Tod & Macgregor Shiplist
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Yard No.: |
49 |
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Name: |
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Year: |
1848 |
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Description: |
Paddle Steamer |
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Webpage: |
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Picture: |
See Below |
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Tonnage: |
348¹ |
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Length: |
170 |
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Width: |
22 |
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H.P.: |
150² |
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Type: |
Iron. One side lever engine² |
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Customer: |
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Fate: |
Sunk 5th October 1859 in a storm off Hong Kong¹ |
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Points of Note: |
Built for the Canton & Hong Kong Route. |
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Date of Launch: |
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Notes:
In 1848 P. & O. sent out a small steamer, the Canton, of 400 tons and 150 H.P., to act as a branch or feeder steamer between Hong Kong, Macao and Canton and sufficiently well armed to defend herself against the pirate junks which infested the Canton River. She was placed in service without any mail contract or payment, but sufficiently paid her own way as a feeder to the main liners.
Although the smallest ship in the P. & O. fleet, and a baby compared to the 1,000 to 1,800 tonners they were employing, the Canton became the more popular after an early exploit in China waters. The weaponry carried on Canton to fight off Canton River pirates was "two 32 pounder guns, 30 muskets, 30 cutlasses, and 30 pairs of pistols" [Encyclopaedia Peninsular].
In September 1849 she brought into sight the sailing warship HMS Columbine lying becalmed with a number of pirate junks, she had been chasing, slowly but surely making their escape by the use of their long sweeps manned by relays of rowers from their heavy crews.
The Canton came up with the warship, threw a line aboard, and getting her under tow dragged her off in pursuit of the junks. After towing her to within effective range, the Canton cast off and the warship’s guns speedily reduced the pirates to wreckage and surrender.
(The Canton took the Columbine’s wounded back to Hong Kong, earning the Navy’s thanks, but not much else³)
The Canton and Hong Kong merchants were more ready to trust their goods to the Canton, not only because she carried guns and a well armed crew as a protection against the pirate junks, but also because a steamer had the additional and almost unbeatable weapon of scalding steam to repel boarders. It only needed a hosepipe connecting up with the boiler to shoot out a jet of steam that no flesh and blood could face and live.²
The Canton, after her success with the pirates, hit an uncharted rock in the Canton River and lay there, badly holed and exposed to the weather, for eight weeks before P. & O. got her off (on the 15th of March 1851) and took her back to Hong Kong – an admirable advertisement for iron ships.³
² [One Hundred Year History of the P. & O., Boyd Cable]
³ [The Story of P. & O., Howarth & Howarth]