★ The Junk Keying ★

China White metal medal n.d. [1848], Junk Keying

China. White metal medal n.d. [1848] (45 mm, 25.61 g), by Thomas Halliday. "Voyage of the Junk Keying".
Obv. THE CHINESE JUNK / "KEYING", starboard view of junk ship with three sails set.
Rev. Sixteen line inscription: THE FIRST JUNK / THAT EVER ROUNDED / THE CAPE OF GOOD HOPE. OR / APPEARED IN BRITISH WATERS. / HER DIMENSIONS ARE / LENGTH, 160FT, DEPTH OF HOLD, 12FT, / BURDEN, 800 TONS, CHINESE MEASUREMENT / RUDDER, 7 1/2 TONS, MAINSAIL, 9 TONS, / MAINMAST, 85FT LONG FROM DECK / THE SHIP IS BUILT OF TEAK WOOD / SHE SAILED FROM HONG KONG 6TH / DECEMBER 1846, ARRIVED IN / ENGLAND 27TH MARCH 1848 / 477 DAYS FROM CANTON / 'CAPTAIN KELLETT ' / COMMANDER.
BHM 2315.

Extremely fine.

This medal commemorates the first Chinese Junk boat to sail from China to England. The Keying was a three-masted, 800-ton Foochow Chinese trading junk which sailed from Hong Kong in 1846 around the Cape of Good Hope first to New York and Boston and then to Britain in 1848.