\n\nUp river, disposal of the dead was one of the easiest of all local business transactions; the Chinese had no such things as enclosed cemeteries, and neither had the foreigners; burials involved no legal or civil procedures; one merely negotiated with a Chinese landowner for a hillside plot and hired a few labourers. On Danes Island, French Island, at Whampoa, Lintin, Capsingmoon, and Cumsingmoon, there lie buried thus hundreds of foreigners whose frail memorials, if they ever existed, have long since disappeared.* In westernized Macao, however, the situation was different. There were enclosed cemeteries there, but they were consecrated by the Roman Catholic Church and therefore were not available to the other Europeans who were\n\n*For a map of the Pearl River estuary see p. 93.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1963.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/4m90m091v", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 204734, "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-1964", "page_number": 37, "title": "RAS-1964", "content_text": "CANTON\n\nCHANPOA\n\nTigris a\n\nBocco\n\nTUNG KWAN\n\nLintin I\n\nSAN ON\n\ntung Cu\n\nCastle Peak\n\nKapsulimoon Betive Įsa\n\nChek Lap Kok\n\n“KOWLOON”\n\nLANTAU\n\nMACAU\n\nTYPA\n\nEG\n\n15\n\n20 miles\n\nThe Pearl River Estuary\n\nHONG KONG\n\nWATCHOW\n\nHowever, to follow the exact format requested (HTML using for paragraphs), and considering the need to correct and format the given text according to the rules provided, a more appropriate response would involve directly correcting the text as per the instructions.\n\nUpon closer inspection, it appears the text is a jumbled collection of geographical names and terms related to the Pearl River Estuary area, including Hong Kong and Macau. To correct and format it properly:\n\n1. **Correct spelling errors**: \"Tigris a\" should likely be \"Tigris or Bocca Tigris\", a known historical name for the Humen Strait. \"Bocco\" is likely \"Bocca Tigris\". \"tung Cur\" or \"tung Cu\" is likely \"Tung Chung\". \"Kapsulimoon Betive Įsa\" doesn't seem to be a real location and might be a misrecognition; it could be related to \"Kap Shui Mun\" between Lantau Island and Ma Wan. \"TYPA\" is unclear but could be a misrecognition. \"WATCHOW\" is likely \"Wanchai\" or another location, possibly a misrecognition of a place name.\n\n2. **Fix spacing issues and rejoin broken sentences**: The text appears to be a list or map labels rather than sentences.\n\n3. **Format in Markdown or HTML as requested**: Since the output format requested is HTML using \n\n, the corrected text will be formatted accordingly.\n\nHere's a corrected and formatted version:\n\nCANTON\n\nCHANPOA\n\nBocca Tigris\n\nTUNG KWAN\n\nLintin I.\n\nSAN ON\n\nTung Chung\n\nCastle Peak\n\nKap Shui Mun\n\nChek Lap Kok\n\nKOWLOON\n\nLANTAU\n\nMACAU\n\n...\n\n15\n\n20 miles\n\nThe Pearl River Estuary\n\nHONG KONG\n\nWanchai\n\nGiven the original task's constraints and focusing on the primary request:\n\nThe best answer is CANTON\n\nCHANPOA\n\nBocca Tigris\n\nTUNG KWAN\n\nLintin I.\n\nSAN ON\n\nTung Chung\n\nCastle Peak\n\nKap Shui Mun\n\nChek Lap Kok\n\nKOWLOON\n\nLANTAU\n\nMACAU\n\n...\n\n15\n\n20 miles\n\nThe Pearl River Estuary\n\nHONG KONG\n\nWanchai\n\n.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1964.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/qz20zx09r", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 204825, "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-1964", "page_number": 128, "title": "RAS-1964", "content_text": "A RECONNAISSANCE OF MA WAN\n\nSecondly that the great extent of our commercial concerns in China requires a place of security as a depot for such of our goods as cannot be sold off or shipped during the short season that is allowed for our shipping to arrive and depart; and that for this purpose we wish to obtain a grant of a small tract of ground or detached Island, but in a more convenient situation than Canton, where our present Warehouses are at a great distance from our ships, and where we are not able to restrain the irregularities which are occasionally committed by the Seamen of the Company's ships, and those of private traders4.\n\n107\n\nIn fact in his Journal under an entry dated 2-7 January, 1794, after discussing the possibility of obtaining Macao, he went on to mention the possibility of a settlement on an island.\n\nOr with as little trouble and with more advantage we might make a settlement in Lantao or Cow-hee, and then Macao would of itself crumble to nothing in a short time. The forts of the Bocca Tigris might be demolished by half a dozen broadsides, the river would be impassable without our permission, and the whole trade of Canton and its correspondencies annihilated in a season. The millions of people who subsist by it would be almost instantly reduced to hunger and insurrection.\n\nTherefore it was natural that Macartney should send Lieutenant Parish to survey the coast of Lantao and the neighbouring islands in search of a harbour and a possible place for a settlement. In his report Parish refers to \"a situation for a settlement, intended to protect the large and valuable ships employed in the China trade\". It was unfortunate that the bad weather during the short time available for the survey prevented Parish from obtaining a more detailed description of the area. However, he did manage to land on an island which he calls Cowhee and his report to Macartney contains information of interest which, together with his sketch map, is worth reproducing3. It reads as follows:\n\nMacao 28th February, 1794.\n\nPursuant to your Excellency's orders, Mr. Alexander and myself embarked on board the Jackall in the Typas, at seven", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1964.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/qz20zx09r", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 205350, "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": 112, "title": "RAS-1967", "content_text": "A NOTICE OF THE SANON DISTRICT\n\nJ\n\n105\n\nThis officer established himself at a place then called Shak-tse-kong, the present Nam-tou, a part of which situated on a hill was surrounded by walls. But it was found that this officer was unable to rule efficiently the whole of the district, and some men of influence, supported by the high mandarins at Canton, demanded that the part of the country which they inhabited should be made a separate district.\n\nThe Emperor Wan-lik granted this petition in the first year of his reign; the new district was called \"Sanon,” new peace; and the walled part of Nam-tou rose to be the district town of Sanon, and accordingly received the name of Sanon Yuen-shing 新安城.\n\nThe Sanon district included the islands of Lan-tow, Hongkong, and all the small neighbouring islands. The mainland portion of the district was bounded to the North by the districts of Túng-kun 東莞 and Kwei-shin 歸善. The northern boundary is formed by the Pik-tau River, which flows into the estuary of the Canton River, and is navigable for small Chinese sea craft (such as passage-boats) for about 8 miles; and several chains of mountains further to the East. This boundary, however, is very arbitrarily drawn, as sometimes villages in the midst of Sanon belong to Túng-kun. The borders of the three districts join together in the neighbourhood of the mart of Kun-lan, a place notoriously unsafe, as being the abode of thieves and vagabonds, who can with facility escape from the jurisdiction of one mandarin to that of another.\n\nTo the East, the Sanon District is bounded by the estuary of the Canton River. This estuary is divided by the Chinese into several parts with different names: the part to the south of the Bocca Tigris into which the Pik-tow River falls, is called Hop-lan Hoi; the bay named by the English Lintin is designated by the Chinese Nam-low Bay, after the city of that name; Deep Bay is called Hau-hoi or Back-water Bay*. This bay is generally very shallow, a deep channel however running down the centre; the navigation is rendered more dangerous by the many oyster-beds which exist. The bay terminates in a considerable creek, which is navigable at high-tide for three or four miles, as far as the important mart of Sham-tsuen.\n\n&\n\nPA.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1967.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/0c488p70g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 206053, "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": 133, "title": "RAS-1970", "content_text": "A BRITISH MARITIME CHART OF 1780 SHOWING HONG KONG\n\nHENRY D. Talbot*\n\nA recent acquisition by the Map Library of the Department of Geography and Geology of the University of Hong Kong is of some interest as it appears to be the earliest known British map or chart depicting the island of Hong Kong.\n\nThe title is \"A Chart of the China Sea from the Island of Sancian to Pedra Branca with the course of the River Tigris from Canton to Macao from a Portuguese draught communicated by Captain Hayter and compared with the Chinese Chart of the Macao Pilots\".\n\nThe places mentioned need little explanation as they are names still used today. Sancian is also called St. John's Island and is to the west of Macao, while Pedra Branca is today called Pedro Blanco and is an isolated rock, used as a navigational landmark, to the east of Hong Kong. The River Tigris is the name given to the river up to Canton, derived from the name of the narrows called \"Bocca Tigris\" (Tiger's Mouth) in Portuguese, a translation of the Chinese name.\n\nThe Captain Hayter is evidently Captain George Hayter of the East India Company Ship York. This ship was in Chinese waters frequently from 1741 up to 1786 and Hayter was compiler of another chart dated 1787.\n\nThe chart was \"... Printed for R. Sayer and J. Bennett Map and Chart-sellers No. 53 Fleet Street, as the Act directs, 29 Nov. 1780\" Robert Sayer (1725-1794) and John Bennett were well known as map-sellers at the end of the eighteenth century. It is recorded that Robert Sayer retired in 1794 after almost half a century in the map chart trade.\n\nThe size of the chart is 950 × 640 mm., while the size of the map itself is 781 × 596 mm. The latter is the length along the neatlines, the inner border of the map.\n\n* Mr. Talbot is Lecturer in the Department of Geography and Geology in the University of Hong Kong. He was Hon. Editor of this Journal in 1964.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1970.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/ww72j0241", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 206169, "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": 249, "title": "RAS-1970", "content_text": "OBAY\n\nkingpint\n\nMIN-CAN-ÍÍIEN\n\nAVTIN\n\nLand\n\n• Gratin and I44\n\nLake Chemu je\n\nSCALE OF ORIGINAL CHART\n\n333,475\n\nJuantor Thay\n\n*** ISLAND\n\nH\n\nSun Miles\n\n^ONG KONG\n\nIsland Vighing\n\nH\n\nHook\n\nA. Prado or\n\nLA MAN\n\n+\n\nng Xuan Bur-Oinou\n\nStatute\n\nWang Launy\n\norang kep\n\n3'\n\n5\n\n♫\n\n3\n\nMet Bay\n\n14\n\n#4\n\n#\n\nPlate 15 A chart of the China Sea from the Island of Sancian to Pedra Branca with the course of the River Tigris from Canton to Macao from a Portuguese draught communicated by Captain Hayter and compared with the Chinese Chart of the Macao Pilots. 29th November, 1780.\n\n(From the Map Library of the Department of Geography and Geology, University of Hong Kong)", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1970.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/ww72j0241", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 207553, "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": 321, "title": "RAS-1975", "content_text": "NOTES AND QUERIES \n\n313 \n\nCheung could say nothing against the decision, but as far as the demarcation line was concerned, it is said that he had secretly petitioned the Imperial Government to be very careful in dealing with its (English) counterpart in fixing the Sino-British boundary. It is also believed that the boundary was finalised upon his personal recommendation.* As a matter of fact, the boundary ranged from the eastern part of the Kowloon Walled City (now the eastern side of Kai Tak Airport) to the western waterfront of Shamshuipo. From the physical point of view, the terrain to the south of the boundary is all flat and to the north all mountainous, so in terms of national defence it is absolutely a strategic advantage to hold the mountainous area. The demarcation then follows the present Boundary Street. It was completely beyond the General's anticipation that in later days the whole region of Kowloon was leased to Britain at the 24th year of Kuang Hsü (***) (1898) and the boundary extended from the Boundary Street to Shum Chun (M). [Actually to the Sham Chun river, south of the town]. \n\nGen Cheung once acted as the Commander-in-chief of naval forces in Kwangtung Province, and it was under his care that the Bocco Tigris forts (1) were repaired. Among the relics in connection with General Cheung's administration which still remain nowadays, there is a plaque inside the Hau Wong Temple (1£ §) at Kowloon City. On the plaque there is an inscription of four large Chinese characters which literally mean \"a good administration under your Highness' Protection”.† As quoted from the accompanying inscription, the general said, “As time elapses it has already been 13 years since I was appointed as the Commander at Kowloon in the 4th year of Hsien Feng reign () (1853).\" He also said: \"It is all due to your Highness' grace and instructions that security and peace prevail in the whole domain for which I feel greatly obliged. Now I have already reached the age of 70 so the time is ripe for me to retire from a long term of service.\" Judging from the two quotations above, we realize how humble and modest he was because he attributed all his achievements and merits to His Highness the Marquis Yeung. Apart from \n\n*This may well be so. His name appears as one of the members of the Joint Land Commission of 1862 for settling land titles in Kowloon: see PRO London, CO129/85, annex to Sir H. Robinson's despatch of 30th April 1862. \n\n† The reference is to the god of this famous temple the Marquis Yeung (#1) a loyal minister of Sung", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1975.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/j0995146d", "rank": 0 }, { "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": 209257, "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-1981", "page_number": 160, "title": "RAS-1981", "content_text": "146\n\nWEI PEH-TI\n\nNavigation channels were so situated that the passage into Canton foreign ships had to take because of their deep drafts was well protected, Juan Yüan thought. \"The western channel of the Pearl estuary from Macau [where the barbarians live] to Canton is too shallow for foreign vessels because they have a deep draft. They, therefore, must use the Lantao Channel into the estuary, then proceed northward between Lintin Island and the Nan-t'ou Peninsula, straight up to the Boca Tigris and into the Pearl River.\"8\n\nJuan Yuan had found the military installations outside the Boca Tigris generally satisfactory. Fortifications inside the Boca Tigris, on the other hand, were found by Juan Yüan to be less than tolerable. Immediately upon his return to Canton, he sent a memorial requesting the Emperor's approval for construction of several forts. Apparently he was so impressed with the forts at Macau, especially Fortaleza da Santiago, built in 1629, that he copied its design for a fort on Tiger Island, situated at the entrance to the Bogue.\"Juan Yuan was proud of this fort, financed by the merchants of the co-hong to the tune of 60,000 taels, both for its strategic location and for its equipment.\"\n\nThe Co-hong (kung-hang) was a guild organized in 1720 by the hong merchants of Kwangtung and Fukien. It adopted a code of thirteen articles to regulate trade at Canton. After 1782, its members controlled the foreign trade at Canton altogether. Business firms engaged in foreign trade, the hong (yang-hang), as well as individual hong merchants (yang-shang), rose and fell during the era when Chinese foreign trade was confined to Canton.\n\nThe unique functions served by the hong merchants gave them certain privileges. These privileges carried with them certain obligations without necessarily exempting them from government prosecutions should they fall afoul of the law. Several hong merchants had been awarded honorary official ranks with all the attendant status symbols. In addition to subscribing to programmes usually expected of members of the gentry, these hong merchants had to assume financial responsibilities for other public projects during this period as well, such as coastal defense. Even more than the officials, they were subject to imperial pleasure and ire. The second merchant by the name of Howqua, also known as Puiqua, Wu Tun-yüan, for instance, enjoyed the honoraria of a third-rank official in happier days, including the status symbol of wearing the sapphire (clear, blue stone) button of the third rank on his hat.1 He had worked closely with Juan Yuan on several controversial cases involving jurisdiction over foreigners from 1820 to 1823. Even then,\n\n12", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1981.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/ff36bt18m", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211314, "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-1988", "page_number": 30, "title": "RAS-1988", "content_text": "6\n\nher the confederation grew until, at its height in 1809, it comprised between 50,000 and 70,000 individuals and the 1,200 junks referred to in the introduction.\n\nThe Confederation in action\n\nBy mid-1808 the military success of the confederation was such that the Ch'ing government's policy of sea war had been soundly defeated. The deaths of the Brigade-General of the Bocca Tigris, Lin Kuo-liang, and the Lieutenant-Colonel, Lin Fa, coupled with their losses of material resulted in the reduction of the provincial fleet by half and an even greater penetration of the Pearl River Delta by the pirates.\n\nLin Kuo-liang's replacement, Hsu T'ing-kuei, was defeated in July 1809. Although he managed to destroy most of the White Flag Fleet in the process, he himself was killed and he lost ten of the thirty-five mi-t'ing or rice carriers in his war fleet. The situation was now desperate as pirates were able to destroy government war junks faster than the dockyards could build them, and most of the provincial fleet's auxiliary salt and fishing vessels were out of commission as well.\n\nPirates were now able to bring their penetration of the Pearl River to new heights as Black Flag Fleet leader, Kuo P'o-tai, set out at once on a six-week foray into the inner passage that resulted in the deaths of 10,000 individuals. On August 11, 1809, he burned the customs house at Tzu-ni, ten miles from Canton and sent messengers to the Governor-General warning that if ransom was not forthcoming, the city would be attacked.\n\nAt the same time, the Red Flag Fleet leader, Chang Pao, worked the **outer passage** or main channel of the Pearl River and destroyed two forts near its mouth. At the Second Bar, he sent a fleet of Chinese war junks running, destroyed towns and villages all the way to Pan-yu and Nan-hai counties, and defeated the government's newly-constructed vessels at Sha-wan.\n\nForeigners, too, were alarmed at the strength and audacity of the pirates, who, on September 5, 1809, simultaneously detained the vessels of the Siamese tribute mission in the mouth of the Pearl River and sent\n\nPage 30\nPage 31", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1988.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/ft84gb83q", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 212191, "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": 133, "title": "RAS-1990", "content_text": "110\n\nJ\n\nonto\n\nup from Shanghai to relieve them. In this way he wished to show the Japanese that the British flag could not be driven off the Yangtze. But other ideas prevailed in Shanghai; the ships were ordered out. I was instructed to transfer my Chinese refugees, the employees from our office and their families, numbering some 200 souls, to the \"Ewo\" hulk, which was to be left anchored at Nanking under the protection of a British gunboat. Curiously enough, the refugees showed extreme reluctance to be abandoned thus to an unknown fate, and in the upshot, most of them went on to Shanghai with the ship. Our flotilla was augmented by the arrival of the light cruiser **Caradoc** from Hankow, where she had been wintering. Her 'tween decks were packed with several hundred British women and children, who were being evacuated from the upriver ports. A small ship flying the Italian flag added to our number; she was believed to be carrying the personnel of the Italian Aviation Mission, who had been training Chinese pilots at Nanchang. Led by a Japanese escorting destroyer, followed by H.M.S. \"Caradoc\", we formed line and sailed down the river, the journey enlivened by the anger of the Japanese Commander at the inability of the master of the Italian ship to understand the signals which, from time to time, he made in the International code. With our convoy went the last merchant ships to show the British flag on the Yangtze. The \"Red Duster\" was displaced; henceforth the Japanese view prevailed.\n\nHong Kong and South China 1938\n\nThe West river and its network of tributaries provide the highways over which the commerce of South China moves. Some distance outside Bocca Tigris, where the river debouches into the China Sea, an eleven-mile ridge of hills rises sharply out of the blue semi-tropical waters. We call it Hongkong, but to the Chinese it is \"The Fragrant Lagoon\". Why \"fragrant\" I cannot say, because the surrounding waters are salt, as any sea water, and full of large diaphanous jelly-fish that lie in wait to sting unwary swimmers, or of little black insects which get inside your bathing costume and bite you in places inconvenient to reach.\n\nThere is no record to show how these marine depredators spent their time before 1840. In those days, before the arrival of the British, the island was uninhabited and, though visited by fisher folk and pirates, I doubt whether they went swimming. The pirates have now", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1990.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/d79206299", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 213418, "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-1995", "page_number": 14, "title": "RAS-1995", "content_text": "I Jul 95\n\n19 Aug 95\n\n23 Sept 95\n\n18 Nov 95\n\nTraditional Trades and Crafts of Hong Kong - HK Museum of History (Exhibition)\n\nHeaven's Embroidered Cloths A Thousand Years of Chinese Textiles (Exhibition) - HK Museum of Art\n\nLife Under the Japanese Occupation 1941-45 (Exhibition) - HK Museum of History\n\nExhibition of Chinese Folk Art - HK University Museum and Art Gallery\n\nNew Territories Temples and Da Jiu at Kam Tin\n\n26 Nov 95\n\n16 Dec 95\n\nJade Exhibition - HK University Museum and Art Gallery\n\n13 Jan 96\n\nPrince of Wales Barracks and former HMS Tamar Site\n\n20 Jan 96\n\nVillages of the north eastern New Territories\n\n10 Feb 96\n\nWalk through the deserted villages of Sai Kung\n\n9 Mar 96\n\nMaritime Silk Route (Exhibition) - HK Museum of History\n\n16 Mar 96\n\nOrganic Farm on Lamma Island\n\nVisits outside Hong Kong:\n\n22/23 Apr 95\n\nDapeng, Xin'an County\n\n2/3 Feb 96 14/17 Mar 96\n\nBocca Tigris Forts of the Pearl River\n\nTemples of northern Taiwan\n\nSuch activity demands some very dedicated organisers and besides those already mentioned in the Activities Committee we are particularly grateful to Dr. Joseph Ting, Dr. Anthony Siu, Mr. John Wilson, Mr. Philip Bruce, Dr. Patrick Hase, Mr. David Sheil and Dr. Michael Lau for their help. Sometimes not all members can obtain places on these outings and I would like to say that we are quite willing to run the trip again provided we can find someone to assist in organising it. In fact, if any member is willing to propose any trip to somewhere of interest the Society will always be prepared to consider it.\n\nThere is one other activity to which I would like to draw your", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1995.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/95941j25g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 214131, "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-1997", "page_number": 199, "title": "RAS-1997", "content_text": "170\n\nlocated. The Seventh Day Adventist Church, which stands at numbers 6-8 on the tree-lined Sun Yat-sen Road (formerly part of Tung Sui Road), was on the site of a building used during the war years as an officers mess (see Plate III). The clinic, which now stands at No. 28 Shui Dong Kai (Water East Street), is on the site where a 'hospital' and the BAAG headquarters were situated during World War Two. Then, Huizhou stood in a kind of ‘no-man's-land'. It was not part of 'Free China' nor was it really in Japanese occupied territory. But the Japanese did make regular incursions into the city which was an undercover centre for Chinese guerillas and the British Army Aid Group.\n\nMembers of the Allied Forces would occasionally escape from prisoner-of-war camps in Hong Kong and make their way, with the help of Chinese guerillas, to Sai Kung. From there they would sail over to the coast of China and proceed on up to Huizhou to link up with the 'East River Column' of guerillas. After rest and medical attention escapees would make their way to the hinterland and Free China proper. Huizhou was well positioned as an escape route which was provided by a road network, of sorts, and the East River which flows along to the Bocca Tigris in the Pearl River Delta.\n\n5\n\nMen who managed to escape included Colonel Anthony Hewitt (at the time Captain) of the ‘Die-Hards', the Middlesex Regiment, who gave a talk in November 1996, to the RASHKB entitled 'The Defence of Leighton Hill during the 1941 Battle for Hong Kong'. Colonel L.T. Ride also escaped to set up and head the British Army Aid Group. Sir Lindsay, who was Vice Chancellor of the University of Hong Kong from 1949 to 1964, was also a founder member of the RASHKB, in 1960, when it was reestablished. He was President of our Branch from 1969 to 1972.\n\nAlthough members of our RAS Group saw a considerable amount of new building as we drove from Shenzhen to Huizhou on that November day in 1997, one was struck by the number of walled villages and watch towers. This part of China was, obviously, a pretty lawless region at one time, and, to some extent, it still is. One occasionally sees cars plying the roads without number plates and right-hand drive vehicles which have probably been smuggled in, one assumes from Hong Kong.\n\nT", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1997.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/wp98g7579", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 214542, "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-1998", "page_number": 400, "title": "RAS-1998", "content_text": "369\n\nANOTHER DILEMMA FOR TODAY'S YOUTH IN\n\nCHINA\n\nKeith Stevens and Jennifer Welch\n\nDuring a recent RAS [HK BR] tour of the Museum of the Humen People's Resistance against the British in the Opium War [1840-1842] at Humen [Bocca Tigris], a small town about sixty miles south-east of Canton on the east coast of the Pearl River, we entered the old temple dedicated to the Northern Emperor [Bei Di] in the grounds of the Museum.\n\nThe main altars of the temple were not in any way unusual in that it had the central altar with the image of the Northern Emperor, Bei Di, and two flanking side altars, one dedicated to Lü Dongbin, the doctor in the group of the Eight Immortals and the second dedicated to Guan Yin, the Goddess of Mercy. However, there were two further glass cabinets, identical with the form of the main altar, one on either side wall. Against the wall, stage left, was an image of Lin Zexu,\n\nthe Imperial Commissioner despatched by the Emperor to Guangdong province in 1839 with instructions to stamp out the opium trade. His destruction of the stocks of opium held by British, American and other foreign traders led to the so-called Opium War [in British parlance, the First China War].\n\nThe cabinet against the temple wall, stage right, contained three images of Chinese officials involved in the War. They were Admiral Guan; The Governor of the Two Guangs and a General Chen who, captured by the British, is now remembered as the prisoner taken by his captives, together with his loyal horse, to Hong Kong where he died. Before both side cabinets, which had baldachin and silken hangings in front of the altar tables bearing honorifics as do temple altars virtually everywhere, were altar tables with red spirit tablets bearing their honorific titles, as well as offerings of fruit, bottles of wine and incense pots.\n\nWhat proved so interesting was the indecision manifest amongst Chinese visitors who, having not hesitated to bow and offer incense before the images of the three main deities, Bei Di, Lü Dongbin and", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1998.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/1g05n0794", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 215680, "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-2001", "page_number": 457, "title": "RAS-2001", "content_text": "409\n\nbeginning of 1900 she was under construction at the yard of Dennys of Dumbarton. She was a side-wheeler, 180 feet long, 60 feet beam across the paddle boxes, drawing 6 feet and having a deadweight of 150 tons with accommodation for many deck passengers.\n\nHaving made all the arrangements for \"Pioneer\" to be shipped to Shanghai in pieces, Little returned to London. Whilst having lunch at the Oriental Club with some of his backers and advisors, he was introduced to Captain Samuel Cornel Plant. Captain Plant had recently returned to England having served for several years in command of steamers on the Tigris and Euphrates, rivers well known for their navigational difficulties. When Little learned of the captain's previous experience, he did his best to persuade Plant to come to China and take command of \"Pioneer.\" Plant promised to give the matter some thought. For whatever reason, he subsequently agreed to go along with Little.\n\n\"Pioneer\" was shipped to Shanghai and reassembled. Plant and his wife, Alice Sophia, took ship to China, joined \"Pioneer\" and in early June 1900 the attempt on the Three Gorges began. With Plant in command, \"Pioneer\" made the trip from Ichang to Chunking in 73 steaming hours over seven days. She was held up for three days at Hsin T'an Rapids. On arrival at Chunking she was greeted by most of the expatriates living there and it is said that the banks of the river were black with hundreds of junkmen who had crowded to see this latest barbarian wonder.\n\nThe Aftermath\n\nBad luck again struck Little. There were rumblings of trouble along the river that were to culminate in the Boxer Uprising. The British Consulate in Chunking commandeered \"Pioneer\" and used her to evacuate expatriates from the trouble spots. (It is not known whether Little was compensated for the loss of \"Pioneer\" or not. She was eventually handed over to the Royal Navy, renamed H.M.S. \"Kinshi\" and finished life as H.Q. Ship, Senior British Naval Officer on the Yangtze River.)\n\nPlant's Career\n\nPlant, having left the employ of Little, bought himself a houseboat", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2001.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zg651950g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 215682, "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-2001", "page_number": 459, "title": "RAS-2001", "content_text": "411\n\nThe British Consulate in Chunking collected subscriptions from amongst the expatriates and other interested people to raise a memorial to Plant. This took the form of a 30 foot high obelisk constructed of dressed blocks of pink granite on a brown sandstone base. It was erected at Xintang Village where the Dragon Horse Stream flows into the Yangtze. The inscription, which was in both English and Chinese, was eradicated by the Red Guards in 1968 after they had, unsuccessfully, tried to blow it up.\n\nUnless it is moved, the monument will be inundated by the raising waters when the dam across the Three Gorges is completed.1 Plant's beloved rapids will become small eddies on the surface of a huge man-made lake. Hundreds of tracker villages will have been moved to other locations, some far from the river. A tradition of 5,000 years endurance will be gone forever.\n\nThe above is an account of Captain Plant's professional life in China. However, gaps occur in both his early professional life and in his private life.\n\nAs you have read, Archibald Little met Samuel Plant at the Oriental Club in 1900. Prior to this time Plant had commanded steamers on the Rivers Tigris and Euphrates but we have been unable to find information on his Mesopotamian career.\n\nWe know Samuel Cornell Plant was born on 8th August, 1866 in Framlingham, Suffolk. His wife, Sophie Alice Peters was born on 29th November, 1870 in Hoddesdon in the County of Hertford to an illiterate shoemaker and his wife. Samuel Cornell and Alice Sophie, as she appears on the Entry of Marriage, were married in the Consulate General in the District of Bushire in the Province of Fars, Persia on 16th April, 1894. His profession is listed as a master mariner, nothing is given for Alice Sophie.\n\nWhat was a young woman of 24 years doing in Bushire and how did she meet Captain Plant?\n\nIn 1921, en route to Hong Kong and home leave, Samuel Plant died on board the \"Teiresias\" on 26th February. His death certificate gives as the cause of death ‘right lobar pneumonia and heart failure.'", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2001.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zg651950g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 216322, "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": 81, "title": "RAS-2003", "content_text": "30 \n\non the China coast, first occupied intermittently in 1517 and then from 1557 continuously under payment of a ground rent until 1849, when the Portuguese threw off Chinese control not long after the Opium War.2 Its picturesque title was \"City of the Name of God in China\". \n\nE \n\nIn the 1830s, the entire Portuguese population, including slaves, was not above 5,000; whilst the Chinese of Macau were calculated to exceed 30,000.3 Macau had a senate, a bishop, thirteen churches, three monasteries and a convent. A visiting Protestant wrote, \"...you are every moment reminded you are in a papal town: the bells ring often every day, processions with crucifixes and lighted candles go and come, and priests with black frocks and cocked hats are seen in the streets'.5 \n\nMacau owed its rise solely to trade. Despite its minute size, it was an important part of the Portuguese seaborne empire. It had thrived on the Japan trade, lost after the Japanese rulers turned against Christianity and the overseas trade, which brought its priests into their country; had beaten off Dutch attempts to capture the place in the 1620s; and due to its pivotal role in Eastern trade with South-east Asia and the West, was able to flourish in succeeding centuries. \n\nWith the growth of world trade in the 17th and 18th centuries, Macau became the place to which, by Chinese decree, all foreign merchant ships trading with China through Canton had to report for clearance, and pay for the pilot and permit needed to enter the Canton River. Vessels could then proceed upstream to the Whampoa anchorage where they had to wait to take on their cargoes. Their departure was authorized by a licence, known picturesquely as the Grand Chop. (Plate 2). It is well-known how the foreign merchants conducting business in Canton could only reside there for half the year, and how they had to return thereafter to join their wives and families in Macau. \n\nMacau to Canton \n\nThe Delta is broad, the shores on each side out of sight save for distant mountains, but two-thirds of the way from Macau, we enter the narrow approaches to the Pearl River at the Bocca Tigris or Bogue (\"Tiger's Door\" or \"Gate\"). The change is almost abrupt, and made the more dramatic by the island in mid-stream which blocks the passage into the River. To left, right and centre there were forts. That on the", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2003.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/2v242g390", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 216343, "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": 102, "title": "RAS-2003", "content_text": "51\n\nThere is a good selection in Views of the Pearl River Delta, cited above.\n\n19 In a major exhibition of China Trade paintings brought to Sydney's Maritime Museum in 1998, of the 22 oil and other colour paintings of Canton, no fewer than 19 were by Chinese artists. And of 7 such paintings of Whampoa and the Bocca Tigris, 4 were also by Chinese artists.\n\n20 Morse, International Relations, Period of Conflict, op.cit. p.70.\n\n21 Hayes, James, with Garrett, Richard and Valery (1992-3). The Honam Temple (Haichuang Dzi) Revisited, at pp.137-143 of Hong Kong Library Association Journal, No. 16. Honam became a site for additional trading houses under an Agreement signed on 6 April 1847, after Sir John Davis had sent an expedition up the Pearl River and captured the Forts at Bocca Tigris. \"The territory of Honam\", it was stated, \"is a place for trade, the renting of warehouses or of ground for building houses is therefore fully conceded. This will be managed properly by the Consul and the local authorities in accordance with the provisions of the [1842] Treaty. Hertslet's China Treaties, Third Revised Edition 1908, Vol.1 [of 2] p.17.\n\n22 Preface to Dyer Ball, J.(1911). The Chinese at Home, The Man of Tong and his Land. London, The Religious Tract Society. \"Tong' is the Cantonese romanization of \"Tang'.\n\n23\n\nIn MacNair, Harley Farnsworth (1923). Modern Chinese History, Selected Readings. Shanghai, Commercial Press, at p.145.\n\n24 Fu, Lo-Shu (Compiler etc., 1966). A Documentary Chronicle of Sino-Western Relations (1644-1820). University of Arizona Press, 2 vols., at Vol. I, p.368.\n\n25 Chinese text at No.37 in Vol. 1 of the three volume set of Hong Kong's Historical Inscriptions published by the Hong Kong Urban Council in 1986.\n\n26 Davis, Sketches of China, op.cit., p.261.\n\n27 Burford's Panorama, Leicester Square (1838) Description of a View of Canton, The River Tigress, and the Surrounding Country, London, pp.11, 15.\n\n28 Views of the Pearl River, op.cit., pp.176-7.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2003.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/2v242g390", "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": 216482, "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": 241, "title": "RAS-2003", "content_text": "191\n\nalso want someone to translate his words to those government officials and village chiefs with whom he would have to negotiate his way up and down the river. He engaged a local small boat skipper as Nocador (coxswain); a Chaldean by the name of Judges who had served some time on board a line of Turkish steamers plying on the Tigris as bo'sun; and a steward who also doubled as interpreter. A further eleven hands were taken on to complete the crew and Plant was ready to set off on his journey of exploration up the Karun river. It was truly a journey of discovery as he had no maps or books on the river and had to rely on local knowledge provided by the Nocador. After a number of excitements along the narrow winding waterway, they stopped at the small village of Shalaliah that acted as a port to Shushter. Plant covered the last seven miles to Shuster on horseback to report the safe arrival of the Shushan to the Company's agent, one of several young Englishmen in the area serving the interests of the shipping company. As both foreigners and Christians, the company's agents lived a life of some difficulty and danger. Plant felt that his life aboard the Shushan was far more congenial.\n\nThus started the regular passenger and freight service that Plant was to run for some time. His relations with the many local officials with whom he came in contact were conducted with tact and skill - his private thoughts about them and his comments on their ways of life and business, he confined to his personal log book. The difficulties of piloting his craft up and down an uncharted river were considerable and required great resource and powers of improvisation. He found that his triple rudder could not cope with the narrow winding part of the river unless he went at full speed, which proved particularly exciting when navigating a series of blind bends. On another part of the river an unexpected eddy took him into some rocks at speed which sprung a line of rivets and opened up a section of the hull. Fortunately, the Shushan's watertight construction in sections kept it afloat but left him with the problem of making a repair - they were far from any dockyard facility. He provided the answer by lowering a weighted line through each empty rivet hole; fishing for the weight from the bank; attaching a bolt; hauling the bolt up through the rivet hole; and anchoring it with a nut which he tightened up to re-secure the sprung plate. This turned out to be a tedious, time-consuming but entirely successful means of making good a damaged hull that he later introduced to the shipmasters of the Yangtse. There were many more occasions when he was up the", "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 } ]