Editing Yangtze (section)

===Navigation on the upper river===
[[File:Yangtze kiang 1915.jpg|thumb|Yangtze in 1915]]
[[File:Cruise boats on yangtze.jpg|thumb|Cruise boats on Yangtze]]
[[File:A vehicle carrier on yangtze.jpg|thumb|A vehicle carrier on Yangtze]]
[[File:A container carrier on yangtze.jpg|thumb|A container carrier on Yangtze]]

Steamers came late to the upper river, the section stretching from Yichang to Chongqing. Freshets from Himalayan snowmelt created treacherous seasonal currents. But summer was better navigationally and the [[three gorges]], described as a "150-mile passage which is like the narrow throat of an hourglass," posed hazardous threats of crosscurrents, whirlpools and eddies, creating significant challenges to steamship efforts. Furthermore, Chongqing is 700 – 800 feet above sea level, requiring powerful engines to make the upriver climb. Junk travel accomplished the upriver feat by employing 70–80 trackers, men hitched to hawsers who physically pulled ships upriver through some of the most risky and deadly sections of the three gorges.<ref>Lyman P. Van Slyke, ''Yangtze, ''Nature'', History and the River'', Addison-Wesley Publishing Company, Inc., Massachusetts, 1988, p.18-19 and 121–123.</ref>

Archibald John Little took an interest in Upper Yangtze navigation when in 1876, the [[Chefoo Convention]] opened Chongqing to consular residence but stipulated that foreign trade might only commence once steamships had succeeded in ascending the river to that point. Little formed the Upper Yangtze Steam Navigation Co., Ltd. and built ''Kuling'' but his attempts to take the vessel further upriver than Yichang were thwarted by the Chinese authorities who were concerned about the potential loss of transit duties, competition to their native junk trade and physical damage to their craft caused by steamship wakes. ''Kuling'' was sold to China Merchants Steam Navigation Company for lower river service. In 1890, the Chinese government agreed to open Chongqing to foreign trade as long as it was restricted to native craft.

In 1895, the [[Treaty of Shimonoseki]] provided a provision which opened Chongqing fully to foreign trade. Little took up residence in Chongqing and built ''Leechuan'', to tackle the gorges in 1898. In March ''Leechuan'' completed the upriver journey to Chongqing but not without the assistance of trackers. ''Leechuan'' was not designed for cargo or passengers and if Little wanted to take his vision one step further, he required an expert pilot.<ref>''Ibid''., p. 170-172.</ref>

In 1898, Little persuaded Captain [[Samuel Cornell Plant]] to come out to China to lend his expertise. Captain Plant had just completed navigation of [[Iran|Persia]]'s Upper [[Karun River]] and took up Little's offer to assess the Upper Yangtze on ''Leechuan'' at the end of 1898. With Plant's design input, Little had SS ''Pioneer'' built with Plant in command. In June 1900, Plant was the first to successfully pilot a merchant steamer on the Upper Yangtze from Yichang to Chongqing.  ''Pioneer'' was sold to [[Royal Navy]] after its first run due to threat from the [[Boxer Rebellion]] and renamed HMS ''Kinsha''. Germany's steamship effort that same year on SS ''Suixing'' ended in catastrophe. On ''Suixing's'' maiden voyage, the vessel hit a rock and sunk, killing its captain and ending realistic hopes of regular commercial steam service on the Upper Yangtze.

In 1908, local Sichuan merchants and their government partnered with Captain Plant to form Sichuan Steam Navigation Company becoming the first successful service between Yichang and Chongqing. Captain Plant designed and commanded its two ships, SS ''Shutung'' and SS ''Shuhun''. Other Chinese vessels came onto the run and by 1915, foreign ships expressed their interest too. Plant was appointed by [[Chinese Maritime Customs Service]] as First Senior River Inspector in 1915. In this role, Plant installed navigational marks and established signaling systems.

He also wrote ''Handbook for the Guidance of Shipmasters on the Ichang-Chungking Section of the Yangtze River'', a detailed and illustrated account of the Upper Yangtze's currents, rocks, and other hazards with navigational instruction. Plant trained hundreds of Chinese and foreign pilots and issued licenses and worked with the Chinese government to make the river safer in 1917 by removing some of the most difficult obstacles and threats with explosives. In August 1917, British Asiatic Petroleum became the first foreign merchant steamship on the Upper Yangtze. Commercial firms, Robert Dollar Company, [[Jardine Matheson]], [[Butterfield and Swire]] and [[Standard Oil]] added their own steamers on the river between 1917 and 1919. Between 1918 and 1919, Sichuan warlord violence and escalating civil war put Sichuan Steam Navigational Company out of business.<ref>{{cite journal | last1 = Shih Brandmeyer | first1 = Polly | year = 2014 | title = Cornell Plant, Lost Girls and Recovered Lives – Sino-British Relations at the Human Level in Late Qing and Early Republican China | url = http://search.informit.com.au/documentSummary;dn=875703566361829;res=IELHSS | journal = Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society Hong Kong Branch | volume = 54 | pages = 106–110 | access-date = April 13, 2015 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20180811112513/https://search.informit.com.au/documentSummary;dn=875703566361829;res=IELHSS | archive-date = August 11, 2018 | url-status = live }}</ref> ''Shutung'' was commandeered by warlords and ''Shuhun'' was brought down river to Shanghai for safekeeping.<ref>"Returns of Trade and Trade Reports 1918," ''China – The Maritime Customs'', published by Order of the Inspector General of Customs.</ref>

In 1921, when Captain Plant died at sea while returning home to England, a Plant Memorial Fund was established to perpetuate Plant's name and contributions to Upper Yangtze navigation. The largest shipping companies in service, Butterfield & Swire, Jardine Matheson, Standard Oil, Mackenzie & Co., Asiatic Petroleum, Robert Dollar, China Merchants S.N. Co. and British-American Tobacco Co., contributed alongside international friends and Chinese pilots. In 1924, a 50-foot granite pyramidal obelisk was erected in Xintan, on the site of Captain Plant's home, in a Chinese community of pilots and junk owners. One face of the monument is inscribed in Chinese and another in English. Though recently relocated to higher ground ahead of the Three Gorges Dam, the monument still stands overlooking the Upper Yangtze River near Yichang, a rare collective tribute to a westerner in China.<ref>Peter Simpson, "Hell and High Water," ''South China Morning Post Magazine'', October 2, 2011, p.24-30.</ref><ref>Plant Memorial Brochure, March 20, 1923, ''National Maritime Museum'', Greenwich, Archive Collection, "Papers of Capt. Samuel Cornell Plant," MS/69/123.</ref>

Standard Oil ran the tankers Mei Ping, Mei An and Mei Hsia, which were collectively destroyed on December 12, 1937, when Japanese warplanes bombed and sank the U.S.S. Panay. One of the Standard Oil captains who survived this attack had served on the Upper River for 14 years.<ref>Mender, P., Thirty Years A Mariner in the Far East 1907–1937, The Memoirs of Peter Mender, A Standard Oil Ship Captain on China's Yangtze River, p.53, {{ISBN|978-1-60910-498-6}}</ref>