Letter from Andrew Alexander Pettigrew to Hugh Allan Pettigrew, 28 July 1895

S.S Rubens
Rangoon
Sunday, July 28, 1895

My Dear Hugh,

I suppose you will be surprised at receiving a letter from me after my saying in my home letter that I would not write you. I took it into my head this morning that perhaps I could manage to fill up a sheet to you after all.

Well to begin with I am glad you like Geneva so well. I suppose when you were at Ferrieres you would do Paris well & now you will have the chance of seeing some of the best Swiss scenery. It is fortunate that you have Sunday a holiday so that you will have at least one day a week to see about you. [??]

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I suppose that you will have heard ere this that we are going now with a cargo to Levant & the Danube. Of course that part of the voyage will be by far the most interesting part of it. I shall be able to see Constantinople after all though I am sorry we are going there. I should have very much have preferred that we should go straight from here to Liverpool. In that case we should have been home by the middle of September. As it is we cannot be home before the middle of October & by that time it will be getting chilly, especially to one coming from such hot weather. Another thing that makes me regret that we shall be so late is that it worries Mother so. I know that my absence has been a constant

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worry to her & she has plenty of that during these last few years.

As yet the most interesting place I have been to is of course Canton. My visit to Japan was a complete disappointment; nothing to see at all. Chinkiang was of no interest & Hong Kong very little if it had not been for Mr & Mrs Tutcher. Singapore was nothing much & Rangoon is about the same. We shall call in at Columbo on the way home. That I believe is a very fine place. Also at Aden, but that will not be very interesting.

How nice it would have been if this had been our programme & if we had been lucky, it might easily have been the case. After discharging

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the cargo we might have gone down to Saigon in Cochin China to load rice for Yokohama in Japan. Saigon is a very fine place & Yokohama is the best place in Japan. From there I could have gone up to Tokio the capital. Suppose from there we had then gone down to Moji to load coal for Singapore passing through the finest scenery in Japan, the Inland Sea. After discharging at Singapore, suppose we had come up here to load rice for Alexandria & then I could have seen Cairo & the Pyramids. Then we would have gone up to Odessa in the Black Sea to load grain for England, stopping on the way at Constantinople. Possibly on the way home we might have called in to Gibraltar

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for orders. Such a voyage would only have taken until the middle of August. Wouldn't that have been grand? As I said, this might easily have been our good fortune.

Now you are not to think that because I have mentioned all this that I am grumbling. Indeed I have been enjoying myself immensely but you know that when one sees a great deal of minor interest one wishes to see greater things.

Again as to my diary. I am afraid everybody will be disappointed with it. Although I have had plenty of material to write about I am sorry I have not got the talent of making anything readable out of it. If I had the ability of Willie or you I could easily have made a very interesting journal. I may manage to fill

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an exercise book of about two hundred pages & even then only with large writing. Of course it will always be interesting to me. Father, I know, expects a wonderful production. He never fails to mention it in his letters. As you have said in your letter I have nothing much to write about when at sea. When there is no land to mention as having been passed I am indebted to positions at noon to fill in the days.

I enjoyed my stay at Hong Kong very much. Mr & Mrs Tutcher are exceedingly nice people. They will be returning to England for their holidays in another two years & I hope they will be at Cardiff for a month or so & I should like their stay to be as enjoyable as

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possible.

I like life on board here very well. Captain & Mrs Draper are very nice people, much superior to the ordinary run of captains & their wives. Being the captain of the Rubens is a downcome for him. He used to be the Captain of one of the very best South African mail Boats. It was in his ship that the Prince Imperial went out to the Zulu war in 1880 (?) Mrs Draper showed me a letter from him to the Captain telling him how much he had enjoyed his life on board, also the photos of the Prince & of the Empress Eugenie with their autograph signatures on them. Capt. Draper retired in 1884 but lost his money & had to enter this service.

They are great whist players. We have two or three rubbers

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every night - if the heat isn't too much to boil us down in the saloon. They are first class players & I think, don't think me vain, that I shall be able to teach you a point or two when we play together again. Mrs Draper & I usually have a game of Cribbage every day. How are you getting on at chess? By the bye I bought you a beautiful little set of Chinese chess at Canton made of ivory. I saw them carving them myself. The king & queens are represented by the Chinese Emperor & Empress; bishops by Buddhist priests; knights by warriors on horseback; the rooks by elephants & pawns by foot soldiers. I think you will like it. I don't think they can be obtained at home I got

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a smaller set for Bertie Kinloch. Speaking of chess reminds me of Jack Crossling. I suppose you remember why. Has he gone to Ferriers as he intended?

We have been at Rangoon for two days now, but I have not been able to look about on account of the rain. The chief place of interest here is the Dewi Dagong Pagoda - the largest in the world. It is quite a different affair to a Chinese Pagoda. I shall write about after I have seen it. Then I must see the elephants working & I believe there is rather a good zoological garden here.

I bought for myself at Singapore a grand little monkey. It is the friendliest little thing I have seen. I think it will bear the English

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climate all right. The Captain is so fond of it that he will be sorry to part with it. I have not mentioned about it in my home letters so don't you either. I want to give them a surprise.

If I should meet one of the company's vessels at Port Said or Constantinople homeward bound I shall certainly join it & be home a few weeks earlier - that is if it is possible.

Don't send this letter home & don't mention about it in your home letters. Everybody is allowed to see it who calls & I should not like anyone to see this.

If you write me as soon as you receive this I think you will be able to catch me

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at Port Said. I shall be disappointed if I do not hear from you there. Address: - SS Rubens, Port Said & Suez Coal Co. Port Said.

The mail does not leave here for another five days so I shall leave this letter open & perhaps will put in a few more words.

Thursday. I have been able to go on shore two or three times since I wrote the above. The Pagoda is a huge affair. The outer wall is a mile & a half long & the building is gilded from top to bottom. There are some very large images of Buddha there some of them forty foot high & decorated with precious stones. It is also of historical interest. It was the great stronghold of the

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Burmese during the War with the British & as soon as the Pagoda fell Burmah was lost. Poor little Moji - that's my monkey - had a narrow escape of being drowned yesterday. It fell into the river & must have gone right to come up in the under the ship. The mates rescued it & the little fellow instead of being grateful to them hates them. I suppose it thought it owed its ducking to them. I keep it tied up now. The

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Chief Engineer is going to make me a house for it - doors, windows & chimneys complete.

This is a pouring wet day again. The weather is keeping the loading back. It is not probable we shall get away until Tuesday. We shall have it pretty rough for a day or two after leaving Columbo as we shall have the full force of the SW monsoon against us. To escape it as much as possible we shall go a degree or so below the equator.

Now be sure & write to Port Said. I hope you will be able to read this letter. I find it rather difficult myself.

I remain,
Your affectionate brother,
Andrew

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