author

W. Hastings Macaulay

A mid-19th-century travel writer, this author is known for a lively account of a voyage through the China Seas that begins from the Charlestown Navy Yard in 1850. His writing captures the curiosity, movement, and atmosphere of long-distance sea travel in an age of expanding global contact.

1 Audiobook

Kathay: A Cruise in the China Seas

Kathay: A Cruise in the China Seas

by W. Hastings Macaulay

About the author

Very little biographical information about this author is readily confirmed online, but he is clearly associated with the travel narrative Kathay: A Cruise in the China Seas. The book was published in 1852 and survives through major public-domain and books catalog sources.

In Kathay, the narrator describes departing from the Navy Yard in Charlestown, Massachusetts, on January 29, 1850, and records a voyage through places including Hong Kong, Canton, and Macao. The work reads as a firsthand travel account, with an eye for daily life, port cities, and the experience of moving by sea across a changing world.

Because reliable biographical records for W. Hastings Macaulay are scarce, it is safest to remember him through this book: a compact, vivid travelogue from the 1850s that offers modern listeners a window into maritime travel and Western encounters with East Asia.