Under the dragon flag

by James Allan

The vessel belonged to some mandarins at Shanghai, who used it for trading to Cochin-China. It had recently, however, been despatched with a cargo to Cheefoo, had been blown away north by a gale, and forced to run into the harbour at Port Arthur to escape the Japanese. There it had lain until the place fell. The crew numbered fifty-four, all told.

After floating off the sand-bank, and getting an offing, we were within the Gulf of Pechili, and determined to make for one or other of its ports, but on the first day we encountered a very heavy nor'-wester, which blew us far out of the Gulf. When, after lasting a day and a night, the gale abated, we were well down the Yellow Sea, and the skipper, or Ty Kong, whose name was Sam-Sing, determined to hold on for the port where the junk's owners dwelt. I had no objection to make to this, nor had the mandarin, who possessed friends and relatives in the south. The soldiers on board, however, were very discontented and mutinous, and as they considerably outnumbered the crew I began to fear trouble. They were all from northern provinces and had no desire to go south. Their language was scarcely intelligible even to their nominal countrymen. The immense diversity of dialects in China is, in fact, a great hindrance to progress by preventing the unification of the people. After some excited discussion they were prevailed upon to acquiesce by the solemn promise of the mandarin to make arrangements with the authorities for their return to their own parts, or failing that to send them back at his own expense; besides, the representation that to turn north again would most likely end in capture by the Japanese vessels, through whose present cruising-ground the gale had luckily blown us, had great weight.

I was vastly amused, during my voyage in the King-Shing, by the superstitions of her crew. Their devotion to their idols was indeed truly edifying. A religious man, according to his lights, was Sam-Sing, and rigidly punctual in the daily observance of incense-burning, gong-banging, and other rites supposed to be propitiatory of the deity. He was also, however, greatly addicted to opium-smoking, and when under the influence of the drug, of which, as an old stager, he could consume great quantities without being stupefied, the idea of the occult power of the goddess, never absent from his mind, was turned completely upside down. When free from the fumes of opium nobody could have been more respectful to the Josses, but when intoxicated, and with the weather threatening, he openly poured upon them abuse, reviling, and suspicion. He usually started a pipe of opium about noon, and the change in his demeanour came round gradually during the afternoon. In the morning he was sober and pious, in the evening intoxicated and blasphemous, particularly, as I have said, when the weather was bad. "As for that infernal Chin-Tee," he would say in effect, shaking his fist in the direction of the idol, "it's all her fault we're in this mess. What's the use of her—lazy harridan! Much she cares what becomes of us"—and so on till overpowered by excess. When by the next morning he had slept off his debauch, and came round to recollection of his enormities, his penitence knew no bounds; he would prostrate himself in the Joss-house, and in the most abject terms implore forgiveness for his intemperate language over-night. Then he would generally abstain for two or three days, but at the first sign of bad weather, he took to his pipe, and Chin-Tee came in for another blast of abuse. The rest of the crew were always horrified by the shocking impiety of the Ty Kong, and on more than one occasion I really feared that they were about to proceed to Jonahize him. They were by no means all opium-smokers; some of them smoked tobacco, of a vile quality, in metal pipes, with an under-hanging curved portion containing water, through which the smoke passed. The opium-pipe is a quite different thing. It is a reed of about an inch in diameter, and the aperture in the bowl for the admission of the opium is not larger than a pin's head. The drug is prepared by boiling and evaporation to the consistence of treacle. Very few whiffs can be taken from a single pipe, but one is enough to have an effect on a beginner, as I have already described in my own case, but an old hand, like the Ty Kong, can smoke for hours.

The incense burned before the idols consisted mostly of pieces of aromatic wood, called Joss-sticks, silvered paper, and tin-foil. One of their most revered objects was the mariner's compass, and before it they would place tea, sweet cake, and pork, in order to keep it faithful and true! It is well known that the Chinese were acquainted with the phenomenon of the magnetized needle centuries before it was known in Europe, and their compass differs materially from ours; instead of consisting of a movable card attached to the needle, theirs is simply a needle of little more than an inch in length balanced in a glazed hole in the centre of a solid wooden dish, finely varnished. It has only twenty-four points, and with its use they combine some of their most ancient astrological ideas. The broad circumference of the dish is marked off into concentric circles, inscribed with mystical figures. We say the needle points to the north; they hold that the attraction is to the south, and therefore colour that end of the needle red, a hue that appears to have a mysterious efficacy in their eyes. I have already told how the Josses were wrapped in red scarves, and bits of red cloth were tied on the rudder, cable, mast, and other principal parts of the vessel, as safeguards against danger. There was also a large painted eye on either side of the bow, to enable the junk to see her way! At first I could not understand the meaning of this, and told Chung to ask the Ty Kong for an explanation. "Have eye," translated Chung, "can see; no have eye, no can see." On occasions of special religious demonstration these optics were decorated with strips of red cloth. On one occasion when a steamer suspiciously like a Japanese cruiser hove in sight, they tied red rags to their antique guns, or gin-galls, and with this consecration on their defensive arrangements, seemed to feel perfectly secure. I suppose the English-trained crews of their navy must have been persuaded out of these amazing notions, and taught the European compass, but the ideas of Sam-Sing and his merry men were as old as their vessel.

I have not yet described my mandarin friend. His name was Ki-Chang; he was a mandarin of the fifth class, his distinctive mark being a crystal button on the top of his cap. He was forty-six years old, intelligent, amiable, and gentlemanly. He and I had much intercourse during the voyage, with Chung for an interpreter. I taught him a little English, and how to write his name in English, an accomplishment of which he seemed extremely proud. Like most of the educated Chinese, he wrote his own language very beautifully. He was a wealthy and influential man.

The King-Shing showed herself a remarkably good sea-boat, but desperately slow. No device could get more than eight knots out of her, and this was much above her average. We encountered one or two violent storms, in which she behaved wonderfully. One night the wind, after veering all round the compass with vivid lightning and thunder, settled in the south-west and blew a perfect hurricane. All sails were lowered, except half the fore-sail, and twenty-five men were required at the mammoth rudder. We were obliged to start some eight tons of water out of the deck tanks, and everything on deck, fore and aft, was secured. The junk laboured heavily, but shipped no water. At day-break the weather moderated, and we were able to set more sail; but in two or three hours the wind chopped round to the north-west, and blew more fiercely than ever, attended by squalls of hailstones as big as marbles, the knocks of which made my countenance look as if I had come off second-best in a middle-weight "scrap." We lowered the main-sail again, and set four reefs of fore-sail to scud under. At three o'clock the vessel took a tremendous lurch, and washed away our lee-quarter boat. It was dark, and the sea barely discernible at a distance of thirty yards, being blown into a thick mist. At six the hurricane continued with unabated fury with terrific squalls; a fearful sea struck the ship and nearly broached her to. The sea was a mass of foam, and running very high, but kept down to some extent by the violence of the wind. Later we were running under bare poles. Again the gale went down, and again we got up sail, but without warning a tremendous squall struck us and laid us on our beam ends. A boat was blown away, the fore-sail split, and through the carelessness of the men at the rudder they jibed the main-sail; it came over with terrific force, but fortunately did no harm. Luckily the sails could be very easily and rapidly lowered. One only had to let go or cut the halyards and down they came. Throughout all this the junk behaved in a manner which astounded me. She actually never shipped any water, that which came aboard being tops of seas blown off. But the very qualities which made her so steady-going militated against her speed. She was a safe boat at all points. One night we had to anchor off a dead lee-shore; the crew decorated their cables with some extra red rags, and with death grinning under our lee, went to supper with a serenity which I should have been glad to be able to imitate. But their confidence was as well grounded as their anchors, which held with an unshakable tenacity.

Though so long acquainted with the compass, the Chinese have always been as unenterprising in sailoring as in everything else, and seldom lose sight of the land, if they can help it. Their fondness for hugging the coast was very noticeable to me, and, unused to the constant vigilance and care which a long sea voyage demands, their system of duty was very lax and careless. There were no proper watches; at nightfall the Ty Kong used quietly to lower about three reefs of the main-sail and the whole of the mizzen. All the crew would then go to their cabin, leaving the helmsmen alone on deck. At midnight a supper was prepared, and the sleepers awakened. The meal ended, the helm would be relieved and the men retired to their berths again.

At this rate it may be supposed that we made slow progress, and more than one incipient mutiny had to be dealt with, some of the crew refusing to work, and the soldiers complaining on the far from unreasonable ground that they had not enough to eat. We spoke several northward-bound vessels, both native and foreign, to whom we wished to entrust the discontented warriors, but these ships one and all gratefully but firmly declined the compliment. By dint of necessity, aided by the mandarin's promises, we struggled along, and as everything must come to an end some time or other, we reached our port at the beginning of January.

I have little more to add. Ki-Chang showed himself grateful, and not only entertained me royally, but gave me substantial pecuniary aid, a thing I was in very pressing need of. Of course I have long since repaid his loan.

I obtained a passage in a French steamer to Callao, whence I made my way overland to San Francisco. I called on Mr. H——, who informed me that the Columbia (not then in port) had made another successful trip, but with results so diminished in the pecuniary sense that he had determined not to risk her again for inadequate profits. Columbia, I may say, was not the steamer's real name.