Opium ships at Lintin, China

This painting shows three opium ships off Lintin Island in the mid-1820s. To the right is one of the 'fast crabs' used to smuggle opium into the Pearl River Delta. All the ships in this picture would have been seen by the Chinese authorities as sea bandits. Lintin lay either in the 'outer sea' or on the 'sea frontier' where official Chinese control was weak. That is why it was chosen as the rendezvous for smuggling.