The Royal Chinese Junk "Keying"

Handbill advertising visits to the Royal Chinese Junk, 'Keying' in 1848. The Junk was purchased secretly in Hong Kong by a syndicate of British businessmen, in defiance of Chinese law, and was sailed to London, via New York, by a crew of British and Chinese sailors. She was berthed in the East India Docks at Poplar and became an object of enormous curiosity. Thousands of people travelled by omnibus, railway or steamer to visit the Junk, and she was also visited by Queen Victoria and Prince Albert. The Blackwall and Eastern Counties Railway Companies organised the sale of tickets, thus encouraging visitors to use their services - and probably producing this handbill in the process. Sadly in 1853 the Junk was towed to the River Mersey and abandoned on the foreshore.