HF: While on holiday recently in Aberystwyth, Wales, UK, I came across this memorial photograph of Able Seaman, C Williams. The ‘Hongkong Dockyard’ could refer to either of the two large shipyards in 1910, Taikoo, or HK and Whampoa. However the latter was more usually known as Kowloon Docks so I am guessing AB Williams died at Taikoo on HK […]
» Read more
HF: Bill Burns runs a fascinating and detailed website about the history of submarine communication cables (linked at the end of this article). He has kindly sent four maps related to the worldwide network of such cables in 1901 and 1991. Two of the maps are centred on Hong Kong. The first is a 1901 World Map of “Grandes Communications […]
» Read more
Stephen Davies provides further information about the history of Waglan Island lighthouse, its link to another in NE China and to two European companies. And a Swede who was awarded the Nobel prize for Physics for his invention regarding the illumination of lighthouses. SD: The light was built by Paris lighthouse makers Barbier, Bénard & Turenne as one of two identical lights for the […]
» Read more
Hugh Farmer: New information in red. In 1932 Earle’s Shipbuilding and Engineering Company, Hull, UK, was acquired by National Shipbuilders Security and dismantled, with the yard’s fitting-out crane being sold off to the Kowloon (HK & Whampoa) Dockyard in Hong Kong. Tymon Mellor: In November 1937, the Whampoa docks at Hung Hom were connected to the KCR by a 1.090ft siding down […]
» Read more
Thanks to IDJ for sending in this article thereby enlarging our knowledge about the collection of nightsoil in Hong Kong and hopefully making us appreciate the modern collection and treatment of sewage. Thanks also to SCT for proofreading the retyped article. New nightsoil removal methods in Hongkong Combating the Cholera Menace in the Colony Drastic changes in the present method […]
» Read more
Philip Edward Kenny: These days it’s the location of an MTR station which gets tourists to nearby Disneyland on Lantau Island, but in 1983 it was the location used for a scene in the film Project A, when Sammo Hung leads the gangsters to his cache of hidden guns only to find that Jackie Chan has beaten him to it – […]
» Read more
Peter Crush has kindly sent the following article about the Hongkong Telephone Company which was first published in the Far Eastern Review of September 1933. Many thanks to SCT for proofreading the retyped article shown below. And thanks to Peter for improving the clarity of the first two images below. Please note the images do not appear in the same […]
» Read more
IDJ: This image was accompanied by the following text: “The Rohr “Romag” suspended monorail system was proposed for a line in Kowloon in 1974. This montage indicates how Kwun Tong Road adjacent to what is now Kowloon Bay MTR station might have looked although three-car trains of the magnetic-attraction system were proposed. (HK Aerial Rapid Transit Ltd)” See: Rohr Inc […]
» Read more
HF: The 1962 Hong Kong Annual Report states: The Standard Oil Company of New York, now known as the Mobil Petroleum Company Incorporated, started operations in Hong Kong in 1894 and built their present oil berth and tank farm at Lai Chi Kok in 1904. This article is from Wright 20th Century Impressions THE STANDARD OIL COMPANY OF NEW YORK. […]
» Read more
HF: In my article, Universal Dockyard Ltd, Yau Tong I suggested that a fenced area to the immediate East of Universal was Yau Wing Shipyard whose main building had been demolished but which ran along Ko Fai Road. A map also indicated that there were slipways running from this building north into the sea. I have revisited the area and […]
» Read more