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.