Tag: Queen Victoria

Qi Ying Hao - Qing Dynasty Ship - 1848

China: Qing Dynasty Ship – “Qi Ying Hao” [耆英号] – First Modern Chinese Vessel to Visit the West – and Never to Return! (11.3.2024)

The purpose of the “Qi Ying Hao” voyage is not very clear – based upon the extant information available. Certain information suggests that the driving force behind the scenes was a British business group. These investment capitalists intended to have a Chinese sailing ship sail around the Cape of Good Hope – and then sail to the United Kingdom – as a symbolic gift for Queen Victoria!

According to researchers, the “Qi Ying Hao” was secretly sold to the British in August of 1846, because at that time China had legal restrictions that prohibited the sale of ships to foreigners. In order to keep it secret, all the British people changed into Chinese clothes and a Chinese person was temporarily appointed as the Captain. He also used the ship as his personal yacht – and sailed the boat from Guangzhou to Hong Kong.

Continue reading

Battersea Park: Beautiful Environs! (28.5.2023)

‘By 1846 an Act of Parliament was passed which authorised the plan. James Pennethorne and John Gibson, both of whom had worked on Victoria Park in Hackney, created the design. They elected to raise and level the ground on which the park was to be built, and so 750,000 tons of soil was excavated from nearby Surrey Docks. The park was finally finished in 1854, and was officially opened four years later by Queen Victoria, alongside its neighbouring Chelsea Bridge.’

Continue reading

1870: Britain’s First Victorian Bicycle Club! (22.5.2023)

If the ‘Playing Fields of Eton’ produced the victors at Waterloo – the slums of London, Manchester and Birmingham (which produced the working class Army of Wellington) certainly could NOT produce those who could ‘pedal’ a rather crude bicycle (by today’s standards) and safely navigate this device whilst travelling much slower than ten miles an hour! Still, once the ‘class’ parameters were firmly established – what was such a progressive organisation to be called?

Continue reading

Crystal Palace and the Concrete Dinosaurs – the Original Jurrasic Park!

Knowledge of dinosaurs was in its infancy – but at the time no models had ever been made before for the general public to study. The dinosaur models are big and were placed in and around man-made lakes amongst various foliage. This may be considered a crucial step forward for the development of human science and the freeing of the human-mind from the ignorance of superstition and theistic religion.

Continue reading