The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1884-11-23
THE CHINESE.
What an Old Trading Cap
tain Says.
THEY ARE NOT GOOD SAILORS.
Their Pluck and unks
WOrtlIess-ChineseT rOOps-Stink-
pots as Weapons of War.


Capt. Davis of the steamship PEN
5roEeshire has had years of experience
in trading at Chinese ports, and ha
employed the Cinnamon regularly OF
board his ship in various capacities. Il
speaking Of the characteristics of tn
Chinese when aioat, he said YESTERDAY
that they are unexcelled as fremen OF
board steamers. They work twelve
hours outof twenty flour in the stock
hole, where the temperature averages
over 100 degrees constantly. The labor
of shoveIing coal is very severe. AS
zeamen on deckand aloft they are not
so good. They have the physical
strength TO pull on rope, but they are
not sailors.
"HOW will they compare with French
men in that respect?" was asked.
They are not as good sailors, but
they have greater endurance.
'Have they any pluck?"
Plenty of it in defending them
selves about decks. The white sailors
do not impose on them aboard ship
They can take their own part every
time If you compare them in that
respect with Frenchmen / should say
that in a stand-up fight the Chinaman
would knock out his opponent. But
when YOU come to man and ship with
Chinese and expect them to make
frst-class crew, you find yourself in
bad predicament. The Chinese navy
has no show whatever against the
French. There navy is composed of
two classes of ships, the iron steamers
and the junks. Tho junks are well re-
presented by the pictures you have seen
In books of travel. They are all armed
with six or eight guns each, but what
can they do? So far they have served
rs collins for their crews, who were
drowned after they had surrendered
Many of the iron steamers were built in
England. They were constructed on
excellent principles, and are very fine
ships. They are armed with heavy
mo 1ern guns. White men were en-
gagged to train the crews. But with all
that the ships and the crews are not a
match for the great ironcladS of the
French feet. The number of iron
steamers in the Chinese navy is very
arge. They have launched six or eight
gunboats themselves at Shanghai the
past year, to my knowledge. These
boats were built under the direction of
European and American naval archi-
tects. They are first-class of their kind,
but they are two small. China has no
hope at sea.
Are there many men among the
crews?"
mo. They have never had more
than three or four to ship, say mas
ter, a chief officer, and a gunner.
These have been gotten rid of rapidly
the past year"
What do the Chinese sailors look
Lke?"
The captain called to a passing
officer.
'iSend one of the Cinnamon here" he
said.
Soon a round-faced Celestial. clothed
as If just from a laundry, came trotting !
along and stopped at the door of the !
chart-rOOm where he smiled very cheer |
fully and saluted by bobbing his head |
down and punching his right fore finger |
up past the brim of a blue cloth can |
Then be stood still, with his knees and |
toes turnedin, his hands limp, and with |
the knuckles to the front. and his |
shoulders crowding his lungs very hard. |
The captain laughed. The spectacle
vas comical
''Are all the Chinese sailors like
that!"
He is very good Chinaman. Kong |
Asing can give any white man on the |
SKIP a good tussle if forced to it."
you have seen the Chinese troops?" |
"Yes. They are uniformed in the |
hueS OF the rainbow, besides black and |
white. Imagine 100 laundrymen in |
scarlet blouses and royal-purple trousers
drawn up in line, adjoining them a
company in pure white, then a com |
pany in bright green, and then one in |
light blue, and you have a Chinese regi.
ment. When they walk thew lift IN
their feet like cats in the snow. But in
spite. OF their pecularitieS, they will /
make it warm for the French on Shore. |
Their number is legion, and if their |
officers have proffted at ali by their In /
EtruetiOns they have received in the /
asst twenty years, they will make a good |
light Judge OF their pluck by what I /
have seen of them. On shore, in the I
open field. they viii have some chance !
20 show what thew can do. They will |
light then as they do Singly when forced |
TO il. In those miserable hunks and in /
the small steamers no one could hone !
flying"
DO the Chinese still believe in the |
efficacy of stinkpots2 n
Il think not. 1t is one of the few
weapons they have discarded as relics |
of barbariSm, but there is no doubt but
what they viii strive to strike terror
into the hearts of the enemy by making
loud and unearthly noises, lust as we /
used to read they did in the wars of 100 |
years ago. A description of a battle |
between the Cinnamon and Frenchmen.
il described accurately and in detail, |
would make very interesting reading"
1t is difficult for a show to hire a hall !