THE year 1899 saw me back in Shanghai, but this time in command of the Kai Pan. There was plenty for me to do in the way of survey work in the estuary of the Yangtze, visits to light stations, and entertaining my friends on board.

Mrs. May returned from a visit to Canada on a Canadian Pacific liner, which was too large to come further than the Yangtze River outside the mouth of the Whangpo River off Woosung. As I was uncertain whether Mrs. May would come to Shanghai by the tender or not, I arranged with friends to look after her, ordered a carriage to meet the incoming tender, and asked my second officer — who knew Mrs. May — to meet the tender and, in case she did not come, to call off the arrangements for her entertainment.

I then left in the tender and had lunch with Mrs. May on the liner, as she did not want to bring her children to Shanghai or leave them in charge of the stewardess.

On arrival at the ship I met the American family I had got to know while staying at Hong Kong, by name, the Wylies and Miss Drum. They told me that they were returning from a visit to Japan and were going to stay at Shanghai for some days. I put my carriage at their disposal, and gave them a very good time.

Tyler was at this time Coast Inspector in the absence of Captain Bisbee, who was home on leave. I must here mention that Captain Bisbee was an American and the first man to hold the post of Coast Inspector.

He was a fine and particularly capable man with an unusually strong personality. As Tyler had not had occasion to visit the several southern ports, I was instructed to take him to them. He left the Kai Pan at Hong Kong after a visit to Hoihow, and I returned to Shanghai via the ports of Amoy and Foochow, where there was no work for me to do.

The family of the Engineer-in-Chief's wife lived at Amoy, and her youngest daughter was a very pretty girl. I knew she wanted to visit her elder sister at Shanghai, so I offered to take her there. She declined, but said, " If you press me I will come." Knowing my goose would have been cooked if she had come, I said with a laugh, " If I did take you, it would have to be in the foretop! "

At Foochow the Harbour Master's wife asked me to take her, with her daughter (who was engaged to a man there) to Shanghai. The N.E. monsoon was blowing pretty fresh, it being autumn, and as the ladies were bad sailors I told them that as I was in no hurry, I would creep up the coast well in shore and would travel only by day. Even then the ladies did not appear before we had anchored for the night in some sheltered spot.

One day, as we wended our way between some islands near Wenchow, we shoaled our water when in a narrow passage, and when the ladies heard the leadsman give twelve feet, the mother got nervous and came on the bridge. I wished her " Good morning," and laughingly said, " I know what brings you here — you are wondering how much more the water is going to shoal." I went on to explain that there was a mud bottom, the tide was low, that the flood had set in and that there was a rise of some 18 feet, and that as the Kai Pan only drew 10 feet there was no danger of our getting stuck.

This reminds me that on my way to Shanghai from Hong Kong in the April of this year (1889) I had experienced a very strong N.E. monsoon, so had crept along the coast by day to avoid the heavy seas. The Kai Pan was only 135 feet in length and her decks were very low in the water. I had got as far as the islands south of Wenchow one afternoon when the wind moderated; but there were indications of fog about, so, as I was tired of anchoring, I struck out to sea, but we soon got into a very thick fog. In the morning I recognised several hilltops that were to be seen above the fog, so, having fixed my position, I kept on towards the islands that surround the mouth of the Yangtze. It was risky work, as the tides there are very strong, and I only knew that I had passed the island of Tongting, off Ningpo, by the sound of the breakers on its rocky shore.

This was not good enough, so I anchored with a kedge before taking any more risks. It cleared during the night, so I proceeded on my way; but after getting through the Steep Island Pass the fog shut down again, so I anchored near Elgar Island before reaching the next group of islands. It cleared a bit next morning and I saw two Chinese cruisers anchored near me.

As there was still a lot of fog about, I decided to steam to the westward in order to work round to the mouth of the Yangtze by means of the lead, and in doing so did not see the Tungsha lightship till I was some quarter of a mile away. Knowing the locality as I did, the lead served as well, and I arrived at Shanghai two days before the two Chinese cruisers I had seen off Elgar Island; which just goes to prove how useful local knowledge can be.

As the Assistant Harbour Master of Shanghai was going on leave in 1900, I was appointed to succeed him, and in order to learn the work was placed in the office three months in advance.

One night, or rather early morning — for it was three o'clock — I woke up feeling very distressed, as I had an idea that a girl I was very fond of was crying. I got up, dressed, and went to the house where the family lived. The father owned the largest hotel in Shanghai, the Astor House Hotel, and his home was nearby. On the way I passed a party of firemen returning from a fire and on arriving at the house, I found a brougham standing outside and all the lights on in the house, so I thought someone was ill and rang the bell. The door was promptly opened by the boy. I asked him if anyone was ill. He said, " No," and told me that everyone had gone to bed.

Next morning my servant told me that there had been a big fire in the hotel referred to above, which accounted for the firemen I had seen the night before.

Later on my chief told me that he had watched the fire, as he lived nearby, and had stood close to the family of the owner, who were friends of his; and that the only member of the family who was crying was the girl I have just mentioned.

One afternoon at the Shanghai Club I met the Captain of the Irish Eight with another member of the crew, who invited me to have a drink with them. He then asked me whether I would like to take the second man's oar, should he be transferred from Shanghai before the Regatta for which they were then training.

I accepted and said that I had been to Ireland often enough to make a good Irishman, and did not think any more of the matter. Two days later I was at the Rowing Club and was told that the man had left Shanghai, and that I must take his oar in the Regatta.

I rowed in the Irish Eight for three winter seasons, until a new member of the crew objected to a man who was not Irish rowing in the boat.

I then resigned from the Rowing Club, not because I felt hurt at being turned out of the Eight — as they had roped me into it on account of my rowing a strong oar, and not because I wanted to join the crew — but because I thought that the captain of the Club had taken advantage of my good nature in asking me to row three one-mile races in one afternoon, which is a far greater strain than rowing in one five- or six-mile race, as in that case one rows against the same crew the whole time, and reserves one's strength for the final effort. When that effort has to be made three times in succession against three different crews, it is too much of a good thing, especially at thirty-seven years of age.

I now took a small house off the Bubbling Well Road opposite the Racecourse, and my eldest sister, Mrs. Tansley, came out to live with me. Before she arrived, and while my boy (who had been with me since I had taken command of the Kai Pan) was on leave, I ordered a ton of coal, which was piled up in the yard. On inspecting it I told the coolie who had signed for it that he had been cheated, for there was not a ton there, and warned him to be careful another time. The coolie had, I felt sure, received his rake-off from the coalman, but after that I never had another short measure of coal.

The Boxer trouble broke out at Peking in 1900, and Captain Bisbee placed additional buoys in the North Channel to render that approach to Shanghai less difficult for war vessels going to and from the north.

The Ping Ching was ordered to take him, and as I had particularly good eyesight I was called on to accompany Bisbee. We were to have left port at six in the morning, and as Bisbee had been informed, on arriving on board at 5.30 a.m., that Captain Anderson was ill, he awakened me and told me that I had to take command of the ship.

I pointed out that as the captain had to be taken ashore first we would miss the tide, and, moreover, as I was not holding a shore appointment, I would have to receive the Commissioner's authority to take over charge of the ship.

It so happened that visibility was bad, and as none of my officers could carry the marks to fix the new buoys by on their sextants, I had to do it, and so strained my eyes that I lost the sight of my right eye some eight years later, and in 1912 had to undergo an operation of which I will give details later.

During the Boxer trouble, Shanghai was a military camp. Many Chinese and every available European and Japanese answered the call, and we had a very fine show of volunteers to defend the settlement. Troops of all nationalities arrived in transports, and many went to the north and entered Peking.

As I happened to live near the officer commanding the Customs Company — which was a very strong one — I had surprise calls every now and then at about 2 a.m., when I would receive a wad of envelopes. I thereupon put on my uniform, slung my rifle, mounted my bicycle and delivered the envelopes to the several distributing officers living in the different districts, who had each to call their own party. After having done this, I had to call my own party, so I had to know my way about in the dark pretty well. As there were always some people who needed calling twice, I was the last to appear at the muster parade. This work, however, was interesting, for we had to drill and go through firing practice, etc., and go in for large parades, when all the volunteer companies would be inspected.

In 1901 I was made Deputy Coast Inspector, and was sent up the Yangtze in the Chuen Tiao to systematize the lighting of the channels. Captain Bisbee resumed charge and Tyler was put on special work. After Bisbee's death in 1902, Tyler resumed charge. While he was on a visit to Hong Kong, he telegraphed to me and told me that I was to meet Mrs. Commodore Dickenson arriving on the Empress steamer.

On the day she was due to arrive at Woosung, I left word that I was to be notified when the passenger tender was nearing the jetty. It was due at about noon, and at 12.80 I telephoned to our signal station at Pootung Yard to ask whether the tender had arrived, or not, as I had not received any notice of her approach.

The signalman told me that the tender had been at the jetty for twenty minutes! The man who should have told me had forgotten to pass my request on when he went to lunch. I hurried to the jetty — all the passengers had gone, except for an elderly, military-looking man whom I asked about Mrs. Commodore Dickenson.

He told me that he knew that she had expected someone to meet her, but that she had eventually gone off with another lady. As he was going to the Astor House Hotel I accompanied him, and he was kind enough to look in the dining room for me in case she was having lunch there.

As she was nowhere to be seen, I asked him to describe her to me. I then returned to the Customs House in case she had gone there; not finding her I walked along the Bund and had not gone far before I saw four ladies walking together, and as one of them answered to the description given, I spoke to her and she proved to be the lady in question. As the lady who had met her had been the wife of the officer commanding the British cruiser in port, and had given her lunch, I was freed from that responsibility, so fixed a time when we could meet and then took her to see some relations of her husband's whom I knew. We then went to the Country Club in the Bubbling Well Road, after which I saw her off by a tender in which she returned to her steamer at Woosung.