1949 年 10 月之前在沿海运营的其他中国轮船公司

CHINESE COASTAL STEAMSHIP COMPANIES to 1949

The Chinese government-owned Imperial Maritime Customs later Chinese Maritime Customs was established in Shanghai in 1854 to collect on behalf of the Imperial Government the reparations sourced from tariff revenues due under the ‘unequal treaties’ that had been imposed at the end of the First Opium War in 1842. A fleet of steamships to enforce Customs regulations was developed flying the Chinese flag but, like the Customs bureaucracy, with foreign officers under contract. In due course a Marine Department was formed as a coastguard to improve the safety of navigation along the treacherous China Coast by constructing lighthouses and installing buoys beacons. Subsidiary activities were anti-smuggling and anti-piracy patrols, for which purpose and also for self-defence the vessels carried light armaments and were in most cases equivalent to gunboats but were referred to as ‘revenue cruisers’. The vessels policed and mapped the China coast and major rivers inland including the Songhua (Sungari) and also assisted with rescue and salvage. Although these steamers were ubiquitous on the China coast and often part of ceremonial events such as fleet reviews, they are little documented, not generally appearing in Lloyd’s Register, maritime directories or navy lists. The list in the PDF file is an attempt to provide a record of the larger vessels, but still lacks information so contributions of relevant data and/or images would be much appreciated. The two vessels depicted below are a LIKIN class (1888) revenue cruiser (Chinese school painting in HKMM) and the HAI HSING (1924) depicted in a review at Shanghai about 1946 (Internet image).