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Update 11/29/2014: Congratulations to Mayor Tsai, now New Taipei City Councilman-elect.

Candidate No 5 Dr Tsai Yeh-Wei

Port of Tamsui

Source: 莊家維，〈近代淡水聚落的空間構成與變化〉，頁87，
〈1885年淡水聚落沿岸碼頭分布推測圖〉

To most Tamsui-lang, the Port of Tamsui 淡水港 refers to the stretch of shoreline in front of MaZu Temple on Chung Cheng Road. Where, junks from China came and went, local fishing fleets and numerous sampans congregated before the construction of the first fisherman's wharf in the 1950s. After that, motorized deep-sea fishing ships were directed to dock in this wharf to shield them from storms. The second fisherman's wharf with its famed Lovers' Bridge came in later, in ca 2003.

In its heyday, Tamsui Port actually had several active wharfs. The map of wharfs of 1885 (above) shows from top left, those belonging to (1) Customs Office, (2) British Consulate, (3) John Dodd & Co, (4) Douglas, Lapraik & Co, (5) Tan Ah-Sun, (6) John Dodd, and (7) the Han civilians.

The Customs Office area was opened for business during the Qing era and continued into the Japanese colonial rule to accommodate steam ships arriving from overseas (and also island-wide inter-port sea transports). It has been off-limits to Tamsui locals/civilians since 1945, occupied by various governmental units that included the navy, coast guard and marines, Keelung Customs Office, even a pocket-sized submarine building group. After 4 years of renovation, this area is now open to the tourists.

Good luck Mayor Tsai

To most Tamsui-lang, Tamsui will always remain a Township 鎮, never a District 區 of New Taipei City, and its chief administrator will always be our Mayor 鎮長, not a district director. Following the tradition of all mayors of Tamsui, Mayor Tsai Yeh-Wei 蔡葉偉 has done, in the past 9 years, the most in restoring Tamsui to its former glory and in fact much more. For which, we the present and past citizens are very grateful.

Mayor Tsai is now the No 5 senatorial candidate of the New Taipei City Council. When elected, he will no doubt continue to oversee the re-construction of not only Tamsui Township proper but also Ba-Li, San-Zi, and Shi-Men Districts. We look forward to his becoming the voice for the residents of these four major population centers.

Election day: Nov 29, 2014

Tamsui WELL

Source: https://www.facebook.com/2014awei

A message from Mayor of Tamsui, Dr Tsai Yeh-Wei, "淡海蔚城計畫，其實就是Well Town的概念，什麼是WELL town 即Work (新興產業，在地工作) Eco (環保生態社區) Leisure (休閒生活環境)及 Lrt (環保交通工具)"

Future city plans for Greater Tamsui will be based on WELL, i.e., Work, Ecology, Leisure, and Local environmentally friendly transport. 

Tamsui is the perpetual hometown to many, not only those born and bred here and those relocated elsewhere even overseas. It is open to newcomers as WELL.

Italians in Tamsui 1925

Of the 55,000-km route, 40,000 km was flown along the coastlines, 
8,000 was on the open sea and 7,000 over land 

Reader Yosh3 has called our attention to the map above. According to Mr 曾令毅 [here], it was an exploratory inter-continental flight piloted by Italian Air Force Commander Francesco de Pinedo and accompanying machinist NCO Ernesto Companelli. They arrived in Tamsui from the Philippines on September 18, 1925, on the Savoia S-16, and after re-fueling and some maintenance work, departed on the 21st for Shanghai and then Kagoshima. This 55,000-km journey started from Rome on April 21 that eventually covered India, Australia, China, and Japan.

The seaplane arriving in Sydney

For more on this epic flight, see Yosh3's comments here: http://danshuihistory.blogspot.com/2014/08/rising-sun-petroleum.html#comment-form

Sweetfish 香魚

Sweetfish 香魚 (aka 桀魚) may have a connection with Tamsui. Read on.

Once aplenty in 碧潭Bi-tan, the fish went extinct in 1980. Those available now are farmed from Japanese stock. The extinction has always been blamed on over-fishing, which is only partially true, because it was really owing to the disruption of the life cycle of sweetfish.

We now know, in the not too distant past, sweetfish traveled from the sea up to a special brook in 瑞芳 and went upstream to spawn at the very source of the water, 桀魚坑. Just like salmon, when the adult fish reached sexual maturity, they would return from the ocean to spawn in their ancestral fresh-water habitat. The ones in 碧潭 would have started their journey from Tamsui by entering through the mouth of Tamsui River from Taiwan Strait and went all the way up 新店溪XinDian River to 碧潭 and beyond. For a time, the fish was often caught in Tamsui River (see here) and appeared in 瑠公圳; the latter an aqueduct built in 1753, channeling water from 新店溪 to SongShan area before it became an open sewer in 1934 (now covered up, sandwiched between the in- and out-bound lanes of 新生南路). In 1922, small estuaries were actually constructed along 新店溪 to facilitate spawning of the fish; the efforts did not continue, however.

This photo (and the map below, both) kindly provided by 洪惠文 shows her father Dr Hong Tsu-Pei imitating the Aboriginal spear-fishing the sweetfish in 碧潭, taken during an outing in 1946. This indicates that the fish was still plentiful at that time:

In fact, the 1951 map (above) also shows 桀魚 (fish symbol below pink 台北市 among noted product of Taiwan. Around 1955, to maintain the water level of 碧潭 so the water supply to surrounding areas and boating activities for tourists could be sustained, a low-tech stone-dam using 竹蛇籠 (grapefruit-sized stones packed into long cylindrical bamboo cages) was built downstream from the suspension bridge (below). Without any fish ladders in place, this dam effectively cut off the home-coming path of sweetfish. Worse, the fish upstream were trapped and every single last one was caught and eaten (hence the urban legend of over-fishing).

Source: http://taipics.com/taipei_bitan.php

Google maps show a newer dam immediately downstream from Route 110 Bridge (秀朗堰, built in year 2000). Also, 直潭壩 upstreams constructed in 1973-78 as a drinking-water reservoir for the Greater Taipei. Fish ladders were never in the plans. Even if any, it'll no longer be relevant as the original red-finned 桀魚 is long gone.

John Dodd 陶德

Finally, more information on John Dodd, father of oolong tea and long-time resident of Tamsui, provided by Niki JP Alsford, author of "The Witnessed Account of British Resident John Dodd at Tamsui" (2010) in a discussion thread in Katy Biggs's facebook posts.
終於找到有關陶德，台灣烏龍茶之父和長期的淡水住民，的訊息了。資料是轉載自Katy Biggs 【洪惠文 - 淡水第一任街長洪以南曾孫女】臉書的相關評論線，主要是基於Niki JP Alsford所詮釋的陶德原著【Journal of a blockaded resident in North Formosa during the Franco-Chinese War, 1884-5】，以及Asford本人的意見和看法。

(1) First, was John Dodd a Scot or an Englishman?
第一個問題是陶德是蘇格蘭人還是英格蘭人? 

The answer seems to be an Englishman if his birthplace is taken into account. Following Alsford's lead, Biggs has found the baptism record of John Dodd:
以出生地來說，他應該是英格蘭人，由Asford的資料，Biggs 找到陶德的受洗記錄：

Baptism: 11 Nov 1838 St John, Preston, Lancashire, England
John Dodd - [Child] of John Dodd & Nanny
Abode: Shambles
Occupation: Butcher
Baptised by: Charles Wagstaff Curate
Register: Baptisms 1838 - 1840, Page 56, Entry 444

Dodd's parents were therefore John Dodd (the senior) and Nanny Dodd* (*Or Nancy Dodd - see Alsford's book, footnote on p 5).
所以陶德是出生在英格蘭的藍卡郡，他的父親也叫John Dodd,母親是Nanny Dodd (或Nancy Dodd - Asford 著作第5頁註腳).

However, in the book by 陳政三 "泡茶走西仔反: 清法戰爭台灣外記" page 001, first phrase: "陶德 英國蘇格蘭人 [i.e., a Scot]".  The Tamsui Township History has only one sentence mentioning 陶德 as 英人 which can be either British or English.
不過陳政三編譯陶德原著的【泡茶走西仔反: 清法戰爭台灣外記】的第一頁第一句就說了，“陶德  英國蘇格蘭人”. 【淡水鎮志】則僅提“英人"陶德成立寶順洋行“，沒有注明是不列顛(包括蘇格蘭)還是英格蘭英人.

Alsford is of the opinion that (1) it is through John Dodd’s mother’s family (nee Atkinson) that a Scottish heritage exists. At present this is an educated guess based on his family connections and (2) I honestly believe that the Scots had (as in many ways they still do) a reputation as being men of valour – see Grant Simpson’s, 1992 book on The Scottish Soldier Abroad. It is not over-fanciful to imagine that both Dodd and Pickering [Pickering was born in Eastwood, Nottinghamshire on 9 June 1840 – and again is not Scottish] wanted to adopt such mannerism and may well have identified themselves as Scottish – alternatively, particularly in the case of Dodd, when asked where he was from he probably would have said close to ‘Scotland’ and this later stuck.
Alsford 認為陶德是蘇格蘭人的記錄或傳說的源由有兩個可能，(1) 他從研究結果推測陶德的蘇格蘭血統來自母親的娘家Atkinson家族，(2) 蘇格蘭人一向被認為是驍勇善戰的男子漢 （可參考Grant Simpson的1992 著作【The Scottish Soldier Abroad】）。所以像陶德及同時代的Pickering（註： William Pickering， 1840-1907，是英格蘭人，香港海關官員，來過台灣，著【Pioneering in Formosa】,後任新加坡華人保護官)，很可能都自稱蘇格蘭人，連行為習俗都也悉仿蘇格蘭人。也許當年有人問起陶德原籍，他的回答是蘇格蘭人，可能就是如此，沿傳迄今。

(2) Did John Dodd have a family while in Taiwan since it is believed that Dodd fathered two children Valentine and Elaine? 
陶德旅台期間有無成家，因為他當時似乎有子女各一，名為Valentine及Elaine?

According to Alsford, "John did father two children – though recent research (namely from family photos) seems to confirm that Taihee (wife of his children) was actually from Hong Kong. So Dodd was probably not a ‘father’ in the traditional sense whilst in Taiwan. General Victorian sensibilities towards cross-cultural marriage are well documented particularly the transnational histories of Eurasian children (of which both John Valentine and Elaine Dodd; as well as MacKay’s children were considered)."
據Alsford的研究，陶德是有子女Valentine和Elaine，其生母是香港人,名為Taihee.陶德應該只是生父，不是正式的父親·，因為維多利亞時代對這種跨文化婚姻一般並不十分認可，對跨國界的歐亞混血兒也不是完全包容（包括陶德和馬偕博士的子女在內）。

(3) What happened after Dodd left Tamsui？
陶德離開淡水後，生涯如何?

Again, Alsford: "Finally on his return to England he married Mary on 7 August 1893 in Atcham in Shropshire (a border country with Wales). Mary’s father was a cabinet maker from a town (Porthmadoc) not too far from where Dodd finally settles (Trefriw) in a house he names Glen Mair (or Mary’s Valley). As the census confirms Dodd was a man of independent means (‘retired merchant from China’) he more than likely decided to move closer to Mary’s ancestral home."
根據Alsford, 陶德返英後，在1893年8月7日與Mary結婚，地點是靠近與威爾士邊界相近的Shropshire郡Atcham鎮。Mary的父親是製作櫥櫃的木匠，來自Porthmadoc,和陶德最後定居的Trefriw鎮不遠。陶德命名他的住宅為Glen Mair (意為Mary's Valley瑪麗山谷）。當地的戶口調查列陶德為富人（“從中國退休的商人”）。陶德大約是最後決定定居在Mary的老家，沒有再回原籍。

Niki Alsford is currently at School of Oriental & African Studies, University of London,  
email: na29@soas.ac.uk 
We also wish to thank Jerome F Keating for pointing the way