In Search of the Larpent’s Survivors –Hazards and Securities of Sailing about Taiwan

In Search of the Larpent’s Survivors –Hazards and Securities of Sailing about Taiwan

The British bark Larpent left Liverpool for the Far East in May 1850, and was lost in the China seas the year next. Three of its survivors were rescued, and both Great Britain and the United States sent agents to search other possible survivors in Taiwan. The efforts of the British and the Americans have produced a bundle of information about the sailing issues near the island. The paper will explore these materials, and in the meantime, trace the few earlier European observations about the sailing conditions by or around the island, such as the records Lord’s Anson’s and De la Perous’s voyages. The Larpent event, in fact, has something to do with the overture of lighthouse building in and around Taiwan Straits in the second half of the 19th century. By studying the sailing facilities in the Taiwan area before the mid-nineteenth century, the paper will also trace back the pagodas and old-style lighthouses used by the Chinese to guide navigators in the 16-18th centuries.

Kuo-tung Chen

The Museum of Underwater Archaeology

2017

Kuo-tung Chen

English