"In any case, I am here because while doing research on Hong Kong in the mid-1800's, I realized that in addition to Chinese junks with their beautiful butterfly-wing sails, the Hong Kong harbor was often crowded with brigs, barques, brigantines, clippers, barquentines, East Indiamen, ships-of-the-line, sloops-of-war, paddlewheel steamers, merchant ships, and, yes, by God, frigates.
"For many years I looked out over modern Hong Kong harbor and I spent many hours pouring over the beautiful paintings of the period showing the harbor and tall ships in all their glory. I walked the very lanes described by sailors where once stood taverns, brothels, opium dens, gambling houses and ship chandlers. I often stood imagining Hong Kong as it once was with the "shady shops in Endicott Lane, where ships' stores were often to be had cheap and no questions asked...." And I had often thought, wouldn't it be wonderful to actually work on such a ship to really know what it was like? And then one day while visiting New York City's South Street Seaport, all of a sudden, before my very eyes, there it was, coming up the East River: an honest-to-God, three-masted, 24-gun, wooden frigate!
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"In any case, I am here
"In any case, I am here because while doing research on Hong Kong in the mid-1800's, I realized that in addition to Chinese junks with their beautiful butterfly-wing sails, the Hong Kong harbor was often crowded with brigs, barques, brigantines, clippers, barquentines, East Indiamen, ships-of-the-line, sloops-of-war, paddlewheel steamers, merchant ships, and, yes, by God, frigates.
"For many years I looked out over modern Hong Kong harbor and I spent many hours pouring over the beautiful paintings of the period showing the harbor and tall ships in all their glory. I walked the very lanes described by sailors where once stood taverns, brothels, opium dens, gambling houses and ship chandlers. I often stood imagining Hong Kong as it once was with the "shady shops in Endicott Lane, where ships' stores were often to be had cheap and no questions asked...." And I had often thought, wouldn't it be wonderful to actually work on such a ship to really know what it was like? And then one day while visiting New York City's South Street Seaport, all of a sudden, before my very eyes, there it was, coming up the East River: an honest-to-God, three-masted, 24-gun, wooden frigate!
more ... http://www.deanbarrettmystery.com/four_days_before_the_mast.htm