This sepia-toned photograph, part of a pre-WWII U.S. Navy China collection, shows passengers aboard a small steam launch alongside a larger vessel, likely photographed during the interwar years when the U.S. Asiatic Fleet and Yangtze Patrol maintained a regular presence in Chinese waters. Such small craft ferried naval personnel, diplomats, and American civilians between ship and shore in China's busy treaty ports. Project: 218177