Stephen Davies: The interesting thing about Cosmopolitan Dock – unique in HK and quite uncommon elsewhere – is that it was designed from the outset as two docks in one; an inner and an outer. The dock had a fat, slightly shorter outer part (212 x 100 feet) and a slightly narrower, slightly longer inner part (234 x 83 feet – […]
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HF: It was never mined here. So this article is an initial attempt to put together what little we have about importing coal and how it was used in Hong Kong: transport, manufacturing, utilities, shipping, domestically…can you add to this article? I have also included charcoal and for general interest information about and images of China and Taiwan/Formosa on these […]
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HF: I was told many years ago that Hong Kong had the most ferry routes of any city in the world. And that Sydney was second and Seattle third. If that was true back in the 1980s it may not be so in 2014. During this period I have seen several routes vanish, including Jordan Road to Central, a wonderful […]
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York Lo: Kwong Sang Engineering (廣生機器廠) Left: Kwong Sang Engineering founder Ng Kai-lau (HK Pun U District Association, 1955); Right: Family of Kwong Sang founder Ng Kai-lau welcoming his fifth son Chung-yau (triangle) back from studies in the US in 1961. (KSDN, 1961-7-7) Kwong Sang Engineering was one of the oldest and largest manufacturers of ship machinery in Hong Kong […]
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On August 4, 1947, the 10,471 ton Tien Loong was the first steamship owned, managed, financed and crewed by Chinese, to sail from Shanghai to France. And was thus the first such vessel to sail in the Atlantic Ocean. She arrived in Le Havre, France on October 28. Chinese Maritime Trust (a sister company of Island Navigation Corp.) had signed […]
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IDJ remembers seeing log sawing by hand particularly in shipyards building wooden junks and sampans but also on construction sites. Many had two or four men pushing and pulling from above and below. They could tear through a log surprisingly accurately and quickly. The frame’s sidebars were used to guide the saw blade in a straight line and achieve the right […]
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Louis Ha and Dan Waters have kindly both given permission to post their article published in the HKBRAS Journal, Volume 41, 2001. This contains a great deal of information. In particular details about these Hong Kong lighthouses: Green Island Cape Collinson Waglan Tang Lung Chau On life at the lighthouses: Climatic conditions Water Supply Manpower Defence Communications Creature comforts and […]
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Elizabeth Ride: Extracts from reports in the BAAG Intelligence Summaries. Layout [Map reference 192583: GSGS 3868 1/20,000 HK&NT]. Sketch not found, but this Japanese map of the harbour and facilities may contain some information to readers of Japanese. 2. During the Occupation. “According to one source, many of the ships salvaged by the Japanese were taken to this dockyard for repair.” 1943 […]
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IDJ has sent this monograph of the dramatic changes that occurred in Tuen Mun in the late 1970s and early 1980s. It starts rather gloomily, “Castle Peak, in reality a string of scattered settlements along the shoreline of the Bay, a straggle of ramshackle squatter huts pushing up the creek of the Tuen Mun river…” click the pages to enlarge. […]
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HF: Cheoy Lee Shipyard operated at Penny’s Bay, Lantau from 1964 to April 2001. The company was founded in 1870 in Shanghai by the Lo family. In 1936 when the Japanese Imperial Army [invaded China] the yard was moved to British-controlled Hong Kong, where the Lo family thought the yard would be safe. But the Japanese took over Hong Kong, too, […]
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