Harcourt & Co is no more

Dangerous waters

From March 1842 you trade from Hong Kong with the brig Lady Ashby, $20,000 in cash and $30,000 owed to the moneylender Wu Ah-sing at 4% a month.

• Buy cheap, sail, sell dear. Every trade moves the price. Interest, wages and rent come out of your cash on the 1st.
• Shipyards at Hong Kong, Macao, Singapore and Bangkok sell lorchas, brigs, junks and opium clippers, each with her own captain.
• Give each ship her own orders. Time runs until the next ship reaches port. Pick a ship in the list above her card.
• Every passage wears the hull, which slows her. Repair at any shipyard.
• New: pirates, typhoons (July to October), the mandarin's war junks when you carry opium near China, fever on long passages, and mutiny when wages go unpaid. Each is a choice, with the odds and your captain's advice.

Drag to move the chart; pinch or scroll to zoom. Rival standings and more ports come in later milestones.