Chow Phya Technical Specification

Completed April 1858; Official No. 71507; Code Letters WCPL; Code Letters TCKP.
Owners: Kendall Bros & Co, Liverpool; by 1869 Low Poh Yim (Bangkok) ( became bankrupt) Penang; by 1873 Khoo Teong Poo (Chop Bun Hin) Penang; June 1875 Abdul Rahim ( Singapore)Penang; 1878 Ong Beng Tek, Penang; by 1890 Khoo Teong Poh (Singapore) Penang; 1894 Kana Moona Kalungappa Chitty, Singapore; 1903-06 Wee Tek Seng, Riouw, Holland.
It is difficult to trace all the owners of the Chow Phya as she spent much of her early life on charter. It is believed that her first owner was the King of Siam (modern day Thailand) & it is possible that Kendall of Liverpool were agents. In 1875 when Abdul Rahim bought the vessel he became a British National so that he could fly the British flag.
Masters: 1858-61 Campbell; October 1859 Achune; 1861-75 George Orton (b. 1823 London C.N. 15380 London 1849); 1877-79 William Tweddell; 1887 Walter Myles; 1889 William Cockburne; 1892 CB Carroll; 1898-1902 Thomas Henry Jellicoe (C.N. 025058 London 1881) (died September 1902); 1902 Flak; 1904 Bratt.
Miscellaneous: The Chow Phya with her master, George Orson, were in the original two memoirs written about events in the 1860’s The English Governess at the Siamese Court (1870) & Romance of the Harem (1872) on which Rodgers & Hammerstein’s play ‘The King & I’ was based.
An excerpt from Anna & the King of Siam:

‘The Siamese steamer Chow Phya, most modern of the ships plying between Singapore and Bangkok, came to anchor outside the bar at the mouth of the River Chow Phya. A troupe of circus performers was hanging over the rails trying to catch the first glimpse of the country whose king had invited them to entertain his extensive family. Their trained dogs were barking and snarling at the two dogs belonging to the captain of the ship, George Orton, but Jip and Trumpet were disdainful and superior.’

January 1861 Mr G Dunn, proprietor of the Bankok Steam Rice Mills, died aboard the Chow Phya 48 hours after she left Singapore; 11 October 1865 a Chinese servant, who had been employed by the chief engineer aboard the Chow Phya, absconded with 285 Singapore dollars was arrested on 18 October in the jungle near the Bukit Timah police station. When he was searched he still had $110 but stated he had gambled the rest of the money; 2 August 1867 arrived Singapore bringing news of the death of the eldest son of the King of Siam; 1 November 1878 at the Prince Edward Island Court, William Tweddell was found guilty of negligence through being drunk whilst master of the Chow Phya. His certificate was suspended for four months; 16 February 1887 Peter MacGregor of Dumbarton, engineer, died at Singapore; 13 January 1889 she was in collision with the British steamer Pyah Pekhetin the Klang Strait. The Pyah Pekhet sank in minutes & out of 86 aboard 14 went down with her. The master of the Chow Phya, William Cockburne, was found to blame for the disaster & his certificate was suspended for six months with him being given a mate’s certificate for that period. He was also ordered to pay $100 towards the cost of the inquiry; 12 August 1890 from Malacca for Klang, about 10 miles of Cape Rachado in the Straits of Malacca, the Chow Phya struck the steamer Sappho on her starboard side causing considerable damage. The mate, Moyat, had his certificate suspended for six months. An action was brought by the Straits SS Co, owners of the Sappho, for $40,000 for damages caused by the collision; February 1902 dry docked at Keppel harbour. 

From An Anecdotal History of Old Times in Singapore by Charles Burton Buckley, 1902:

‘The steamer Chow Phya is worthy of notice, as she seems to have made a wonderful record of steamer life in Singapore. She was built at West Hartlepool in 1858, and was running for years between Bangkok and Singapore, owned by the King of Siam or his Prime Minister, after whom she was named. She was sold in what was thought to be her old age, many years since, but is still running regularly in the Straits, to Malacca and Klang, but is close to the end of her life now. She was built of very good half-inch iron plates and there has been no vessel in the Straits like her.

Her captain in the Bangkok trade was very well known in Singapore; he died here in 1885, 62 years of age. He was the brother of the famous claimant in the Tichborne case. A very hard working, persevering man & quite a character in Singapore. The Engineer of the Chow Phya at the beginning was Mr. Hargreaves, one of the founders afterwards of Riley, Hargreaves & Co.’

Bound from Kelantan & Singapore on about 5 December 1904 the Chow Phya drifted ashore during a heavy gale off Kuala Telubin on the Patani coast & was left high & dry on a sand bank. The rough weather at the time made it impossible for her to be dug out. Later an attempt had been made to re-float her by a Malay skipper & a Chinese engineer but they had only succeeded in driving her further ashore. As the years passed a sand bar emerged between her & the sea & eventually coconut palms grew on the bar. On 3 September 1932 an article in the Straits Times referred to the masts of the Chow Phya being seen above the coconut palms.

During the war she was cut up for the plates etc. Her water tanks were taken out & every bit of usable material removed.