舊中國船隻介紹

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Introduction to Old China Ships

IRON PRINCE

From the coming of the age of steamships the China Coast saw an active building up of shipping fleets, both by foreign-flag companies which came to dominate services to the "Treaty Ports" and by Chinese shipping interests, initally limited to the state-owned China Merchants S.N. Co. This site presents shipping fleets of both foreign-flag and Chinese-flag categories, which then faced the severe political and other difficulties of the 1930s and 1940s. The selected photographs below are intended to exemplify the general evolution of ship types covered by this site.

The first photograph above, taken by Sylvester Dutton and Vince Michaels at Guangzhou (Canton) in 1863, shows the 1845-built IRON PRINCE, a British steamship in service between Hong Kong and Guangzhou. It is the oldest merchant steamship photographed in China that we have found so far. Details of IRON PRINCE may be found in the "Other Canton Steam Vessels to 1889" list in the "Hong Kong" section and in the Milne list in the JAPAN page. The second photo, below, taken at Yantai (Chefoo) probably in January or February of 1936, shows vessels marooned in severe ice (University of Bristol - Historical Photographs of China reference number: Si-s04).

Chinese shipowners were disadvantaged in political and economic terms and private shipowners were even prohibited by the Qing Dynasty from owning steamships until about 1897, but eventually could draw together local capital and support, an outstanding ability to maintain ships and a persistence to override the various obstacles. The next photo taken by Don Gammon at Hong Kong on 5 December 1939 and kindly provided to us by Bill Schell shows HAI YUN of the State-owned China Merchants S.N. Co. flagged out to Portuguese Macao as ELSIE in order to avoid capture by Japan. The ship survived World War II and was registered in Keelung after the war.

HAI YUN

We also present some of the fleets in the 1950s, 60s and 70s. Both passenger carrying vessels and cargo ships are featured. In addition to such ships operated on the mainland, we present companies from the "new wave" of non-PRC flag Chinese operators which first emerged in the 1950s. Shown first below in an image adapted from Stephen Card's wonderful painting is GOLDEN ALPHA, the first vessel in 1955 owned by Y.K. Pao, later Sir Yue Kong Pao. Born in Ningbo in 1918, his Wordwide Shipping Group became the largest shipping company in the world with over 20 million tonnes deadweight. We have not yet prepared a study of this company. Next is the JEANNIE of the Eddie S.S. Co. built in Keelung in 1969. At the time it was the largest bulk carrier to have been built in China. Eddie S.S, Co. is run by a descendant of Charles Eddie Hsu (see 'Chinese' page) and features on the 'New Wave' page.

GOLDEN ALPHA

JEANNIE

There are other companies which we are working on, but have not yet covered. These include those operating the first steamships on the Changjiang (Yangtse) River in the 1860s such as Dent & Co., Lindsay & Co., and Augustine Heard & Co., the famous Dollar Line, the large Ming Sung Industrial Company which came to dominate Upper River shipping in the 1930s and the secondhand breakbulk cargo ships of China Ocean Shipping Co. (COSCO). Some relevant illustrations follow.

Shown below in a newly identified photograph at Pyrmont in Sydney prior to leaving for China in 1861 is the GOVERNOR GENERAL, a walking beam side-wheeler built at New York in 1848 as the NEW ORLEANS. The ship is described as having a reddish funnel with black top, cream superstructure and three buff masts. In April 1861 it was only the third merchant steamship and first British-flag merchant ship to reach Hankou (Hankow), flying the houseflag of Dent & Co. (SLNSW IR238236). Some years earlier this ship is believed to be only the third ship to cross the Pacific eastbound by steam, departing San Francisco on 11 March 1853 and arriving at Brisbane on 14 May.

GOVERNOR GENERAL

Dollar Line's oceangoing ships were complemented by the company's Changjiang (Yangtse) steamers and Shanghai harbour craft. Shown below is the well equipped tender DOLLAR of 1926 which carried American tourists, military personnel and ships' crew from Dollar ships at their anchorages to the Shanghai Bund (SK*).

DOLLAR

Next is a photo of the Melchers & Co. German-flag Lower Yangtse River steamer MEI LEE of 1900 which later passed to China Merchants S.N. Co. (Internet). We intend to cover the many smaller Yangtse ships of the prewar Ming Sung company, as well as the post-1950 Changjiang (Yangtse) Maritime Bureau's small fleet of REN MIN cargo ships. Beneath is Chris Mackey's view of REN MIN 1 ("Peoples No.1"), thought to have been a rebuilding of Standard Oil Co.'s Yangtse steamer MEI CHUEN of 1923.

MEI LEE

REN MIN 1

When China Ocean Shg. Co. (COSCO) was established in 1961 one of the first ships acquired, illustrated below in a Mike Lennon photo that we have colorized, was the former HIGHLAND PRINCESS, built in 1930, which was renamed GUANGHUA and based in Guangzhou. It soon made voyages to Indonesia, Yemen, and East Africa, and seems to have had a long life, the Miramar database indicating it was not broken up until 1992. We plan to publish a list of the passenger ships and breakbulk cargo ships acquired by COSCO. We have already published an illustrated list of COSCO ships built in China, accessible via the PRC tab.

GUANGHUA

The next photo is a COSCO cargo ship, the US-built 'Liberty' JIADING at London in March 1967 during China's Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution. The slogan above the bridge says "Chairman Mao Zedong's thoughts guide great red navigation". The ship's original name was AMELIA EARHART and it was acquired by a PLC-affiliated Panamanian company in 1951 and renamed MODENA. However, the next 14 years were spent under the Polish flag as PRZYSZLOSC, owned by Chinese Polish Joint Stock Shipping Company (Chipolbrok) which until 1977 was a clandestine operation. A Chipolbrok history and fleet list can be accessed from the PRC tab. JIADING's last reported voyage was in June 1967. The photo was kindly provided by Peter Fitzpatrick from his collection, with the help of Malcolm Cranfield.

JIADING

A beautiful five-hatch cargoliner was COSCO's SHAN YIN, built in 1961 as TANGANYIKA of DAL Deutsche Afrika-Linien GmbH & Co. of Hamburg. In 1971 she passed to the Chinese-owned Somali-flag Yick Fung Shg. & Enterprises Ltd and was renamed INDIAN OCEAN before passing to COSCO in 1974 and serving them for eighteen years. Her identical sister TRANSVAAL similarly became PACIFIC OCEAN and then PING YIN (photo by Donald Anderson at Hong Kong). We have studies covering Yick Fung and the rather similar Ocean Tramping Co. which are accessible via the PRC tab.

SHAN YIN

Beneath are two breakbulk COSCO cargo ships which will feature in future lists. First is the six-hatch LONG TAN, built in 1958 as the MISSISSIPPI LLOYD of Koninklijke Rotterdamsche Lloyd N.V. and acquired in 1982. The photograph was taken by Graham Thursby at Hong Kong in April 1982, but there are no known reports of her being seen after this time, and she was probably soon broken up at Guangzhou. Beneath is Donald Anderson's photograph at Hong Kong in 1990 of HE TIAN, built in Pakistan to a likely Chinese-influenced design but she was the only COSCO ship of this exact type. On the PRC page we have a full illustrated listing of all 57 traditional-type cargoliners built in the PRC for COSCO.