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Built in Scotland on the Clyde in 1947 by the famous ship-builder Yarrow & Co with the same design of the pre-war Quarter Wheller steamers of the Irrawaddy Flotilla Company.
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Operated by
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Home
The Irrawaddy Flotilla Company
Flotilla Fleet Tales
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The IFC steamers carried many an
important personage, and one among
them was the ill-fated King Thibaw
on his way to exile in November of
1885 on board the Thooriya after the
complete annexation of Burma by the
British.
The next year Lord Dufferin, the
Viceroy of India travelled to
Mandalay on the steamer Mindoon, and
when the captain heard that this
very important guest liked ox tail
soup he gave orders to the ship's
chef to make sure of getting a good
supply. There was indeed no lack of
oxtails on the trip for a dozen live
oxen were carried along to probably
lose their tails one after the other
along the trip.
 In 1889 the 25-year-old HRH the Duke
of Clarence, Albert Victor Christian
Edward whom his doting grandmother
Queen Victoria called Eddy, came to
India and afterwards stopped off in
Burma, travelling on the new IFC
vessel Beeloo. His father was the
Prince of Wales at the time who
later became King Edward VII, and
after his father the Duke was next
in line to the throne of the British
Empire. He was probably taken to see
the ancient temples of Bagan, but no
doubt he had other things on his
mind.
According to one official biography,
the Duke's private lifestyle was
"dissipated" and he was known to
frequent brothels with his
aristocratic friends. In 1889
several grisly murders of
prostitutes began the hunt for the
first known serial killer "Jack the
Ripper" and wild rumours began to
circulate of the Duke being him. The
Royal Family sent him on a tour of
India to avoid further embarrassment
but unfortunately, the trip was to
lead to more.
In India, he met and apparently fell
in love with Mrs. Margery Haddon,
the wife of an engineer. The next
year she gave birth to a son she
named Clarence Guy Gordon Haddon.
After the Duke's death, and with a
few divorces behind her, Mrs. Haddon
declared the child to be the bastard
son of the Duke.
Being second in line to the throne
after his father such accusations
were disastrous especially since he
was single at his time of death.
Investigations were made official
reports given as to the falseness of
the accusations. The boy when he
grew up also wrote a book and made
other public outcries that were soon
stifled. In 1891 the Duke became
engaged to a beautiful princess but
had died of pneumonia the next year.
His brother George, one year
younger, became the heir to the
throne and became King George V.
While still the Prince of Wales, he
married the princess intended for
his brother. They were the
grandparents of the present Queen
Elizabeth II.
This royal couple the Prince and
Princess of Wales, also came to
visit India and Burma in 1906,
taking the IFC steamer Japan from
Mandalay to Rangoon. In the same
year the Crown Prince of Thailand,
then called Siam, took the vessel
Siam on his travels on the river.
By 1911, tourists have arrived in
Myanmar and "E.M.P-B"…. what could
be her name, this lady…Evelyn?
Emily? Emma? …. wrote of her trips
on board an oil vessel captained by
her husband in delightful book "A
Year on the Irrawaddy."
The ship carried barrels of crude
oil from Yenanchaung oil fields of
Central Myanmar to the refinery in
Syriam (now reverted to its original
Burmese name Thanlyin) in the south
for the Burmah Oil Company.
She referred to her husband only as
"Skipper" and thus we remain in the
dark of their names. Apparently only
on oil tankers could the skipper
bring along his wife
In her book published in 1911 she
remarked on a group of American
tourists she saw while having 'tiffin'
or lunch at the Strand Hotel: "they
are unmistakeably Americans and
their wide sun-helmets with long
gauze veils hanging down behind,
their cameras, blue goggles and
umbrellas look very serious and
business like."
The IFC carried many varieties of
cargo such as bales of cotton, bags
of rice, blocks of jade, lacquerware,
silk, tamarind, elephants, woven
mats, maize, Jaggery palm sugar,
bullocks, marble Buddhas, oilcake,
tobacco and timber. Goods brought
into Rangoon port by sea going ships
from Europe and carried upriver by
the IFC were automobiles, corrugated
iron, the very necessary condensed
milk, matches, aluminium ware,
sewing machines, bicycles, soap,
cigarettes, cement and the most
essential of drinks, whisky.
The first time the IFC transported
elephants was in 1884, carrying them
from Prome (now reverted to the
original Burmese name Pyay) to just
across the river. The charge was a
hefty one hundred rupees for each of
the six mammoths for this barely
one-mile trip. The crew had some
difficulty getting the elephants to
board the flat attached to the
steamer: the gangplank had to be
heavily camouflaged with vines and
creepers before they would set one
foot on it.
Once the steamer reached the other
shore the six walked off quite
calmly and stood waiting on the bank
as the steamer returned to Prome.
The captain however made the mistake
of sounding the horn when his ship
reached the middle of the river, at
which point all of the elephants,
perhaps thinking the sound was some
sort of mating or distress call,
trumpeted in reply and swam after
the steamer until they were all once
again back in Prome. There were no
records of additional freight
charges paid for their second
crossing.
After that early fiasco, the ship's
horn was not sounded in the vicinity
whenever elephantine cargo had been
unloaded. Special flats had to be
made for them on long trips, for the
iron flats became hot in the sun. A
four-inch deck of teak was always
placed on the flats when
transporting elephants and they had
enough water splashed on them the
whole day to keep them cool. Their
handlers travelled with them,
keeping them happy with juicy stalks
of sugar cane, sweet bananas or ripe
tamarind fruit. The captains usually
docked a bit further away from human
inhabitation when they carried
elephants, for hordes of excited and
noisy people would flock to see
them, some paddling their canoes
close to the flats and unnerving the
large and alive cargo.
In 1937 one Major Raven-Hart, a keen
British canoeist who had already
paddled down the Nile and the
Mississippi decided to do the same
on the Upper reaches of the
Irrawaddy from Myitkyina to
Mandalay. As he was building his
canoe at Myitkyina, first he had to
go upriver by steamer as far along
as he could and then take the train
to his destination. Paddling upriver
on that particular stretch of the
Irrawaddy would be impossible,
because if the many weirs and rocks;
it would be bad enough coming down.
A very observant and humorous
writer, he had a grand time on the
IFC Java which he wrote had "two
decks, a main deck over the shallow
hull; an upper deck on a light,
superstructure. The forward part of
this deck was open, as an
observation lounge."
The food, he wrote in his book
"Canoe to Mandalay", was very
Scottish "with Dundee marmalade and
porridge daily." Dinners were
elaborate meals, and accommodations
were excellent, "with nets and fans
and real beds."
After one cold and grey drizzle the
sun came up. He went for a stroll to
the 3rd class deck and saw the scene
"unwrapped itself like a gay
butterfly": everyone was dressed in
silks and fine linen, the family
circles sitting on woven mats with
"boxes and pillows marking off and
comfortably furnishing off each
temporary abode."
The men wore 'skirts' of
clear-greens, blues and pinks with
white shirts. The women were in
"gayer skirts, figured and striped
and patterned, below white bodices
of fine muslin, and wore gay flowers
in their shiny black hair, usually
done in flat coils. Wherever I
looked, someone in the group seemed
to be laughing and the rest smiling
in sympathy." He and a few of his
companions who were living in India,
were astounded at the friendliness
of the people.
The locals preferred to travel in
family groups on the wide-open decks
if they were not on official or
business trips, and on these
occasions, they would normally take
Upper or Second Class cabins.
One famous Burmese nationalist and
editor U Chit Maung who lived in the
colonial era and who was a shy
workaholic, was once persuaded by
his wife the equally famous writer
Daw Ma Ma Lay to take a holiday.
They took an IFC steamer for part of
the journey.
In the biography of her husband "A
man like him" that she wrote after
his death in 1946, a book that
remains a classic, she said that in
the Upper Class of the boat there
were only the two of them and two
English gentlemen from the Burmah
Oil Company.
"At dinner", she wrote, "The captain
sat at the head of the table and he
introduced us to the two English
men. They too were dressed for
dinner. Ko Ko (endearment name for
husband or lover but meaning in fact
'Elder Brother') sat with great
dignity and silently ate his dinner.
I wondered if the others would think
he knew not a word of English as he
sat there eating whatever the
steward put in front of him, and I
alone carried the conversation.
The gentleman sitting directly
opposite asked me if I were Burmese
and I said yes, pure Burmese. He
said that western dress suited women
only if the person were well-formed
but that Burmese dress complements
anyone, plumb or slender, and that
the style and designs were elegant
and beautiful.
“The dresses worn in court are
different from what we wear
nowadays,” I told them. “The royal
costumes are more beautiful and
intricate.”
One of the English gentlemen
described to his companion the court
dress he had once seen, and
marvelled at the gold and silver
embroidery. I glanced sideways at Ko
Ko and smiled at him discreetly. Bit
by bit I managed to bring Ko Ko into
the conversation and as soon as he
got on the subject of British rule,
Ko Ko talked at length. Both English
gentlemen listened with interest to
his views. The captain excused
himself as he had to look after the
ship but the two sat on asking him
questions until late into the
night."
For nearly a hundred years, the IFC
ran on Burmese rivers and their
vessels still do, plying up and down
the mighty rivers of Myanmar.
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