The navigation of this river was then very little known, and there were many difficulties to encounter which have since been removed; under these circumstances, and as the engines of the Robert Lowe were only 80 nominal horse-power, her passage between Shanghai and Hankow, a distance of 608 miles, occupied ten days: one day, however, was lost in changing her propeller, while she had to anchor every night. The current against her averaged three knots an hour, but in some parts ran fully five knots. The least depth of water (the river being then at its ordinary height) found by soundings was 4¾ fathoms on the bar of the Longshan crossing: the average depth being from 8 to 9 fathoms, but, in many places, Captain Congalton did not obtain soundings at a depth of 14 fathoms, and, in long reaches, where the waters were contracted, the depths were from 20 to 30 fathoms.
At Hankow, where the Robert Lowe anchored to receive her cargo (about 300 yards from the bank), the depth of water was 14 fathoms, with a current running at the rate of 3½ knots an hour. The new teas generally arrive in boats (chops) about the 10th of June, and, on the 23rd of that month, she sailed with a full cargo[394] for Shanghai and London. She was fifty-seven hours under weigh on her passage from Hankow to Shanghai; the current, the river being then fuller, running at from four to, in some places, seven knots an hour.
Number of steamers employed on the Yang-tse, 1864, and in 1875.
In 1863-4 there were nine steamers employed trading between Hankow and Shanghai, five British and four American, some of these having a capacity for 2000 tons of tea, and all of them vessels of great speed. Sailing all night as well as during the day, they, in fine weather, made the passage to Hankow in four days, returning under favourable circumstances in less than half that time. Freights then ranged either way, from 3l. to 4l. per ton, treble what they are now, but the current expenses were very heavy, arising from the high price of coal, an increased scale of wages, and exorbitant port charges. Since 1864, the trade has greatly increased both in goods and passengers, large numbers of emigrants are now conveyed in the steamers from the interior to the coast, whence they embark for voyages, many of them so distant as California, the Mauritius, and the West Indies.[395]
S.S. Hankow.
There are few finer steamers to be found in any part of the world than the Hankow[396] (belonging to Messrs. Swire and Company), now employed in the trade of the Yang-tse. (See [illustration, page 471].) Steamers of her type now leave Hankow and Shanghai daily—one despatched by Russell and Company, the other by Butterfield and Swire, by whom the bulk of the carrying trade between these places is now conducted in steamers.
S.S. “HANKOW” AND “PEKIN.”
Chinese Steam Navigation Company.
But the most interesting fact connected with the maritime progress of the Chinese has been the establishment of a line of steam-ships by a company of Chinese merchants, and under their own flag. Although shares are held by the Chinese in many of the other steamers, it is worthy of note that the vessels of this company are owned almost, if not exclusively, by them. But it is still more remarkable, that a scheme for a Chinese naval reserve is now being arranged in connection with the “China Merchants Steam Navigation Company.”[397] It is proposed that each of the larger provinces shall furnish two steamers, and the smaller provinces one, to be added to the fleet of that company, and employed by it while the country is at peace, but to be at the service of the Imperial Government in the event of war.[398] This undertaking, which would appear to have received the approval of the Emperor, will, when complete, consist of twenty-eight steamers, one of which, it is said, has been already ordered in England. It will be, indeed, an era in the history of China when an ancient nation, so exclusive and conservative, substitutes for its junks[399] the steam-ships of modern nations alike for war and commerce.