To Chefoo

In the nineteenth century Chefoo (now called Yantai) was a treaty port and harbour on the Shandong Peninsula in northwest China.

As noted already, in 1864 Edward was out in the Far East and on his way to join HMS Insolent at Chefoo. To do this he had left the Swallow and joined HMS Racehorse, probably at Shanghai or Tokyo. The Racehorse, under the command of thirty-year-old Captain Charles Richard Fox Boxer, was working as a despatch boat shuttling between China and Japan, carrying mail and probably troops and naval personnel.

A letter (unseen), from the Racehorse’s twenty-three-year-old lieutenant William Farquhar, date-stamped 25 October 1864 (see below), apparently talks of the Racehorse preparing to be sent to Chefoo to off-load men. One of these men was Edward. With him were two gunners, six stokers, four marines and two boys, all bound for HMS Insolent. None of them would ever set foot upon its decks.

Due to a healthy summer climate, Chefoo was considered the ‘Scarborough of China’ by its foreign residents, according to the naturalist and diplomat Robert Swinhoe in 1874. But in the winter months it suffered from freezing temperatures, sea gales and unpredictable weather patterns. 

Edward had been on board just a few days when, at about 8.30 p.m. on 4 November 1864, the Racehorse ran into trouble in Chefoo Bay (or the Bay of Lung-mun), about twelve miles to the east of the harbour. Accounts differ slightly on what happened: one report suggested that in the ‘thick and hazy’ weather the captain mistook their location and thought they had already entered the harbour. 

The Daily Telegraph later reported that the ship had hit a rock: ‘Whether there was want of due care, or whether the rock was not marked on charts, does not yet appear.’ Initially there seemed no prospect of any serious casualty and the ship steamed towards the coast. But the weather quickly turned and the wind rose, ‘as it will rise in that dreaded Yellow Sea’.

Boats were lowered but were soon swamped by the waves, which broke over the ship. It was reported that

the masts were then cut away, and the ship steamed full speed on shore, endeavouring to save life, but the wind increasing to a gale, the rollers washed away all skylights and filled the ship.

The coast was reached but in the darkness and fury of the storm a landing was impossible and the Racehorse became stranded. The crew were told that if they could hold on until daylight there was every hope of rescue. But in the icy waters it was impossible to cling to the wreckage.

In the drear darkness and deadly cold, the men cowered together, and clung to the cordage for saftey, until their arms grew rigid, and the fingers refused to grasp the ropes and spars to which they held for life. ... Man after man was borne away.

The storm raged through the night and by daybreak few were left alive.

Out of a total strength of 108 officers and men, only nine survivors were found, the rest having perished of cold and exhaustion, or having been swept off the decks.

It was an extraordinary casualty rate of 90 per cent and one of the worst maritime disasters of the day. 

List of Officers and Men belonging to Her Majesty's late Sloop Racehorse; and who were drowned when that Vessel was wrecked on the 4th of November 1864, on the North-West Coast of Shantung, China.

W. Farquhar, lieutenant; A.G.C. Tait, ditto; Thomas Dobbin, master; J.E. Fawcett, surgeon; G.M. Dooley, chief engineer; Richard Crabbe, assistant-paymaster; W.H. Phillips, assistant-engineer; Edward Topping, ditto; T.W.E. Tickle, ditto; James Keenan, second captain foretop; Thomas Hart, gunner's mate; Joseph Casey, leading seaman; Henry Gray; second captain, forecastle; George Craddock, leading stoker; S. Bourne, stoker; Joshua Evans, ditto: William Wilkinson, ditto; M. Boyd, ditto; Archibald Wilson, ditto: David Forrest, leading stoker; James Evendon, ditto; Edward Flood, carpenter's crew; G.M. Hearssy, ship's steward; James Constable, A.B.; George Winters, A.B.; A.T. Lay, carpenter's crew; G.H, Willard, A.B.; Peter Webster, ship's cook; F.S. Richards, captain's coxswain; James Mummery, quarter-master; John Myers, sailmaker's crew; Thomas Whitelock, chief carpenter's mate; John F. Kirby, quartermaster; George Bailey, stoker; Thomas Brozen, blacksmith; James Veal, ordinary; A. Moon (a Chinaman), ward-room cook; William Cook, ordinary; Henry Whitis, stoker, second class; W.B. Phipps, stoker; William Lucas, stoker, second class; Michael Keaton, stoker; William Watts, ordinary, second class; W.E. Thomas, ditto; George Baxter, ordinary; John Moore, A.B.: George Buckley, A.B.; John Hayward, A.B.; A.J. Tucker, leading seaman; Tom Coball (an Indian), captain's cook; Antonio Soice (an Indian), officer's servant; Domingo Luis Coelho (an Indian), ward-room steward; Augustine Deos (an Indian), engineers' servant; Timothy Sullivan, A.B.; Isaac Jordan, chief boatswain mate ; John Barry, ordinary; Thomas Smellie, ordinary, second class; Robert Burns, ditto; T.J. Malin, ditto; Richard Farrell, A.B.; W.W. Jerred, ordinary, second class; Jesse Sharp, boy, first class; Thomas Dixon, ditto; Richard Allen, ditto; William Vinton, ditto; Thomas Charlick, ditto; Alfred Rippen, boy, first class; W.J. Kingwell, ditto: Robert Crump, ditto; William Jones, ditto; A. Malikin, boy, second class; Samuel Reynolds, sergeant, Royal Marines; W. Woodhead, corporal, Royal Marine Artillery; William Brown, gunner, Royal Marine Artillery; George Taylor, ditto; Samuel Rowe, ditto; Richard Gibbon, ditto; A. Forrester, private, Royal Marines; Eli Carpenter. ditto; Stephen Brown, ditto; James Olley, ditto; A. Burton, ditto; Henry Miller, ditto; George Carrey, ditto.

List of Men drowned in Her Majesty's ship Racehorse while on passage to join the Insolent at Chefoo.

E.P. Roberts, second master; Charles Porter, gunner; David Gingle, ditto; W. Smith, leading stoker; Thomas Simmonds, stoker; Thomas Toucher ditto; Taff Thomas, ditto; - Brain, ditto; - Coombs, ditto; William Barnes, corporal, Royal Marines; - Marshall, private, Royal Marines; - M'Nellity, ditto; - Robinson, ditto; Daniel Kerney, boy, second class; Robert Herbert, ditto.

This list was obtained from the surviving crew, who state it is correct to the best of their knowledge. It is also doubtful whether there was not another Marine on board for the Insolent, as all the survivors agree that there were five Marines, but his name cannot be ascertained. They were sent from the Adventure to the Racehorse on the 2d of November, 1864.

List of Officers and Men saved from the Racehorse

R.F. Boxer, commander; W.H. Thompson, paymaster; W. Lowlett, boatswain; John Hollis, boatswain's mate; Owen Roberts, A. B.; William Eaton, ditto; William Nicholls, stoker: Thomas Pugh, gunner, Royal Marine Artillery; William Washington, private, Royal Marines.

The Aftermath

In the immediate aftermath of the wreck, a committee was formed for the relief of Widows and Relatives of the Officers and Crew of the Racehorse and by the end of the year the Hongkong Committee of the Racehorse Widows and Orphans Fund had received donations totalling about $2,000 from upwards of fifty prominent Hong Kong banks and trading companies, as well as the officers and crew of several ships on the China Station. This was sent home to help those thrown into destitution by the loss of a husband or father in the disaster.

By 1867 it was reported in the press that £261 10s had been paid out to twenty ‘fathers & other relatives’ of those lost. So Lazarus may have applied for a share of this. 

Some weeks later, The Times and Telegraph both reported that HMS Rattler had returned from a visit to the wreck and had succeeded in retrieving ‘all her guns, anchors and cables, together with a large quantity of clothing and personal property. The latter are much damaged by salt water and are almost useless’. 

The same week the London and China Telegraph reported that ‘the bodies of Lieut. Farquhar, Dr. Fawcett [surgeon], Mr. Crabbe [assistant paymaster], and thirteen men belonging to the Racehorse, have been recovered by the gun-boat Insolent.’ Fifty-six bodies were eventually recovered and buried on shore: over half the casualties. It doesn’t look as if Edward’s was among them.

By April 1865, pieces of the broken timbers had been washed ashore on Chefoo (Yantai) beach, as illustrated in the contemporary engraving, and the remains were partly submerged about sixty yards out. It was apparently so high up at low tide that the upper deck was left dry and could easily be reached by foot from the beach (Hampshire Advertiser).

According to the London and China Telegraph (6 February 1871), the Chinese interpreter and consul M.C. Morrison was one who walked over the sands and ‘camped out for three months during a severe winter on the wreck of H.M.S. Racehorse ... in order to carry on communications with the Chinese for the benefit of the survivors, and, if possible, to save the ship’. It is not quite clear to what end or how successful this was.

Interestingly, people were not the only casualties of the wreck. Also lost, it was reported, were some botanical specimens from a collector, Frederick Dickins – probably ferns or cones he had gathered at Yokohama – for return to Kew: ‘[He] made a large collection of specimens that he sent home on the HMS Racehorse, which shortly after her departure, was lost near Chefoo’ (see here).

The Survivors

In May 1865 it was reported that the ‘Racehorse men’ had arrived back at Spithead on board the Tartar. 

There were only nine survivors of the wreck (The Times listed ten names in early reports). According to the Newcastle Chronicle (29 July 1893): ‘The survivors at sunrise took the last remaining boat and after drifiting for a day and a half were picked up by a native junk.’

Somehow, Captain Boxer was among them. Who said captains go down with their ships? 

William Lowlett continued to serve in the Royal Navy as a boatswain until his death in 1875, aged forty. John Hollis, the boatswain’s mate, born in 1818, spent the following four years on shore. His service record ends in 1868.

Another who lived to tell the tale was the paymaster, William Henry Thompson, who was fourteen years older than Edward. He was recalled in a letter to the Morning Post, some thirty-five years later:

One officer, Paymaster W. H. Thompson, was washed on shore during the night, and though nearly exhausted, struggled up to a small Chinese house, into which he was admitted. Every kindness was bestowed on him, and at daybreak he had his dried clothes returned to him, together with his watch and money, and then the Chinese accompanied him to the beach to render such assistance as was within their power, and that, too, without asking for any reward... — Yours, &c., London, July 24. GEORGE QUICK, R.N. (Morning Post, 25 July 1900) 

Thompson also died at sea, in 1871 – not in a shipwreck but from hepatitis, at the age of forty-two. He was unmarried and at the time of his death was paymaster on board HMS Royal Oak. ‘Mr Thompson was one of the few survivors of the ill-fated Racehorse, which was wrecked on the north of China some few years since’ (Naval & Military Gazette, 23 December 1871). So he ended up in a watery grave nonetheless.

The Obituaries

The last time Lazarus saw his youngest son, just twenty-one when he died, was probably in April 1862, when the Swallow sailed from Plymouth Sound. Presumably the Admiralty informed him that Edward was missing by the end of 1864: it was recalled that news reached Sheerness around then. He would have read the first full accounts of the wreck of the Racehorse in the British press early in the new year. It seems unlikely that any of Edward’s personal possessions ever found their way back to Lazarus.

Death notices of some who drowned began to appear in January 1865. Edward’s was in the Herts Gazette, placed there by his brother William (his middle name slightly misspelled):

Wrecked in H.M.S., Racehorse, Edward Parry Roberts, Esq, R.N , youngest son of Captain L. Roberts R.N , and brother of W. P. Roberts, Esq., Surgeon, Cheshunt-street, Cheshunt.

The Gentleman’s Magazine detailed the typically ‘heroic career’ of the ship’s surgeon, James Edward Fawcett, ‘a son of the Rev. James Fawcett, Vicar of Knaresborough ... born at Woodhouse, in Leeds, in April, 1834’ and twenty-two-year-old Richard Crabbe, ‘Assist.-Paymaster, R.N., third son of the late Benjn. Crabbe, esq , Strabane, co. Tyrone’.

Quite a few of the Racehorse’s officers and crew had connections with Kent and Sussex (Captain Boxer and W.H. Thompson among them). The South Eastern Gazette of 18 January 1865 carried the death notices of chief engineer George Dooley of Worthing and the ship’s steward, George Hearsey of Canterbury, as well as John Kirby, the twenty-four-year-old quartermaster, of Hythe. Edward Flood, carpenter, was from Gillingham, Kent. 

The Dover Telegraph carried a slightly longer death notice of Thomas Dobbin, the ship’s surgeon, aged twenty-nine:

Thomas Dobbin, who held the post of master on board the Racehorse, and who was the second son of the late Thomas Dobbin, Esq., R.N., whose widow now resides at Charlton, Dover. The deceased was a promising officer, and none who knew him will learn the sad news without a thrill of pain, at so abrupt a termination of the life of one who bid fair to be a good naval officer as well as an ornament to society. Of the ship’s company who were drowned, we hear of more than one who was connected by kinship or acquaintance with inhabitants of this town [Dover]. Commander Charles R. F. Boxer, who was fortunately one of the five [sic] who were saved, we believe, is the third son of the late Capt. Edward Boxer, R.N., of Dover.

Thomas Dobbin’s probate wasn’t granted until 1872, by which time his widow Eliza had remarried: a necessary move for many women in similar positions, once their deceased husband’s money had dried up. 

The article generated no correspondence in the paper, but by 1931 the nine survivors had surely all died and there were few alive who would have had a personal memory of anyone on board the Racehorse. 

Edith Dash, the daughter of the gunner David Gingle, lived in south London in the 1930s (by which time she had become Edith Knecht), but she had been too young in 1864 to have any recollection of her father. If she happened to read the article in the Western Morning News, she would perhaps have thought little more of it.