Last Trip of the Yotsai

Daniel Edmund Caldwell is a well-established solicitor in Hong Kong and taking a business trip by harbour ferry to Macao. On the way, the steamboat’s boiler explodes and Daniel is called to act. A note by his grandson, S Frank Bruce states, “Fellow passengers later presented him with a gold watch for his help and initiative during the accident.” Below is an excerpt of the article that appeared in the Second Supplement to the Hong Kong Daily News, Tuesday, March 4, 1884 describing the accident in Daniel’s own words.

“We left Hong Kong about a quarter-past one and proceeded in the direction of Macao by the inner passage. An hour later we sat down to tiffin, which was served in the Chinese saloon aft. The party at table consisted of eleven persons, namely Captain Hoyland, Mr da Costa, Mr. and Mrs. R Fraser-Smith, Messrs. Brewer, Frizell, Scott, Pinker and myself. During tiffin the vessel appeared to me to be going very irregularly as to speed, and there was a great noise of blowing off steam. Mr Pinker rose from the table and went out, I presume to see what was the matter, and shortly afterwards Mr. Brewer followed him. Mr Brewer returned first and made some reassuring remark, and later on Mr. Pinker came back to the table. By that time the noise had ceased.

I was sitting with my right hand side towards the engine. Suddenly I experienced a sensation as if a cannon had exploded in my right ear, and felt some irresistible force pushing me. I immediately lost consciousness and when I again came to I found myself at some distance below the water. Being a swimmer I instinctively turned upwards to gain “We left Hong Kong about a quarter-past one and proceeded in the direction of Macao by the inner passage. An hour later we sat down to tiffin, which was served in the Chinese saloon aft. The party at table consisted of eleven persons, namely Captain Hoyland, Mr da Costa, Mr. and Mrs. R Fraser-Smith, Messrs. Brewer, Frizell, Scott, Pinker and myself. During tiffin the vessel appeared to me to be going very irregularly as to speed, and there was a great noise of blowing off steam. Mr Pinker rose from the table and went out, I presume to see what was the matter, and shortly afterwards Mr. Brewer followed him. Mr Brewer returned first and made some reassuring remark, and later on Mr. Pinker came back to the table. By that time the noise had ceased.

I was sitting with my right hand side towards the engine. Suddenly I experienced a sensation as if a cannon had exploded in my right ear, and felt some irresistible force pushing me. I immediately lost consciousness and when I again came to I found myself at some distance below the water. Being a swimmer I instinctively turned upwards to gain At the time I reached the roof of the deck house I looked back to see where the steamer was, and found she was at a distance of close upon a hundred yards from us, from which I concluded I must have been projected through the air at least fifty of sixty yards, for I do not think I had to swim more than forty or fifty yards to reach the deck house.

About a hundred yards away from us and about the same distance from the vessel was one of the ship’s boats with a man in it. We shouted to him to come to our help, and he seized a plank with which he endeavoured to propel the boat, but as he drifted further and further away it was evident we could get no help from that quarter.

I saw the remains of the steamer sinking slowly, and when she settled the hurricane deck was under water, and only portions of the deck houses remained dry. The funnel had disappeared entirely. The people who had been in the forward part of the vessel had clambered up on to the forward house.

About two minutes after I had got to my place of safety I saw Mrs. Stewart Fraser-Smith floating by on her side with her face towards me; she was gasping but made no movement, quantities of debris floating about between us , and I was completely exhausted. I never saw anything of the others who were lost.

Floating within some thirty or forty feet of us was what appeared to me to be the whole of the after port side of the hull; the rounded part of the stern was about the same distance from us and I recollect noticing the name. Seeing a rattan chair floating by I pulled it onto the roof, and Mr. Brewer and myself lifted Mr. da Costa out of the water and placed him in the chair.

Seeing that the man in the boat to whom I have before alluded could not come to us, we shouted out to those on board the forward part of the vessel to lower a boat and come to our help. There were about fifteen of them. They lowered a boat as request and three men pulled off to us in it. I jumped into the boat and helped to lift in Mr. da Costa in his chair. The two injured Chinamen were next passed in and placed carefully in the bottom of the boat. The rest of the survivors also got in, and the boat took us towards the wreck.

On our way there we noticed some Chinese boats coming three sailors who had brought the boat to us remained in her with the two injured Chinese, as it was found impossible in their terrible condition to lift them up on board the junk. We lifted Mr. da Costa aboard on his chair, and passed him down into the hold. In the meantime a small sampan from the junk had gone to the main portion of the wreck and brought off those who remained there.

Subsequently a few members of the crew went back to the wreck to find dry clothing if possible or anything that would be useful at the time. I made an attempt to get on board the boat as I wanted to save a box of valuable papers I had with me, but the boat shoved off. I shouted out to one of the sailors to search for the box in the forward saloon. I saw him go in and to my disappointment he came out empty-handed but I implored him to make a second attempt and he did so and on this occasion he was successful, as he found the box floating about amongst the debris with which the saloon was filled.

At the same time, two or three small Chinese boats ranged alongside the main portion of the wreck and commenced to plunder her of everything they could lay their hands upon. I ought to have stated that when we were on the roof of the deck house the cold was indescribable, as our clothes were wet and a piercing wind was blowing from the north. So far as I am concerned, I suffered more from the cold than from anything else.

The boat having returned from the wreck, the junk in which we were got under weigh and we headed for the Capshui-mun Pass. The explosion took place at ten minutes past three, and we were then two miles to the southward of the Brothers and one mile from Chulakok.

The other fishing junk to which I have referred, which was the companion boat to the one onboard which we were, took up her position a little to the windward of us, and Mr. Brewer drew my attention to Mrs. R. Fraser-Smith, whom I saw lying on the deck with her head supported  by a Portuguese sailor. I was pleased to remark that one of the boat women was standing immediately to windward of her, humanely holding up a mat in order to keep the cold wind off. I subsequently learned that the sailor with Mrs. Smith was the man whom we had seen alone in the boat, and that he had rescued Mrs. Smith.