Marguerite, a Yangtze River Houseboat with Sail

Item

Title: Marguerite, a Yangtze River Houseboat with Sail
Caption: Unidentified Houseboat
Identifier: SEFA_068
Alternative Identifier: Simpson Album p15
Description: A Chinese houseboat in profile showing the sail, the deck and cabins. Tracker ropes can be seen coiled and looped to the side of a cabin. Unidentified people stand on the deck at the bow. A hilly shoreline can be seen in the background.
Commentary: Has the caption, "Our Houseboat on the Yangtze" in EKS's narrative of his first journey into Sichuan. The young bachelor Rev. Dr. E. Kyle Simpson travelled up the Yangtze above Yichang in a convoy of four boats. With him on his boat were Lelah Kerr (first principal and teacher of the Canadian School in West China), Miss White, Rev. Albert and Mrs. Caroline Quirmbach, and their daughter Margaret.
Creator: E. Kyle Simpson
Date Created: Between 1913-03-10 and 1913-03-22
Location: Yangtze Gorges
Geonames: https://www.geonames.org/6354946/three-gorges-dam.html
Event: 1913 Dr. E. Kyle Simpson's First Yangtze River Voyage
Original Format: Photographic print
Relation: Houseboats Moored Along the Yangtze River Shoreline
Is Part Of: Simpson-Estabrook Photo Album
Source: Courtesy of Kyle Jolliffe
Provenance: Curated by Alice Estabrook Simpson - captions written by her. In the care of Kyle Jolliffe.
Access Rights: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
Publisher: SIUE
Record Date: 2026-10-19
Contributor: Cory Willmott
Type: Still Image
References: "This boat we call the 'Marguerite." It is about one hundred feet over all, and ten or twelve feet wide, with a platform down either side. The first thirty-five feet is uncovered, and it is here that the men work the oars and eat their rice. The rest of the deck is covered and made into cabins for the passengers, and in the stern is the Captian's (Louhan's) cabin and the rudder room. The holds are about five feet deep, and in these we have bestowed all the goods. The bow is turned up after the fashion of the old Roman ships we used to see pictured in our ancient history, and it is from here that the pilot (tigone) directs the ship. No matter what may be the danger or disaster in the rapid or on the rocky shore, he always stands with that calm look and attitude so characteristic of the Asiatic. The East never hurries."; 1913 Letter from Dr. E. Kyle Simpson, Chungking, West China

Item sets: Simpson-Estabrook Family Archives

Media: SEFA_068_Simpson Album p15 Unidentified Houseboat.jpg

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Items with "Relation: Marguerite, a Yangtze River Houseboat with Sail"
Title	Class
Houseboats Moored Along the Yangtze River Shoreline	Image