Sino-Western Yangtze River Family Stories
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 […]
Captain Cornell Plant’s Glimpses of the Yangtze Gorges was published in 1921, 1926 & 1932 and originally issued to coincide with the launch of S.S. Loong Mow, the first scenic passenger cruise ship in the Three Gorges. Ivon Donnelly illustrated the book. However, Captain Plant had launched commercial and passenger steamship service through the Yangtze’s […]
Surgeon’s Report re Samuel Cornell Plant, Deceased “Samuel Cornell Plant embarked, together with Mrs. Plant & two Chinese girls on board S.S. Teiresias 23rd February 1921. “I was called to see him first on the afternoon of following day. I was told that he had been ill for a week and that he was suffering […]
Messrs. Mackenzie & Co launched S.S. Loong Mow, the first luxury river service from Shanghai through Yangtze’s Three Gorges in June 1920 under the pilotage of Commander Sidney Hall, R.N.R., marking the beginning of scenic cruises through the Gorges. Timed with this new service, Kelly & Walsh published Glimpses of the Yangtze Gorges in 1921 with […]
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 […]