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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Stephen Davies has sent a newspaper report from August 1922 featuring a launch and lighter of the Kung Lee (Kwong-li) Steamship Company (公利輪船有限公司). Stephen adds, The company was very short-lived. It was founded on 23 February 1922 and was dissolved four and a half years later on 22 October 1926. Kung Lee were operating in the relatively slow river freight business with small steam […]
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Kwong Chi Man has kindly translated the Japanese names of the piers shown in columns at the bottom of this map of Hong Kong harbour which was drawn during the occupation, WW2. Elizabeth Ride has kindly transcribed the faint handwritten English ‘translation’ alongside the Japanese. Many thanks to both contributors. KCM: This map of the Japanese Harbour Authority (under the […]
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HF: I learnt about this company through the personal effects of Harry Kin Hong Long who briefly worked for Kung Lee from March to July 1923. Harry worked on two ships, the Kwong Mo and the Tin Ming as can be seen in his appointment letter below. Julia Bradshaw has kindly given permission to quote from her book, Golden Prospects…which finds […]
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ER has sent this BAAG report. It is the only information we have about this smaller shipyard. Any further information would be very useful. The report mentions “other yards and engineering works who receive orders from To Nam Shipyard include, Far East Motors, Luk Ho Kan, Ngai Sang, Tai Hing, Cho Wing.” KWIZ #74, 10.11.44. Further information: For general information about […]
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ER has sent this BAAG report. It is the only information we have about this smaller shipyard. Any further information would be very useful. KWIZ #74, 10.11.44. Further information: For general information about the Elizabeth Ride collection, her father Sir Lindsay Ride, and the British Army Aid group during WW2 a very useful introduction is through http://gwulo.com/node/13968 The BAAG papers are […]
» Read moreElizabeth Ride has sent this brief extract from BAAG Intelligence Summaries written during the Japanese occupation of Hong Kong, World War Two: Auxiliary wooden vessels and other small craft are constructed at the Fukui Shipyard, formerly known as the Ngauchiwan Shipyard, situated Southeast of Kai Tak airfield off Tai Wan Tsun. Only the hulls are produced here, the engines being […]
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Elizabeth Ride has sent a British Army Aid Group (BAAG) report from 1st March 1945, An Outline of Conditions in Occupied Hong Kong which was compiled in early 1945 for use by the Civil Affairs Committee which was to take on the rehabilitation of HK after the planned allied invasion. HF: The report is lengthy so I am going to divide it […]
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Stephen Davies has been investigating the location of the A King Shipyard in the Causeway Bay Typhoon shelter – 1925 to 1955. Also known as Ah King’s. Further details about the shipyard can be found at http://gwulo.com/search/node/Ah%20King This includes the three locations of the shipyard: 1st Date in the record: on the waterfront, The Praya in Wanchai, today’s Johnston Road 2nd 1925 – […]
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Stephen Davies: The rectangle marked ‘floating dock’ in the chart below, moored with six anchors (important to keep the beast firmly in position when moving ships in and out with the dock flooded down) is Admiralty Floating Dock (AFD) No.18. The chart was issued by the UK Hydrographic Office in their emergency issue of updated charts in September 1949. AFD No.18 was […]
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