HF: This extract about Iron and Steel comes from a 1963 report on The Mineral Industry of Hong Kong by JM West. The report mentions several companies we have no information about: Fuji Marden – a joint venture between Fuji Iron Works of Japan and Wheelock Marden of Hong Kong Sigma Shipping which in that year was operating a re-rolling […]
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IDJ has sent a series of articles about managers at Taikoo Dockyard: “Kenneth Edward Grieg, was born in Perth in 1882 and went to school at Perth Academy. At sixteen he entered on an engineering apprenticeship in the Caledonian Railway locomotive shops at Perth but went to the North Eastern Marine Engineering Co. at Wallsend-on-Tyne in 1900 to complete his […]
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HF: The following has been adapted from the company website: In 1928 Yin Chi Chung founded his hand sewing needle factory in Tsingtao, China. This was the first such company in China. By 1935 the company had attracted attention from other major suppliers of hand sewing needles in the world. Representatives of the German company William Prym GmbH came to visit the […]
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HF: I found some very raw information listing “selected examples” of companies in pre-WW2 Hong Kong in the book, Hong Kong’s History: State and Society Under Colonial Rule. We already know something about some of these concerns – Indhhk articles are linked Nanyang Brother Tobacco Co. Ltd Li Man Hing Kwok Weaving / Manufacturing Co. Ltd Ng Jim Kai – Financier of the Chinese […]
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IDJ has sent a series of articles about early managers at Taikoo Dockyard. This first article predates the appointment of the first manager Philip Forster Nicholson in 1907: Adapted from the source below: Early in 1902 before the company was ready to commence operations it was decided to engage a leading Civil Engineer from England to take charge of the construction work, […]
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HF: There have been a number of paint companies manufacturing their products in Hong Kong. A very useful introduction to this industry can be found on the Hong Kong Memory website linked below. Most of the one line founding dates etc come from HKM. Here are brief introductions to the companies I have come across. YL York Lo If you […]
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Elizabeth Ride has come across clearer copies of the BAAG sketch map and key showing Ah King’s Shipyard than those shown when this article was first posted. The map coordinates are also clearer. Ah King´s Shipyard, Map ref 22485404. BAAG reports: Ah King´s Shipyard in Causeway Bay forms part of the No 2 Branch of the Lamma Shipyard. About 150 […]
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HF: The 1909 Directory & Chronicle for China, Japan, Corea, Indo-China…etc, lists AE Griffin as a “Temporary Civil Engineering and Constructional Staff member at the Taikoo Dockyard & Engineering Comapny of Hongkong Ltd.” Griffin is the first listed of 26 such staff and therefore was probably the most senior. Indeed the paragraph before the concluding one in the following paper […]
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Stephen Davies says the basic story of ICSN is best located in the book, Beancaker to boxboat. Jardine operated ships using the Jardine Matheson house flag from pretty early on – the earliest I think I have dated seems to be from the late 1820s. From that date ships came and went, but nothing that really feels like a JM shipping line […]
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Nikki Veriga sent us information about her grandfather James Thirlwell who was a Master Mariner and captained the tug “Tai Koo” on her final voyage. There were actually three Tai Koo Shipyard tugs and the one Nikki’s grandfather was captain of was number 2. Many thanks to IDJ for sending the image of a belching Tai Koo Tug 2 shown above. […]
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