Keying (Chinese: , <small>p</small> Qíyīng) was a three-masted, 800-ton Fuzhou Chinese trading junk which sailed from China around the Cape of Good Hope to the United States and Britain between 1846 and 1848. Her voyage was significant as it was one of the earliest instances of a Chinese sailing vessel making a transoceanic journey to the Western world. It served as a cultural exchange and offered Western audiences a glimpse into Chinese maritime traditions and craftsmanship.
History and voyages
Keying had been purchased in August 1846 in secrecy by British businessmen in Hong Kong, defying a Chinese law prohibiting the sale of Chinese ships to foreigners. She was renamed after the Manchu official Keying. Keying was manned by 12 British and 30 Chinese sailors (the latter all Cantonese). She was commanded by Captain Charles Alfred Kellett, also British.
Hong Kong
Keying left Hong Kong in December 1846. Before her departure she was visited by Sir John Davis, the Governor of Hong Kong; Admiral Sir Thomas Cochrane, and officers of the fleet, the Commander-in-Chief and most of the principal residents of the Colony.
Cape of Good Hope and St Helena
She rounded the Cape of Good Hope in March 1847, 114 days out, having been delayed by strong westerly gales, and a severe hurricane.
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Sale and final fate
The Keying was sold to Messrs Crippin & Forster of Rock Ferry, Cheshire and towed from London to the river Mersey by the steam tug Shannon, arriving 14 May 1853. It was moored at the Rock Ferry slipway for public exhibition. On 29 September 1853, Keying was preparing to leave for foreign ports in three weeks. But instead it was dismantled "for research" at the shipyard of Redhead, Harling, and Brown.
The Plymouth and Devonport weekly journal for Thursday, 6 December 1855 reported
:The Chinese junk once a most popular attractive exhibition, is now rotting neglected and uncared for on the shore at Tranmere Ferry opposite Liverpool.
Commemoration
thumb|Large trading junks moored off the waterfront of Guangzhou towards the end of the 19th. Albumen print
A large-scale model of the Keying is on display at the Hong Kong Maritime Museum, at Central Ferry Pier 8. This model was based on contemporary reports and images allied to a comprehensive analysis of traditional Fuzhou junk lines. The model was constructed on a 1 to 12 scale. The model was also intentionally aged to look like a vessel that had seen service prior to is famous journey.
The model is thought by some to be incorrect: the shape of the hull lacks the great curvature which is clearly and consistently shown in some of the many contemporary illustrations of the original vessel. However, the Currier print made at the time (part of the exhibit) does not show this. The exaggerations of other renditions probably resulted from western artists' being confused by the unfamiliar style of Keyings hull, particularly the high 'wings' either side of the bow, typical of the Fuzhou style, and the similarly elevated bulwarks of the poop deck.
The actual sheerline of Fuzhou junks is not so extreme. Much of the confusion with respect to the Keying may come from reported bow and stern heights above the waterline that may have been for the tops of 'wings' and 'poop', not of the weather deck at bow and stern. The exaggerated measurements in most contemporary reports suggest it was the former, not the latter.
The museum model unquestionably fits the accounts of Keyings sea-keeping qualities better than a model with the bizarrely exaggerated curvatures shown in other contemporary illustrations. Such curvature was unknown in similar vessels: the acutely distorted waterlines that would result when heeled would have rendered the vessel unmanageable.
These large trading junks moored off the waterfront of Guangzhou towards the end of the 19th century would have been broadly similar to the Keying and give us a better idea of how she may really have appeared than the contemporary images of her by western artists.
See also
- Tek Sing, a larger Chinese junk sunk in Indonesia during the 19th century
- Princess Taiping, a modern replica of a Ming-dynasty junk that sailed from Taiwan to San Francisco and (almost) back in 2009
Notes
References
- Brouwer, Norman. "New York's Unusual Chinese Visitor & the Junk Keying," Seaport Magazine 14, no. 2 (Summer 1980): 18–19.
- Borden, Charles A.Sea quest: small craft adventures from Magellan to Chichester Philadelphia: McRae Smith Co., 1967,
Further reading
- Davies, Stephen. East Sails West. The Voyage of the Keying, 1846–1855, Hong Kong University Press, 2014.
- Wright, R.N.J. "The Keying Medallions", Appendix 6 in his book The Modern Coinage of China 1866–1949: The Evidence in Western Archives, Spink, 2012.
- Wittman, M., Chinese Junk Keying Medals , Pocket Change (the blog of the American Numismatic Society), 8 April 2015.
- Haddad, John. "A Floating Ethnology: The Strange Voyage of the Chinese Junk Keying" in The Romance of China: Excursions to China in U.S. Culture, 1776–1876, 2008.
External links
- The Waugh painting at the Museum of the City of New York
- Chinese sea travels (German)
- Keying medallions in the Royal Museums, Greenwich
- Keying medallions in the British Museum
- Keying medallions in the American Numismatic Society