Empress of China sails from New York.

The ship carries a cargo of ginseng and arrives in Guangzhou (then Canton) on August 28, 1784 [23-Morison]. The first U.S. ship to engage in the China trade, its supercargo is Maj. Samuel Shaw of Boston, who subsequently writes to his brothers, “If I live to return, I shall be in very easy circumstances.” He does – and is – when the ship returns in May 1785. The first Massachusetts ship to trade with China is the Grand Turk, which sails from Salem in 1786. The first from Boston to trade with China sails in 1787.*