The Tungus was a vessel of great beauty, and she still is. Her lines are those of a yacht, and when seen in drydock yesterday it did not require the trained eye of a seaman to appreciate their rare moulding.
were all the iron ships built in these days she was given a fiddle bow, from which, however, no longer projects the bowsprit of her early days. Nor was it an ornamental bowsprit, but one for real use, for at the time the Tungus was built complete reliance was by no means placed upon steam. As matter of fact all these early iron ships were in their essence sailing ships, for we read in a work on the subject:—"In all these cases sails were used whenever possible, and there was still great hesitancy in accepting steam engines even as an alternative on occasions to the use of the unbought wind?" The advantage, "however, of a rate of speed which, while slow, would be constant, soon asserted itself." Instead of the short, blunt masts of the present day, we have, accordingly, to picture the Tungus with spars stretching high overhead and big expanse of canvas. Although paddle steamers were much Vogue, the propeller had already cone into its own, and in the case f the Tungus this was driven by one-cylinder engine under high pressure. What that pressure was we have no idea, but it would be ridiculously small in comparison with anything used at the present day. But even with such a low-powered engine, the propeller woud be capable of driving the, Tungus along at a rate of about ten knots, for she was obviously built for speed, Trade in the Far East So far as we are aware Tungus was the name first given to the steamer, and if so it is probable that from the first she was intended for trade with the Tsar's eastern dominions. Tungus is the name of a Mongol race inhabiting a part of Siberia, and that suggests an_intention'to use her in the Far Ea We regret, however, that we have not been able to trace the story of her doings here. For a long time Ressian enterprise endeavoured to build up a substantial trade between China and the Siberian ports, and the likelihood is that she parti cipated in this, ay at one time she was owned by the Vladivostok firm of Denbigh & Ca. otherwise Stavrakov. The efforts to make this trade a large one were never: especially successful, and for years the Tungus used to trade out of Hongkong, carrying rice from Saigon. So long as any of the present residents of Shanghai can remember she has been engaged in the general trade of the coast, both before and after her sale to the Chinese.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.