- Title
- Steamship Stewards: Encountering Asia on the High Seas
- Creator
- Martinez, Julia; Lowrie, Claire; Steel, Frances; Haskins, Victoria
- Relation
- Colonialism and Male Domestic Service across the Asia Pacific p. 137-168
- Publisher Link
- http://dx.doi.org/10.5040/9781350056756.ch-005
- Publisher
- Bloomsbury Academic
- Resource Type
- book chapter
- Date
- 2019
- Description
- In 1914 Chinese steward Ah Pong appeared in court in Melbourne, Australia, charged with wilful disobedience of a lawful command given by Captain David Marshall of the steamship Vestalia, owned by a Glaswegian company of the same name. A young man, Ah Pong, came to court ‘dressed in well-fitting European clothes’ and speaking fluent English. He had shipped at Shields in England on a three-year contract as chief steward, earning a wage of £7 per month.[1] Upon arrival in Melbourne the vessel was converted to a troopship and Marshall appointed a British chief steward, demoting Ah Pong to second steward, though at the same wage. Ah Pong was indignant, declaring he would not be second ‘to any English steward’ or ‘wash dishes for anyone’. In his testimony, Ah Pong denied having refused orders, stating he told Marshall: ‘All right; pay me up and send me back home.’ The captain told the court he would happily have thrown him off the ship, but for the fact that the Immigration Restriction Act prevented Chinese from landing in Australia without exemption papers. Ah Pong was duly fined 20 shillings and sent back to the ship.
- Subject
- stewards; Chinese workers; steamship; colonial
- Identifier
- http://hdl.handle.net/1959.13/1454242
- Identifier
- uon:44874
- Identifier
- ISBN:9781350056725
- Language
- eng
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