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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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We recommend
Travel in Style with Luxurious Replica of
the old Chevrolet Bus
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Home
Rivers of Myanmar
The Irrawaddy
River
The Chindwin River
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This great waterway flowing
from the northern tip of Myanmar
into the southern delta and thence
into the sea, a voyage of over 1240
miles, is a lifeline to the people.
It played important roles all
through the course of history, the
river's life forever entwined with
events in legends, in victory, in
war and in triumphant tours by kings
and princes.
According to Kachin legends the
Great Spirit of the world from his
seat on the icy Himalayan peaks
poured water from two gold cups, and
Mai Kha River flowed from the cup in
his right hand and Mali Kha, from
the left. The two rivers born
together are twins, male and female,
and they join at the confluence 43km
north of Myitkyina, the capital of
the Kachin State to give birth to
the Ayeyarwaddy River. Mai Kha River
is longer and flows from the East,
Mali Kha is short and flows from the
West.
They ate children of the Himalayas,
born from the melting snows.
 Another legend of the northern
reaches of the river concerns a Naga
or Water serpent princess with whom
the sun god Suriya fell in love. The
princess gave birth to three eggs
which were washed downriver, one
hatching at Thabeikyin to give birth
to a slew of rubies, now found in
abundance in Mogok, very near
Thabeikyin. The other two floated on
and one hatched a tiger in central
Myanmar and the last hatched a
crocodile in the delta.
The First Myanmar Empire had its
seat in Bagan and chronicles
recorded how the great kings
Anawrahta (r. 1044-10770,
Kyansit-tha (r. 1084-1112) and
Alaung Sithu (r. 1112-1167) fought,
loved and lived by the Ayeyarwaddy
River and travelled on it by naval
fleets. King Alaung Sithu especially
was famous in Myanmar lore as
travelling far and wide on his
golden barge.
The earliest record of a European to
sail up the Ayeyarwaddy for some
distance was in 1435, of a Venetian
merchant named Nicolo di Conti. He
was going to the royal capital of
Ava (or Inwa as called in Burmese)
situated not far from the forested
place that over four centuries later
would become another capital,
Mandalay.
He had misheard and perhaps confused
the first two syllables of
Ayeyarwaddy with the name of the
capital, for he called both 'Dava'.
He had sailed a month up the
Ayeyarwaddy which he said was
'bigger than the Ganges' and had
arrived in Ava.
It was during the reign of King
Monyin Thado (r. 1427-1440) and he
saw the king, who "rideth upon a
white Elephant, which hath a chayne
of golde about his necke, being long
unto his feete, set full of many
precious stones."
Elizabethan era merchant Ralph Finch
came in 1586, stopping in Yangon and
sailing up the Ayeyarwaddy to Pegu (Bago)
during his travels in India and SE
Asia. After his return, he became
the director of the Levant Company
and was a leading figure in the
forming of the East India Company
which received its Royal Charter in
1600. The company with its own
militia would eventually lead to the
British colonisation of India, Burma
(Myanmar), Malaya, Hong Kong and the
island of Singapore which was
actually brought on their behalf by
Sir Stamford Raffles from its ruler
the Sultan of Johor.
 The first official British envoy to
Myanmar was Captain Michael Symes of
His Britannic Majesty's 7th
Regiment. Arriving in Rangoon (now
reverted to the original Burmese
name Yangon) on 21 February of 1795,
he saw the town as "the most
flourishing seaport in the eastern
World' and the Yangon River as "the
most favourable river in the world
for naval architecture" as he saw
several ships of 900 to 1000 tons
being constructed, considering the
abundance of teak.
On the morning of 30th May 1795, his
fleet of Burmese barges set sail for
the royal capital Amarapura, a
journey that took him 47 days. They
made many stops on the way, and
Symes had the chance to see small
towns as well as Bagan's ancient
temples, where they docked on 11
July. King Bodaw Paya sent a special
barge to Bagan for their
transportation on the last keg of
the journey, a barge with a sail and
32 rowers. The hull was lacquered
red and the rest gilded with pure
gold leaf, while silk awnings gave
shade.
King Bodaw Paya met him with
courtesy if only briefly, as he was
a king more interested in outdoor
activities such as riding or hunting
elephants and less in formal
receptions. He was a good king but
unfortunately under the ruthless
power of his favourite common-born
queen Mai Nu. By 1824, the British
had control of several sea ports in
Lower Myanmar if not Yangon.
 His younger brother King
Tharyarwaddy took over the throne by
force in1837, keeping his brother in
powerless luxury but executing Mai
Nu. Four years into his reign, he
came down the Ayeyarwaddy from Inwa
on his golden Royal barge with a
retinue of fifteen thousand with
nine thousand sent before as an
honour guard.
On his arrival in Yangon, he
re-gilded the spire of the Shwedagon
and his much-loved queen the Lady
Mya Lay donated a new stairway on
the western face of the pagoda
platform. It was a political move
rather than a pilgrimage for his
pomp and ceremony and display of
naval power was meant to uplift the
morale of the people of
British-ruled Lower Myanmar.
King Tharyarwaddy departed early the
next year to return to Amarapura and
in February 1843, he sent a 40 tonne
bronze bell by the Ayeyarwaddy River
to be hung in the north-eastern
corner of the Shwedagon, where it
still hangs.
By 1852 all of lower Myanmar
including Yangon was in British
hands and when King Mindon.
Tharyarwaddy's son, wanted to
replace the 'umbrella' tip of the
Shwedagon in 1871 he was refused
permission by the British to come in
person, so his ministers were sent
down the Ayeyarwaddy carrying the
new umbrella on a fleet of golden
barges.
In 1855 the British sent another
mission to the "Court of Ava" headed
by Major Phayre, mistaking the name
of the previous capital city as the
name for the kingdom. The emissaries
travelled on two IFC boats Lord
William Bentinck and Nerbudda
especially fitted for the important
mission. Leaving Rangoon on 1 August
1855 they arrived at a rendezvous
point near Taungthaman Lake,
Amarapura, on the 27 of August. King
Mindon sent 150 golden boats and a
retinue of 9000 men to escort the
emissaries to his palace but no
treaties were signed.
From his windows, King Mindon could
see the IFC vessels and uneasy that
British ships could come so close to
his palace, he made up his mind to
build a new palace some distance
from the river bank. By the
following year, construction began
and in 1859 he moved to the new
capital he named Yadanabon, Mound of
Gems, more commonly known as
Mandalay.
 He had Italian artisans working for
him at the time and it is said that
the straight and wide streets of
Mandalay were based on Rome's town
plan. In the new palace, delicate
glass mosaic work and a pavilion
with painted walls and a fountain
were also created by his Italian
engineers. The ablest among his four
ministers Yaw Mingyi Po Hlaing built
a two storey brick monastery at the
foot of Mandalay Hill in exquisite
Italian architecture. It remains
just a lovely shell after the
bombings of WWII
The wealth of Upper Myanmar in its
jungles of teak and ruby mines as
well as the important trade route to
China were too much for the British
to ignore, especially as they felt
threatened by the rivalling French.
In 1885, during the reign of King
Mindon's son Thibaw, the British
sent an invading fleet headed by
General Prendergast to finally annex
all of the country.
They sailed up the Irrawaddy River
from Thayet Myo on the 16th of
November on a fleet which included
six IFC steamers and ten flats. They
met resistance at a few towns along
the way but arrived in Mandalay on
28th November and by the next day
the king and his family plus a
number of retainers were taken on
board the Thuriya, another IFC
vessel, and early the next morning
it sailed to Yangon and onwards to
exile in India by another steamer.
The mighty river, mother of Myanmar
giving sustenance and wealth to the
people, has seen many triumphs and
many tragedies and finally, a
lasting victory.
The foreign power ruling her country
left in 1948, and independence was
celebrated on 4 January of that
year. The last British Governor Sir
Hubert Rance handed over power to
the newly-established Myanmar
government led by U Nu, saluted the
union Jack as it was lowered for the
last time, and sailed away from the
Yangon docks on the HMS Birmingham
along the Yangon River, child of the
Ayeyarwaddy.
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