Empress of China (1783)
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| History | |
|---|---|
 United States |
|
| Name: | Empress of China |
| Builder: | Mr. Peck, Boston, U.S.[1][2] |
| Launched: | 1783[3] |
| General characteristics | |
| Tons burthen: | 360 tons[3] |
| Sail plan: | Full-rigged ship[3] |
| Complement: | 34[4] |
| Armament: | 4 × 6-pounder guns[2] |
Empress of China, also known as Chinese Queen, was a three-masted, square-rigged sailing ship of 360 tons,[3] initially built in 1783 for service as a privateer.[5] After the Treaty of Paris brought a formal end to the American Revolutionary War, the vessel was refitted for commercial purposes. She became the first American ship to sail from the newly independent United States to China, opening what is known today as the Old China Trade and transporting the first official representative of the American government to Canton.[6]
First voyage
The first American merchant vessel to enter Chinese waters left New York harbor on Washington's birthday, February 22, 1784. The Empress returned to New York on May 11, 1785 after a round voyage of 14 months and 24 days. The success of the voyage encouraged others to invest in further trading with China.
The ship's captain John Green (1736–1796) was a former U.S. naval officer, its two business agents (supercargos), Samuel Shaw (1754–1794) and Thomas Randall (1723–1797), were former officers in the U.S. Continental Army, and its syndicate of owners, including Robert Morris (1734–1806) were some of the richest men in the new nation.[7]
Legacy
See also
Notes
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 Tantillo, Len. (2000). "Voyage of the Sloop Experiment," The Hudson River in the Age of Sail (exhibition). Hudson River Maritime Museum.
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ Smith, Philip Chadwick Foster. (1984). The Empress of China, p. 25.
- ↑ US Dept. of State, Office of the Historian: Recognition, Diplomatic, and Consular Relations, 1774-2008: China.
- ↑ Giunta, Mary A. and J. Dane Hartgrove. (1998). Documents of the Emerging Nation, p. 237; Smith, p. xvii.
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
References
- Giunta, Mary A. and J. Dane Hartgrove. (1998). Documents of the Emerging Nation. Wilmington, Delaware: Rowman & Littlefield. ISBN 978-0-8420-2664-2; OCLC 37783076
- Smith, Philip Chadwick Foster. (1984). The Empress of China. Philadelphia: Philadelphia Maritime Museum. ISBN 978-0-913346-09-9; OCLC 11089953
