NAVIGATION IN CHINA.
Inquire · Offered by Peter Harrington
30 Photographs Taken on Accurate Bearings of Some of the Most Important Headlands & Outlying Islands of the China Coast Between Gulf of Pechili and Hongkong. Sole edition, untraced institutionally, the copy of Vice-Admiral Seymour's chief of staff in Tianjin during the Boxer Uprising. This photographic guide is designed for "the navigator of this changeable, and frequently foggy, locality" (preface). We have traced only one other copy, which appeared in commerce in 2017.Navigators in the late Qing period could rely on only a small network of lighthouses and fixed navigational aids when sailing the Chinese coast. "In thick weather even a person familiar with the coast is at a loss to identify a well-known Islands with its summit" (preface). The thirty views include the Chefoo Bluff in the Pechili Gulf, the waters near the Hieshans Light House (Zhejiang), and Hong Kong's Lamtong Head. A concerted period of lighthouse-building in the 1910s and 1920s obviated the need for further publications of this kind.Provenance: though unmarked as such, this copy was owned by Captain Edward Henry Bayly, C.B. (1849-1904), Commander of the International Forces at Tianjin in June 1900. Bayly had a lifelong career in the Royal Navy. He was promoted to the rank of lieutenant in September 1873, commander in June 1887, and captain in January 1894, having served overseas in numerous ships. Bayly captained HMS Pelorus during the fleet review for Queen Victoria's diamond jubilee in 1897 and, in 1899,
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