The conditions created in China by the present conflict have been responsible for the departure from Swatow of an Ametiean family who had become, asa resident puts ity almost institution in that port. Captain G, St Stocker, went to sea In 1801. inthe Tost days of the sailing ship era and for seven years he was "second mate Ju the American' barque Harry" Morse." For another seven. years he served inthe United States 'Navy and. was present in the Philippine Islands "during the Spanish-Americnn War and the. Pilipino surrection. He" then 'Joined' the. tmperial Maritime Customs "and was wrecked in a preventive schooner during the famous typhoon September 1906, off Stonecutters Island, Hongkong. 'Three years Inter, in command of another "preventive vessel, "he rode Out a disastrous' typhoon off Lintin. slond, "when humorous foreign vessels "were Jost in "and around Hongkong. Leaving the Customs Service 1917, he became a Swatow Bay pilot and marine surveyor, living onan island. at the fentranec to the port. "There he. experienced ihe typhoon of 1922," which ig anid to be the worst ever recorded onthe Chinn coast, and he also was present in Swatow when an carth= quake took a toll of 20,000. lives. In 1013 Captain Stocker married and. all hie children have attended the Shanghai American School. Three of them are still of school, aye and on their return home will continue their studies, ~The trade of Swatow has been rout to an abrupt conclusion since the outbreak of hostilities and pilots ave "eonge= quently temporarily unemployed, One of Captain Stocker's most acute regrets at leaving Swatow, where he and his family have lived for 20 years, is derived from the fact that if he had been able to remain a little longer he could have claimed to have piloted 4,000 ships—he left with just Gvo short of that number Actually he and. his. family have merely gone on leave, but there is every probability of their' remaining in their home-Jand, so that this brief note of his career and the Circumstances of his departure may be of interest (0 a large number of friends who may not have heard of his decision,
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.