ON board the Fei Hoo I functioned as third officer and secretary to the Coastguard Commissioner, Captain Clayson, who in 1868 had been in her when she sailed to China from England round the Cape of Good Hope before the Suez Canal had been completed. This was only a temporary job while I was waiting for instructions from Peking.

At the time of my appointment there were five Revenue cruisers detailed for preventive work, besides a large number of steam-launches and one much larger vessel, the Ping Ching, which was commissioned for the sole purpose of tending the several lighthouses and lightships on the coast of China between Newchwang in the north and Pakhoi in the south.

The five vessels doing preventive work were much the same class (and may be compared with them) as small gunboats of about 500 tons, having three masts, with yards on the foremast. They each carried a 80-foot steam-pinnace, a twelve-oared cutter, two six-oared gigs and a dinghy, and had a complement of one European commander, three deck officers and one gunner, with about sixty-two Chinese to fill the remaining ratings. The vessels were well equipped with guns, rifles and small arms, in order to fulfil every function required of a Revenue cruiser. Our heaviest guns fired a four-inch shell.



As I remained in the Chinese Maritime Customs Service for the remaining years of my active career, it would be best for me to describe that Service, as its functions are in some respects unique.

Sir Robert Hart, the then Inspector-General of Customs, had his headquarters at Peking, while his representative, a Commissioner of Customs, functioned at each of the several treaty ports on the coast, rivers, and inland trade routes of China. He worked in cooperation with a Chinese Superintendent — who was the connecting link at each port between the Chinese Government and the foreign-controlled Maritime Customs Service, where the Customs controlled the harbour matters — in addition to collecting the revenue and tonnage dues from vessels visiting or trading in Chinese waters. With the tonnage dues, the Inspector-General maintained a Marine Department which administered the harbours, the lights, and aids to navigation on the coasts and rivers. This, in itself, was a big institution, as the coast of China is about 2,000 miles in length, while its rivers — including the Yangtze and its navigable tributaries, the Sungari River in Manchuria, and the right bank of the Amur River where it passes Chinese territory — also cover about 2,000 miles.

The Inspector-General's delegate in charge of the Marine Department is the Coast Inspector, who, with his headquarters at Shanghai, maintains the lights and aids to navigation, etc., in co-operation with the Engineer-in-Chief, who is in charge of the constructive part of the department. The Coast Inspector also functions in an advisory capacity to the Inspector- General and the several Commissioners of Customs.

The Chinese Post Office now functions on the lines of any post office in Europe, under an Inspector-General of Posts who represents the Chinese Government in that capacity. It may be of interest if I here record the fact that it was the Inspector-General of Customs (Sir Robert Hart), a creative genius, who built up the Chinese Post Office with the several Commissioners of Customs, who functioned as Postmasters until the sister service was ready to be launched as an independent unit of the Chinese Government. This in itself is no mean achievement.

Representatives of the Marine Department surveyed and marked the several rivers; their offices functioned under the Commissioner of Customs of the port at which they were stationed. In China, where the Customs were controlled by a European Chief, it would be impossible for the Marine Department to operate at all without the co-operation of the Commissioner of Customs, quite independently of economic reasons.

My appointment to the Customs dates from the 1st December, 1888. I commanded a Revenue cruiser in 1898, in 1900 I was made Assistant Harbour Master of Shanghai, in 1901 I was made Deputy Coast Inspector, and in 1918 I was made Coast Inspector, and when I reached the age limit of sixty years I retired.

It happened that Captain Clayson celebrated his birthday a few days after I joined the Fei Hoo, by giving a huge luncheon party to the commanders and officers of the five Revenue cruisers, Fei Hoo, Ling Feng, Chuen Tiao, Kai Pan, and Li Kin, then anchored off Lai Cheekok on the northern and Chinese side of Hong Kong harbour. (This area is now within the limits of British waters.) I have never sat at a banquet where more courses were served, and I wondered how the cook of so small a vessel could create so many excellent dishes in his tiny galley.

After lunch, the crews of the five vessels raced one another in their respective boats. The last race was rowed by the officers and caused by far the greatest excitement, and when our boat won, the old Chinese steward of the ship passed round champagne to all present, at his own expense. He considered it a compliment to himself that the guests partook of his sporting hospitality; for, quiet and unassuming as he was, he had the sporting instinct, learned while serving in British gunboats. The last vessel he had served in had been H.M.S. Dove, and he was known ever after as " The Dove."



He, at any rate, is one Chinese who profited by his training in British war vessels, for a more civil and cleanly person I have never met, and his influence over the servants he controlled was excellent.

The Hong Kong Regatta took place a few days after the birthday party, and everyone who had a boat that could sail, entered her for the great sailing race that took place but once a year; and May, my fellow- passenger from Singapore, having no boat of his own in those days, borrowed the Registrar-General's gig and asked me to sail her for him, and I was lucky enough to win the race. But I must say that I felt a bit anxious at times, while sailing this long race in a boat, deeply ballasted with stone, that I had not sailed in before, and in waters that were unfamiliar to me.

However, I pulled the race off, which was the main thing.

After I had been on the Fei Hoo for about a month, I was appointed to the Kai Pan, which was commanded by the man who had been engaged to bring the vessel to Hong Kong a few months previously; and it happened that both the first and second officers were under arrest, so I, though only third officer, ran the ship both on deck and in the wardroom — which rather upset the Chief Engineer, who happened to be a very senior man. My experience in the Indian Marine was very useful. Our ship was one of three new vessels built by Sir William Armstrong, which were well- equipped with up-to-date four-inch Armstrong guns and two-inch Hotchkiss guns.

After some weeks we received instructions to proceed to the Island of Hainan. In the meantime, Captain Stewart had been appointed commander of the Kai Pan. He had commanded a gunboat under the Hoppo of Canton, whose duties were to keep the southern seas clear of pirates, and although he was a charming man, was also a pretty tough customer on occasion. He was the second son of the captain of a whaler, his two other brothers being the first and second mates while he was third mate. On one of their voyages they were wrecked on an iceberg, and he was one of the few who were rescued, having lost all the toes of his right foot through frost-bite. He was a powerful man with a wonderful capacity for whisky, which he drank like water without turning a hair. A favourite trick of his was to invite some friends to dine and drink them under the table with over-proof whisky, which he got in casks direct from the distillers in Scotland.

Much of his time had been spent in watching the doings of junks round the island of Hainan, which may be called the southern end of China, and is an island of some 150 miles in length, separated from the China coast by a comparatively narrow channel called the Hainan Straits. He was therefore the right man to send as the commander of the Kai Pan to these same parts, in company with the Chuen Tiao, commanded by Captain Wyles, to obtain information regarding the movements of junks trading to and from that island.