General on the Great Hill: US Civil War Hero Visits Penang – Part 1
By Eugene Quah
December 2022 LEST WE FORGET
Enter the GeneralON FRIDAY, March 28, 1879, the 1,615-tonne schooner, S.S. Simla[1] of the British-India Navigation Company (B.I.S.N. Co) – a swift, “pleasant and comfortable” ship, steamed down the Isthmus of Kra towards British Malaya.[2] It had left the small town of Moulmein, British Burma's chief port, three days earlier.[3] Captain Franks, “a young and able officer”, steered the nearly 86 metre-long, barely a-year-old vessel southwards towards the British Crown Colony of the Straits Settlements.[4]After passing Phuket, the ship finally entered one...
Eugene Quah
is an independent researcher and writer who is working on a book tentatively called “Illustrated Guide to the North Coast of Penang”. He rediscovered the joys of writing after moving back to Penang from abroad.
