Titanic and Chinese Survivors

[douglaslam]

April 10, 2012 marks the centenary of the White Star liner RMS Titanic set sail from Southampton, but never reached its ultimate destination New York. The subsequent sinking of the Titanic is the best known maritime disaster in history. Nothing of the ship has been overlooked by students and keen researchers of the disaster.

There were Chinese seamen amongst the Titanic'c crew who survived the sinking. But little is known of the Chinese survivors. This is due perhaps to the language and distance barriers. Like genealogy search, transliteration of names made tracing them difficult if not impossible. I don't think there was any lack of interest in the part of the researchers because no aspect of the ship's sinking was overlooked.

I first read of the Titanic when I was a little boy in Hong Kong in the mid-1950s. Of course it was in Chinese only. Decades lapsed before I got interested in finding out more from the libraries. This was before James Cameron's movie of the same name. I read every book on the subject from my local and link libraries. The definitive volume I think is still Walter Lord's " A Night To Remember", which set the train ( no pun) in motion.

I also read many books on the trans-Atlantic liners before air travel killed them off. Captain Arthur Rostron of the Carpathia, the rescue ship of Titanic's survivors, and his junior officer James Bisset were both later knighted and rose to become commodore of the Cunard Lines. They were inspiring figures in seafaring.

I am always interested in shipping. As a teenager setting sail on a cargo / passenger liner from Hong Kong to Sydney, it was both exciting and somewhat apprehensive. An uncertain future laid ahead of me.

www.clydesite.co.uk/clydebuilt/viewgal.asp?id=19311 This is the MV Changsha, which sets sail on Dec 1961 for Sydney. I was a 3rd class or steerage passenger in the bow cargo hold. Despite the windowless, unventilated and dormitory ( bunk bed) conditions, I had a great time on board ship. There were no recreational facilities for us.

Are there other members who share my interests in shipping and the Titanic?

[geoff]

Hi Doug,

You asked "Are there other members who share my interests in shipping"?

My interest in shipping is as a mode of transport for 4 generations of my ancestors who travelled the Hong Kong to Melbourne & Sydney route.... starting with the "S S Unknown" that transported maternal great grandfather to Melb in 1856 & the "S S Joyce Phillips" that departed HK in Nov 1873 & arrived in Melb late Jan 1874.

Ships such as the .Empire, Changsha, Changte, Australia, Tsinan, Nankin, Eastern, Tanda, & Taiping brought newly married brides to Aust, enabled Aussie born relatives to visit China as well as business trips to China.

[baksha]

Hi All,
I was curious in douglaslam's mention of chinese on the Titanic. So, I searched "Chinese crew on the Titanic" and came up with a great internet site:
www.encyclopedia-titanica.org. This site lists all passengers and crew members alphabetically by name. When you click on the person's name, a biography is given, their status on the ship, their nationality, whether they survived, or whether their body was recovered. There were a group of 8 Chinese seaman on the Titanic and they paid as 3rd class passenger. They were in transit from Southampton... Here is the entry for Chang Chip and the names of his fellow seamen.

"Chip was travelling to New York City with eight colleagues from the Donaldson Line's Anetta. He was a fireman.

While it has been alleged that some or all were stowaways on the Titanic, in fact all eight boarded the Titanic at Southampton as fare-paying third class passengers. Lee Bing, Chang Chip, Choong Foo, Ling Hee, Ali Lam, Len Lam, Fang Lang and Lee Ling travelled together on the same ticket (ticket number 1601, £56 9s 11d)

Chang Chip was rescued (1)"

[douglaslam]

It was the third class passengers, mostly male who did much of the dying in the sinking Titanic. I am surprised so many of the Chinese survived from below decks. The Titanic Historical Society has the last word on the survivors. The THS's band of dedicated researchers and enthusiasts endeavoured to track down every survivor, and I can't remember reading anything about those Chinese tracked down to tell their story.

Geoff, some of the ships you listed sound familiar to me. The Changsha for example had a sister ship, the Taiyuan. They looked almost identical. They were both small, about the 6,000 ton mark.

Unlike the President Lines, which carried much of the post-War Chinese emigrants and returnees to North America, the President Cleveland was enormously larger by comparison. I was onboard the Cleveland to see an uncle off to Vancouver in 1956 or 1957. This uncle was a paper son of my grandfather. He was actually gf's nephew. He took on the identity of gf's youngest son, who ran away to join the PLA.

This was at a time when a crack appeared in the brick wall which barred all Chinese from entering Canada after repealing of the Exclusion Act.

[mingdoi]

Douglaslam, My interest in shipping arose from the tales by my grandma, who sailed from Hoipeng to Singapore. My grandpa was a sailor on those routes, a sui hak, who 'laid the road' before my grandma migrated to Singapore. One day, after the war, my grandpa left and sailed away for good. Heard he sailed off to one of his wife elsewhere. So sad for us, as we only have one wall photo of him.

From this, I always wondered how long it takes for a voyage from Hong Kong to Singapore in the 1930s to 1940s. I'd heard various answers - from a few days, a few weeks, to a month. What do you think?

[chak]

Coming out this year! Chinese Survivors of the Titanic

[douglaslam]

It so happened, today, I heard on radio documentary maker Arthur Jones' talk about his research into the fate of the six rescued Chinese passengers on the Titanic.

The six survivors were probably from Sze Yup, which comes as no surprise. They were invisible for no other reason than racism. The film was a smash hit in China, even bigger than in Western countries. If James Cameron the director had included the Chinese survivors,it would rock the whole of China. People from 1 to 100 would be queuing up to see it.

www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5635393/Six-forgotten-Chinese-survivors-Titanic-featured-new-documentary.html

I await the documentary coming to fruition.