Cosmopolitan Dock, layout of the yard plan, 1959
Cosmopolitan Dock was completed on 23rd October and demolished around 31st December 1972. (1)
Stephen Davies sent the following information in July 2015: All I know of the dock’s early years are from newspaper stories in the HK Daily Press, etc. and what’s in Austin Coates’ Ships on the shore. There are lots of stories (more than I have time to scribble down), the sensational murder of 1876 of Chun Apak that occupied lots of column inches. The theft of iron from there in 1881. And the regular passage of ships, not well covered in the difficult early years but then pretty regular – one ship in 1878, 6 in 1879, 6 in 1880 (including 1 RN and 1 Chinese Maritime Customs), picking up in 1881 to 12 and then 26 in 1883 including 3 RN. I’m plodding through extracting data, but it’s a long haul. Evidently the dock was quite busy and there is plenty of evidence that the double dock system was in regular use, often with two ships coming out at the same time. None of the top HK lines seem to have used Cosmopolitan but rather ships and lines with Chinese ownership (like the Oriental and Occidental) and other non-Brits and Americans like the Pacific Mail Steam Ship Co. plus the occasional smaller RN vessel.
Peter Crush emailed the following on 14th July 2020: I have been reading with interest the INDHK articles on Cosmopolitan Docks which were amalgamated with the HK & Whampoa Dock Co.’s portfolio of facilities. Just by coincidence there is good drawing of the Cosmopolitan facilities as they were 1954-1959 being exhibited right now at the Hong Kong History Museum in their special exhibition hall. They have an excellent Hong Kong Industry Exhibition on display.
Peter sent a photo he took of this drawing which was ‘optimized’ by Yannis Baritakis, on Syros Island, Greece on 7th August 2020, and is shown below.
Sources:
This article was first posted on 5th August 2020.
Indhhk Related articles:
- Cosmopolitan Dock – unusual double dock feature
- Cosmopolitan Docks during the Japanese Occupation, 1942-1945
- BAAG Report KWIZ #66 Naval Reports – information about Taikoo, Aberdeen, Kowloon & Cosmopolitan dockyards
- BAAG Report KWIZ #70 Naval Reports – information about Kowloon, Taikoo, Naval and Cosmopolitan dockyards
- BAAG Report KWIZ #72 Naval Reports – information about Cosmopolitan, Kowloon, Taikoo and Naval dockyards and Kowloon wharves