Note 392 — Chapter XII
Reading edition
When, in September 1858, the question arose as to how far it was possible to declare the River Yang-tse navigable for Europeans, the late Admiral Sherard Osborn undertook to test it by taking Her Majesty’s ship Furious, which he then commanded, accompanied by the Cruiser and two gun-boats, up the river as far as she would go. He was the first to navigate a foreign ship of any kind to Hankow, and the service he thus rendered was a very important one, for it enabled Lord Elgin to insist on this great river being opened to foreign commerce.—See address at the anniversary meeting of the Royal Geographical Society by its President, Sir Henry C. Rawlinson, 24th of May, 1875.