SS Alaska – temporary casualty of 1874 Typhoon at Aberdeen Dock

HF: The SS Alaska was a 4,012 ton, 8 speed, side-wheel steamship launched on 27th November 27th 1867 for the Pacific Mail Steamship Company. She saw service between New York and Aspinwall, now known as Colón, Panama, and was later used on the San Francisco to Panama City and San Francisco to Hong Kong routes until 1879. During the night of Tuesday 22 September […]

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Waterfront Air – 2008 proposed HK to Macau seaplanes

Waterfront Air SCMP 14.7.2008 Map Of Proposed HK Location

HF: Waterfront Air (海翔航空) was an airline which was set up in 2008, (or possibly 2007,) with the aim of reintroducing seaplane services from Hong Kong’s harbour, initially with HK to Macau flights. Seaplanes operated in Hong Kong from the 1920s to the mid-1960s. And I believe scheduled seaplane services operated between Hong Kong and Macau between the 1930s and 1950s. With […]

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Taikoo Dockyard – photos of the yard, departments, workshops and main office – c1954

IDJ has sent these photos extracted from an in-house Taikoo Dockyard publication of 1954. This was the period midway between the dockyard’s expansion after the Second World War during which extensive destruction had been caused both by the Japanese during their occupation in 1942–45 and allied bombing prior to the liberation of Hong Kong. And the Swire Group’s decision in the […]

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Flagstaff House

Flagstaff House

Hugh Farmer: I was not sure whether to include the following material in an article for this website. However, I thought its origin was worthy of being graded as Hong Kong industrial history. Flagstaff House, built in 1846, is the oldest example of colonial architecture remaining in Hong Kong. It is located at 10 Cotton Tree Drive, Central – within […]

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King’s Dyeing and Weaving Factory

HF: This company was incorporated on 12th January 1965 and was dissolved in 2001. In 1972 [in Hong Kong the] dyeing industry was very prosperous. There were over ten large factories with each employing over a thousand workers. These factories included China Dyeing Works, Pacific Dyeing Works, King’s Dyeing Factory, Link Dyeing Works, Island Dyeing and Printing Company, Winnitex Limited, […]

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Frosty Moller – tug involved in evacuation of Waglan Island lighthouse staff, December 1941

HF: The article, Waglan Island lighthouse – a brief history, contains a brief mention of the Frosty Moller: Stephen Davies: Come the Japanese invasion in 1941, as far as I know, the original lens was broken up and thrown down the cliff into the water and the lighthouse machinery put out of commission. In Tony Banham’s exhaustive campaign narration (linked below), […]

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Forward Winsome – a brief history of a major HK toy company

Hugh Farmer: Yuen Hing Hong & Co was established in 1945 by a Mr Yeung. and appears to have started out in “the raw plastic business acting as an agent importers from Britain, USA, Germany and Italy.”[1] [Cecilia Young, would like to make it clear that she finds errors and discrepancies in this article. Ms Young is the daughter of […]

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William MacGregor Smith (Wahee, Smith & Co.) c1831- c1907

York Lo has sent the following information about William MacGregor Smith. He was the Smith in Wahee, Smith & Co which in turn became The China Sugar Refinery. Smith is buried in HK cemetery – the tombstone states he was 76 (and was erected in 1907) and was from Scotland. On page 50 of Carl Smith’s book Chinese Christians there is […]

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