Junks and sampans of the upper Yangtze
Shanghai: Statistical Department of the Inspectorate General of Customs, 1940. First edition, China. The Maritime Customs. III.--Miscellaneous Series: No. 51; 4to, pp. [xii], 97, [1]; map and 45 plates, some folding; original black cloth-backed printed yellow paper-covered boards; boards soiled, extremities rubbed, one internal gathering sprung, all else good, clean, and sound. The plates are primarily lines drawings, with scales. Worcester was an officer of the River Inspectorate, and for 30 years was employed in the Chinese Maritime Customs, and produced a total of five volumes on the watercraft of the Yangtze. This copy with an interesting American provenance: Captain C. E. Coffin of the U.S. Navy whose ownership signature is on the front pastedown in both English and Chinese. Coffin (b. 1906) was later awarded the Bronze Star for action taken against the Japanese forces at Okinawa in 1945. But prior to that, in 1933-34 he was Gunnery Officer and Landing Force Officer of USS Guam of the Yangtze Patrol Force, and later, in August 1937, he joined USS Tutuila of the Yangtze Patrol Force. He served as Executive Officer and had additional duty as Armed Guard Officer in Socony-Vacuum M. V. Mei Lu on the Upper Yangtze. In February 1939 he was detached from USS Tutuila at Chungking and proceeded overland with a Chinese Army transportation unit to Kunming, where he took the narrow-gauge railroad for the Indochina port of Haiphong. In March 1939 he reported to the American Embassy in Peiping, China, for instruction in the Chinese language (see www[.]history/navy/mil). Captain Coffin has also been awarded the Yangtze Service Medal, the China Service Medal, and the Special Brest Order of Yun Hui with Ribbon, by the Government of China. Item #68091
Price: $650.00
