Keying (ship)

Keying (ship)

Keying (Chinese: 耆英; pinyin: qíyīng, named after the Manchu official Keying; the English name is based on Cantonese pronunciation) was a three-masted, 800-ton Foochow Chinese trading junk which sailed from China around the Cape of Good Hope to the United States and Britain between 1846 and 1848.

Keying had been purchased in August 1846 in secrecy by British businessmen in Hong Kong, who defied a Chinese law prohibiting the sale of Chinese ships to foreigners. She was manned by 12 British and 30 Chinese sailors (the latter all Cantonese). She was commanded by Captain Charles Alfred Kellett, also British.

• Keying left Hong Kong in December 1846.
• She rounded the Cape of Good Hope in March 1847.
• She stopped at St Helena in April 1847.
• She was in New York in July 1847.
• She visited Boston in November 1847.
• She then arrived in Britain in April 1848.