1890 Photographs of Steamship and Foreign Estate on Shamian, Canton (Guangzhou), China

One of the Finest Ships in China, in Her Heyday.

This is a remarkable pair of c. 1890 photographs of southern China taken by an unknown photographer. They relate to the PS Hankow, one of the best-known ships of the China Navigation Company, and foreign residences on Shamian, the small island adjacent to Canton (Guangzhou) to which foreigners had been restricted before the First Opium War.

The China Navigation Company and the P.S. Hankow

The top photograph depicts the PS Hankow, a showcase steamer of the China Navigation Company, which was founded in 1872 by John Samuel Swire and managed with a business partner as Butterfield and Swire. The company was created to capitalize on the burgeoning steam shipping trade along the Yangtze River, which drastically reduced travel times and allowed for large cargos and numbers of passengers. Utilizing Mississippi River-style paddle steamers to navigate the river's complex interior routes, the company had aggressively expanded by the mid-1880s to dominate coastal trade between ports like Shanghai, Hong Kong, Ningbo, and Tianjin. Despite fierce competition with rivals like the state-backed China Merchants Steam Navigation Company, by the mid-1890s, the China Navigation Company fleet grew to thirty vessels and operations had expanded beyond China into Southeast Asia. The company still exists today as a holding company based in London with merchant shipping subsidiaries Swire Shipping and Swire Bulk.

The PS Hankow was an iron sidewheel paddle steamer built in 1873 by A. and J. Inglis in Glasgow. Launched specifically for the Yangtze trade, the Hankow was a substantial vessel of over 3,000 tons, designed to handle the river's unique navigational demands. In 1886 (when the photograph is dated), it was reassigned to the lucrative Hong Kong-Canton route to serve the increasing passenger traffic in the Pearl River Delta. Its storied career met a tragic end on October 14, 1906, when a devastating fire broke out while the ship was docked at the Canton Steamer Wharf in Hong Kong. The disaster resulted in the loss of approximately 130 lives and left the ship a gutted shell. Following the fire, the Hankow was towed back to the Yangtze and stripped of its engines to serve as a floating storage hulk (godown) in various ports, including its namesake city of Hankow, before finally being destroyed by Allied bombing during World War II.

Foreign Residences on Shamian

The verso photograph depicts a group of foreigners - three adult men, a child (and a dog) - outside a luxurious colonial-style residence on Shamian Island in Canton (Guangzhou). For much of the Qing period, foreign traders were restricted to residing and conducting business on Shamian, being forced to operate through designated Chinese trading houses (hongs/ hang 行) who then sent a tax on the trade to the Qing government. Following the First Opium War (1839 - 1842), Canton was opened to foreign trade and the earlier restrictions were dropped. The British and French divided the island into two foreign concessions in 1859, within which traders and missionaries of other foreign nations (especially the U.S. and Japan) also operated. Soon afterwards, two bridges were built between Shamian and the mainland, but Shamian maintained its own distinct architectural style, colonial layout, and cosmopolitan atmosphere.

Publication History and Census

These images were taken by an unknown photographer, who was likely French given the captions. The top photograph is dated to 1886 while the bottom photograph is undated. We have identified no other examples of either photograph.

Condition

Very good. Image represents recto (front) and verso (back) of single card.