The China Navigation Company’s parent company, John Swire & Sons Limited, had its origins in a small Liverpool trading house founded in 1816. In 1866, John Samuel Swire (1825-1898) opened his first Far Eastern agency in Shanghai, and in 1872 he founded The China Navigation Company to operate a modest fleet of paddle steamers on China’s Yangtze River. IDJ has […]
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The SwireNews article, Yen-er-chi and the Compradore, HB Endicott and Cheng Kuan-Ying concludes: Source: SwireNews Related Indhhk articles: Henry Bridges Endicott and The China Navigation Co. – early Swire days in China – Part One
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Ian Wolfe left a comment below our piece, Yau Wing Shipyard, Yau Tong, which deserves its own article. Ian says in this comment: I have taken photos of the sheds and factory buildings once occupied by Yau Wing, shortly before demolition of these shipbuilding structures had commenced. He has given permission for our website to post the following links and extracted photos. Ian has […]
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HF: Our article, Carolyn Quincy AKA Francis Marion – luxurious boat built at American Marine boatyard, Junk Bay, introduces a Hong Kong shipyard that I hadn’t come across before. Many thanks to Thomas Sposato (TS) for sending a large amount of information about the shipyard and those who worked there. The following powerpoint, linked below, The Legend of Grand Banks, was apparently […]
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HF: Thomas Sposato has kindly sent information about possibly one of the most luxurious boats ever built in Hong Kong – the 65-foot Carolyn Quincy. Thomas is the son of one of the boat’s previous owners. It was custom built in 1963 by American Marine Ltd boatyard at Junk Bay, which was run by Robert J Newton and his sons John and Whit. Father […]
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HF: In 1951, China requisitioned all property belonging to the Asiatic Petroleum Company in retaliation for the Hong Kong Government’s requisitioning of the tanker Yung Hao. Further information comes from this account in the book, Via Ports: From Hong Kong to Hong Kong, Alexander Grantham, Governor of Hong Kong from 1947 to 1957. This image is of the Yung Hao in later life as the […]
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Elizabeth Ride: KWIZ [Kweilin Weekly Intelligence Summary] has the following reports of the building of wooden boats, and I wonder if some of these could refer to the suicide boats mentioned in the article linked below: KWIZ #66, 15.9.44 : Aberdeen Dock coolies “are being used to fell trees on the Peak for converting into charcoal, as well as for shipbuilding” […]
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HF: The China Daily, HK Edition, of 3rd November 2015 contained the sixth of a planned series of articles about what is seen as an “explosion of interest of material related to the city’s industrial past”. The article by Chitralekha Basu includes…There was a time when end-of-life ships from the world over would wash up on the shores of Hong Kong. […]
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Stephen Davies: The history of the lighter Tin Ming is interesting. From what I can work out she may have been either the ex-Argus or ex-Vigilante, one of two French gunboats built by Thorneycroft in London to a British (Woodcock) design in 1900, shipped out to HK where they were assembled and then operated on the West River until taken out […]
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This article is an attempt to bring together what we know about Japanese suicide boats based on Lamma Island at the end of the Japanese occupation of Hong Kong. There is also mention of such vessels appearing in other locations. The subject may appear to be drifting somewhat from HK’s industrial history. However, as the BAAG Report KWIZ #79/1 indicates […]
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