HF: The Indo-China Steam Navigation Company Ltd (ICSNC), was established in 1873 as a subsidiary of Hong Kong based Jardine, Matheson & Co. With the advent of steam, Jardines became concerned that it might lose its former advantage in operating fast clippers. As a result, the company became seriously involved in steamships in the mid-1850s servicing the Bengal – China trade. […]
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HF: Sent in by IDJ and posted here 81 years to the day after first being published in 1939. I am a little unsure of the spelling of one shipping company mentioned, indicated by [?] and would be grateful to be informed of any errors I have made in retyping the original article. Hongkong Shipyards Among World’s Busiest THE TOTAL […]
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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 […]
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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 […]
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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 […]
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List of Japanese ships arriving and departing Hong Kong during the Japanese Occupation WWII Introduction Peter Cundall: Immediately prior to the outbreak of the Pacific War Hong Kong was a major commercial port, with Allied and neutral shipping using the port as a trading location free of Japanese control and a safe-haven for Chinese ships that would otherwise be seized. […]
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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 […]
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Elizabeth Ride has sent BAAG Report KWIZ #74, dated 10th November 1944, and noted earlier: After KWIZ #4, the Naval section is not included in the AWM papers, and does not appear again until KWIZ #66, and then in a slightly different format. HF: I am afraid because of time constraints I am no longer able to summarize and list […]
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1930 Additional information and an image sent by Peter Crush in July 2020, highlighted in blue. Unless otherwise stated all the information below comes from an in-house company publication, The Hongkong & Yaumati Ferry Co Ltd: Golden Jubilee 1923-1973, published in 1973. 1923 The company was incorporated on the 5th November. The Promoters of the company were Messrs. Lau Tak Po, […]
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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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