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George S. Payne 1835-1840 Journals Onboard Niantic (built 1835 ; Ship, 3m)

出版	1835
URL	http://books.google.com.hk/books?id=etGCoAEACAAJ&hl=&source=gbs_api

註釋Four handwritten journals containing the observations and musings of able seaman and second mate George S. Payne while sailing on four year-long voyages from New York City to China and back. The digitally scanned pages of the journals are available for use. Built in 1835 for the mercantile company N.L & G. of Chatham Connecticut, Niantic was put to sea in New York City for the first time in October of that year. Engaged in the China Trade, she made four trips in the second half of the 1830's to the ports of Canton, Whampoa, and Hong Kong in China and Manila in the Philippines, returning to New York after each year-long voyage. The journals written by the young George Payne, show his growth from a naive eighteen year old kid with no sailing experience to five years later, a confident sailor clambering up the masts in a gale to reef sails and repair lines. The journals also describe in intense detail the adventures of Payne and his shipmates on Niantic, including the murder of the Captain's steward by the ship's cook, the dress and religion of the Chinese, the threat of Malaysian pirates, the beauty and terror of an erupting volcano in the Philippines, a devastating outbreak of malaria on the ship, and the tensions between the Chinese and the British Empire surrounding the beginning of the First Opium War in 1840. Payne makes a diary entry about twice a week through the four voyages, noting the weather and the ship's position by latitude and longitude, enabling the reader to feel the voyages as if onboard.