X is for destruction of a piratical fleet near Xiānggǎng (Hong Kong)

My fourth great uncle Karl Heinrich August Mainwaring  was the tenth of the seventeen children of Rowland Mainwaring (1783-1862), eldest of the eight children of Rowland's third wife Laura Maria Julia Walburga Chevillard (1811-1891).

Karl Mainwaring was born 4 September 1837 at Mannheim in Germany. He died 21 August 1906 at Saint Helier, Jersey.

On 19 September 1856 Karl Mainwaring appointed as lieutenant in the Royal Navy.  From 1874 to 1893 Karl Mainwaring was harbour master in Kingston, Jamaica. He retired from the navy with the rank of captain.

In 1866 Lieutenant K.H.A Mainwaring was stationed in Hong Kong with the China Squadron on  HMS Princess Charlotte.   

Xiānggǎng is the modern transcription of 香港 , Hong Kong, 'fragrant harbour'.

HMS Princess Charlotte painted 1838 by James Kennett Willson from Wikimedia Commons

HMS Princess Charlotte was a 104-gun first-rate ship launched in 1825. Once the the flagship of the Mediterranean Fleet, from 1858 until she was sold in 1875 the Princess Charlotte was used as a receiving ship, a harbour-bound hulk used for stores and accommodation in lieu of a permanent shore base.

Kellett’s Island, looking west across Wanchai towards Central and the Peak, with HMS Princess Charlotte on the right (1869 - 71). Retrieved from Cheung, Tim. "Maritime Museum to Show Historical Pictures of HK." Artinfo. BlouinArtinfo Corp., 15 Jan. 2014. W <http://hk.blouinartinfo.com/news/story/983316/maritime-museum-to-show-historical-pictures-of-hk>.

Hong Kong Harbour about 1868 from The China Magazine Midsummer Volume 1868, page 88,  digitised by Google books.  The view possibly shows Signal Hill.

In July 1866 Lieutenant Mainwaring was given charge of HMS Opossum.

In 1865 HMS Opossum had been engaged in attacks on Chinese pirates in co-operation with the fleet of the Manchu Qing government. The attacks were reported in The Illustrated London News of 23 October 1865.

'Expedition against the Chinese Pirates' from The Illustrated London News of 23 October 1865 page 409 with illustration: Fleet of Chinese junks, with HMS Opossum, preparing to attack pirates at How-Chow. Retrieved from thegenealogist.co.uk

On 18 July 1866 HMS Opossum, commanded by Lieutenant Mainwaring, together with HMS Osprey attacked pirate vessels in Sama Bay, now known as Sanya Bay on Hainan Island, 250 miles south-west of Hong Kong. The British destroyed 22 Junks and 270 cannon and killed about 100 men.

HMS Opossum was a wooden screw gunboat of the Albacore class which carried about 38 crew and four guns. (In the 1866 Navy List, the Opossum is listed as a tender to the Princess Charlotte and Mainwaring is in charge of the Haughty, also an Albacore class wood screw gunboat.) HMS Osprey was a Vigilant class gunboat with about 80 crew and four guns.

H.M.S. Osprey and H.M.S Opossum destroying Chinese pirate junks in Sama Bay from The Illustrated London News of 29 September 1866, page 313, retrieved from the genealogist.co.uk

The attack on the pirates was reported in The Illustrated London News of 22 September 1866 and followed up with an illustration the following week.

"Piracy in the Chinese Seas" from The Illustrated London News 22 September 1866 page  291 retrieved from the genealogist.co.uk (click on image to enlarge)

The 1866 engagement with the pirates was widely reported. The following account is from the Melbourne Leader.

DESTRUCTION OF A PIRATICAL FLEET BY H. M. SHIPS OPOSSUM AND OSPREY. (1866, September 29). Leader (Melbourne, Vic. : 1862 - 1918), p. 17. Retrieved from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article196560667

Related posts

• D is for Dartmouth: Guy Mainwaring and the beagle pack concerning Karl's younger brother Guy
• In 1869 Karl's brother, Guy Mainwaring, visited Hong Kong when he served aboard the Galatea: Trove Tuesday: Cricket and the Duke of Edinburgh's visit in 1867

Further reading

• HMS Osprey and HMS Opossum destroying Chinese Pirate Junks in Sama Bay. Illustration for The Illustrated London News, 29 September 1866 [graphic]. Research | CSSC Maritime Heritage Resource Centre | Search Result :: Hong Kong Maritime Museum. Retrieved 26 Apr. 2017 from http://www.hkmaritimemuseum.org/eng/research/cssc-maritime-heritage-resource-centre/search-result/30/50/1956/hms-osprey-and-hms-opossum-destroying-chinese-pirate-junks-in-sama-bay-illustration-for-the-illustrated-london-news-29-september-1866-graphic.html

X is for Excellence in Hands-Across-the-Seamanship, another tale from his misspent youth...

X is for Excellence in Hands-Across-the-Seamanship, another tale from his misspent youth...
(Contribution from a guest blogger)


Words starting with 'x' are rare in English, but lots and lots of Chinese place-names start   with 'x' in the pinyin system of romanisation so if these are allowed finding an 'x' for a blog-post title is actually a doddle.

There's Xianggang (Hong Kong), Xi'an (an ancient capital), and Xining (a province) just for starters.

But choosing one of the many Chinese Xs would be taking candy off a baby. X in this post is for Excellence Achieved in the Capital of Chinese Inner Mongolia, Hūhéhàotè.

Early morning at a Mosque, Hohhot, Inner Mongolia, China. Image from Wikimedia Commons.

I was there briefly in 1983. One evening, landed in a low boozery by a cascading series of ever-more hazy decisions, I attempted to show half-a-dozen large Mongol lads how Australians could drink beer.

The stuff arrived at the table in a large shared baby-bath. You had a pannikin each and you all dipped in, and kept dipping, while your drinking mates cheered you on. This was an entertaining and efficient way of taking beer on board, and by the time we'd reached the bottom of the bath I was feeling splendid, surging with affection for Mongolia and Mongolians, who were plainly a magnificent body of men and women, with a marvellous history and culture and sense of humour and recreational facilities and beer.

International honours stood, I thought, at Mongolia v. Australia one all.

This was premature. It emerged that the baby-bath was just one shout, which meant that at the end of the beer round we'd each drunk a bathful.

By that stage, even though we didn't understand a word of each other's language, the boozery had reached unprecedented levels of Mongolian-Australian amity. To celebrate, we started some serious drinking. This time it was maotai, varnish-remover liquor distilled from sorghum.

Henry Kissinger is supposed to have said that all the world's problems could be solved if people would drink enough maotai. After half a dozen bottles most of our problems had indeed been washed away. A few new ones had emerged though. Someone had replaced my legs with rubber replicas and the little man inside my head responsible for the video was having continuity problems.

In the international competition, a Lay-down Sally Robbins was urgently required. Making a close but rather random inspection of the Hūhéhàotè urban landscape, particularly its drainage facilities, I traced a tired and emotional path back to the hostel where I was staying. There I found that some fool had increased the slope of the staircase to the angle of Mount Everest. I defeated this by hauling myself hand over hand up the banisters, celebrating the tactical success in a hearty bass baritone.

The next day I managed to get to the Mongolian grasslands, though with somewhat impaired efficiency. There I undertook to teach my hosts a thing or two about yurts. This also ended badly, Bogged to Buggery in a Bus with a Bunch of Bimbos, a B post, I suppose.

Two yurts (gers) in the mongolian steppe. Image from Wikimedia Commons.

Related post

• U is for uplifted from Uranquinty