怡和、馬瑟森公司
JARDINE, MATHESON and COMPANY
Jardine, Matheson Co.,/Indo-China S.N. Co. 怡和洋行
Shanghai Steam Navigation Co. Ltd.
China Merchants Steam Nav. Co., Shanghai 招商局輪船公司
China Navigation Co. Ltd, London
San Peh S.N. Co., other Yu Ya-ching companies, Shanghai 三北輪埠公司
In the 1860s the British-flag Jardine, Matheson & Co. and the U.S.-flag Shanghai Steam Nav. Co. managed by Russell & Co. became the largest two steamship companies on the China coast (and Yangtse River). A change came in the early 1870s when the Chinese government established China Merchants S.N. Co. with a monopoly on Chinese flag steam shipping. At the same time the British entreprenuer John Swire established China Navigation Co. which essentially defeated Shanghai S.N. Co., the remnants of which were taken over by China Merchants. Following the lifting of the state monopoly on Chinese steamships, Ningpo entrepreneur Yu Ya-ching established the largest private Chinese company, San Peh. S.N. Co. and took over or established several other companies.
Jardine Matheson & Company, London
YUEN WO
Jardine, Matheson & Co., London, undertook China coastal and river operations from 1852, including as:
China Coast Steam Navigation Company (1873-81)
Yangtze Steam Navigation Company Ltd (1879-81)
Indo-China Steam Navigation Company Ltd (1881-1976)
The first three PDFs are our full illustrated fleet lists of the Jardine, Matheson & Co. powered ships (initially published in 1973). The first covers the pre-World War II coastal and Bengal etc. route fleets, the second covers the corresponding postwar fleet and the third PDF details the Yangtse fleet. The fourth PDF covers the atypical career of a single ship, EASTERN TRADER of The final PDF is a dissertation (no illustrations) "SAILING THE CHINA SEAS: THE INDO-CHINA STEAM NAVIGATION COMPANY 1881 – c.1939" by Captain Peter Ballantyne. Kindly provided with his permission, it outlines the history of the company and provides much useful information.1959.
EASTERN QUEEN
Illustrated here are the Indo-China Steam Navigation Company's Changjiang (Yangtse) Lower River steamer YUEN WO of 1884, at that time the largest merchant ship built in the Far East (Chinese School painting, SK coll.), and express Calcutta steamer EASTERN QUEEN of 1950, designed by interred Jardine staff in a prison camp and depicted at Sydney later in her career (Roger Martin/NAA). The Australian merchant ensign rather than the national flag at the foremast indicates that the master is an Australian merchant mariner.
FLEET LISTS & THESIS (PDF FORMAT)
A company whose ships and wharves were subsumed by the Indo-China Steam Navigation Co. was the German-managed Trautmann & Co. (1863) for which the fleet list is included in the FOREIGN section.