History and culture enthusiasts in Kaohsiung have petitioned to keep three tombs in Fudingjin Public Cemetery (覆鼎金), as they provide a glimpse into the history of the city’s international marine transportation industry.
The cemetery in Sanmin District (三民) has been around since the Japanese colonial era, one of many reasons local history enthusiasts protested against the city government’s plans to relocate it to make room for a park.
A group they formed, Kaohsiung’s Underworld: The Tomb Sweeping Group for Fudingjin, was notified by the city government that the tomb of a foreigner named John William Crawford was found in the area where Japanese are buried.
Photo: Wang Jung-hsiang, Taipei Times
While the group initially thought Crawford was the son of Reverend Hugh Ritchie, the first Presbyterian priest to arrive in Kaohsiung, an inscription was uncovered that showed he was the chief engineer on the French steamship SS Dumont d’Urville, named after French explorer Jules Dumont d’Urville.
The ship’s keel was laid down at Hong Kong’s Whampoa Dock in 1918. Initially named the SS Hermelin by its British owner, the ship changed hands several times before it was sunk on July 3, 1944, by a US torpedo.
The group found that Crawford was born in Greenock, Scotland, in 1881 and died in Kaohsiung in 1935.
As the ship was sold several times — changing hands between Norwegian, Japanese and French owners, as well as its original British owner — and was built in Hong Kong, the group said it “connects” the international shipping culture of those nations and is a part of the history of World War II.
The group has contacted media in Scotland and hopes to find descendants of Crawford or others who sailed on the ship who can provide more information so that its history can be uncovered.
The group has also called on the Kaohsiung City Government to preserve Crawford’s tomb as a “testimony to the rich historical records of Kaohsiung residents.”
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