The Cruise of HMS Calliope in China, Australian and East African Waters, 1887–1890

This lively 1890 publication includes descriptions of cattle on the gun-deck, naval cookery, bustling ports, and the Sydney centennial celebrations.

Arthur Cornwallis Evans (Author)

9781108045889, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 26 April 2012

170 pages, 1 map
21.6 x 14 x 1 cm, 0.22 kg

Arthur Cornwallis Evans (1860–1935) was chaplain on the steamship HMS Calliope on a three-year voyage to Asia and Australia (January 1887 to April 1890) that covered 76,814 nautical miles (88,395 miles), with more than 500 days spent at sea. He compiled this lively account of the voyage at the request of his shipmates, drawing information from several of their journals, and published it in Portsmouth in 1890 before the crew dispersed. It contains both brief factual entries about the progress of the voyage and more sustained descriptions of life on board ship and in port, including some naval culinary 'delicacies', an encounter with a robber in Hong Kong, the Russian fortifications at Vladivostok, fireworks in Sydney celebrating the centenary of New South Wales, the opening of Calliope Dock in Auckland (still in use today), visits to several Pacific islands, cricket matches and regattas, and an eclipse of the sun.

Preface
1887. Commissioning at Portsmouth and voyage to China via the Cape
The China station
Hong-Kong by night
The Australian station
1888. Auckland
1889. Auckland
Homeward bound
1890. The East Coast of Africa
Appendix.

Subject Areas: Asian history [HBJF]