Captain Plant Chongqing Legacy
Category: Upper Yangtze Exploration
Leechuan
Archibald Little launched Leechuan, a wooden twin-screw steamer, from Shanghai on 15 January 1898 and arrived in Chungking 9 March 1898. Though the ship required trackers upriver through the rapids and was too small for cargo, it fulfilled its mission of securing interest and funding for a new Upper Yangtze steamship – Pioneer. Little piloted […]
Lt. Emile Auguste Leon Hourst
In 1901, the French Navy dispatched its gunboat Olry to West China in an exploratory mission to the Yangtze’s upper reaches under Lt. Emile Auguste Leon Hourst’s command. Hourst’s achievement on Africa’s Niger River set high standards for the expedition and fate blessed him a second time. Upon arriving in China, Hourst was introduced to Captain Samuel […]