Talk:Junk Keying
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What happened next to the Keying? Did it sink or otherwise disappear?
[edit] Keying...the end of the story...
Keying was sold for breaking to the firm of Redhead,Harland and Brown ( so far I dont have the date) Last U.k. reference to her found ....last three weeks before leaving for foreign ports from the Mesey river,September 29.1851....research ongoing in Guangzhou,assistance in english,mandarin or cantonese much appreciated. tony.edwards3@ntlworld.com
[edit] Revised
Two points:
1. The following text, taken from: 'Sea Quest' by Charles A. Borden. Philadelphia: McRae Smith Co., 1967, shows the performance of the Keying in a bit less bright light. I going to slightly revise the text in that sense.
2. From Feb 17, 1848 (leap year) to March 15 are 27 days voyage in my book.
Keying
The history of transocean junk voyages made by Westerners is a long one. Best known to early Americans and Europeans was the Keying, a three-masted, 750-ton Foochow trading vessel. First to make the voyage from China to America and on across the Atlantic to Europe under sail, the Keying was visited by Queen Victoria and other members of the royal family soon after her arrival in the Thames on March 28, 1848. Keying (160-ft. LOA, 25-ft. 5-in. beam, 12-ft. draft) was purchased at Canton by twelve Englishmen, who manned her with the help of twenty-six Chinese under a Chinese captain. Her main deck "was arched," she had a raised quarter-deck, two poops, and a raised forecastle. Her foremast mea¬sured 75 feet, main mast 90 feet, and her matting mainsail was said to have a spread of 11,000 square feet. To avoid the Chinese law against the sale of a junk to a foreigner, at that time a capital offense, Keying departed quietly under Chinese colors, ostensibly for a coastwise yachting cruise. She carried the Treaty Port flags of Canton, Ningpo, Shanghai, Amoy, and Foochow, and at the masthead a long fish vane indicated "good luck to Keying." The century-old junk cleared Hong Kong December 6, 1846, and had an easy passage to the Java Sea and Sunda Strait. In the Indian Ocean off Mauritius she weathered a severe southwesterly gale, the worst of the voyage. The Cape of Good Hope was rounded, and Keying made St. Helena April 17. Though bound for England, owing to strong head winds encountered after leaving St. Helena and to the mutinous state of the crew, course was changed for New York, where she arrived July 9. After some months in New York and Boston, Keying cleared for England February 17, 1848. A hard passage was had all the way across. A very strong gale on February 28 washed her two boats away, split the foresail, and dam¬aged the rudder. During the difficult job of repairing the rudder, the second mate was drowned while working over the stem. Weighing approximately 7 1/2 tons, the hardwood ironbound rudder was hung in the Chinese manner without gudgeons or pintles. It drew 23 feet, required two men in fair weather, and in heavy weather had to be worked by a score of men on a luff tackle purchase. Concluding sixteen months of ocean voyaging, Keying arrived off St. Aubin, Jersey, on March 15, having made better time on her transatlantic crossing than the regular steam packet. From Gravesend she went on up the Thames to London and later sailed to Liverpool and other British ports.
