Hong Kong and Whampoa Dock Co. Ltd. (HKWDC)

During its early years, the HKWDC could only handle ship maintenance and repair work due to the lack of technical know-how and equipment. It was not until 1875 that the colonial government started placing orders for the building of launches. The earliest record kept in the Public Records Office is an agreement, signed on 3 March 1875, between the Government and the HKWDC for constructing a steamship. The specification was for a vessel 66 feet long, 12 feet wide and 7 feet deep, fitted with engines and boilers, and could reach an average speed in excess of 9.5 knots per hour.^[20] This heralded the great tradition of shipbuilding in Kowloon Docks.

On 8 September 1881, a lightship ordered by the Straits Government and constructed at the Kowloon Docks was launched.^[21] On 7 November, another new vessel, commissioned by the Canton Commissioner of Customs under the authority of the Imperial Chinese Government and named Foo-mun-tsai, was launched.^[22]

On 30 April 1887, a new French steamer made by the HKWDC was launched. The French Consul and representatives of the owner, Messrs. Marty & D’Abbadie, attended the ceremony. The steamer was christened Con-rong. It was 116 feet long, 24 feet wide, and had a depth of 8 feet. The ship was made of mild steel (the first generation of steel made from iron with low carbon content), a structural material then newly used in Great Britain, throughout. The engines were manufactured to comply with the British Board of Trade regulations.^[23] The HKWDC had begun to serve an international clientele with the adoption of new materials and specifications.

When the North German company Norddeutscher Lloyd ordered a steamer for river service in Bangkok, the HKWDC won the tender and manufactured two steel twin-screw steam lighters for the Germans. The christening ceremony took place on 1 August 1901. The lighter was named Mellong, and had a length of 167 feet, a breadth of 27 feet, and a depth of 11 feet.^[24] Not only was its engine state-of-the-art, but the length of the steamer had increased a hundred feet since 1875.

The biggest events for shipbuilding at the Kowloon Docks were two warships launched in August and October 1919. The War Bomber was launched on 1 August 1919 with a record 8,000 tons deadweight. The launch was witnessed by the Officer Administering the Governor, Mr. Claud Severn, and the Director of HKWDC, Sir Paul Chater. The warship was 400 feet in length and 52 feet in width, with a depth of 31 feet. It was the longest vessel ever built at the Kowloon Docks.^[25] Its engine cylinders were 27 inches in diameter, a threefold increase within just 20 years. The ship was electrically lighted by a ten-kilowatt dynamo. Two months later, the War Trooper also took to the water. This time, the event was witnessed by the Governor, Sir Reginald Edward Stubbs. It was the War Bomber’s sister ship.^[26] After this, the glory of premier shipbuilding was handed to the HKWDC’s competitor, the Taikoo Dock of John Swire & Sons.

Taikoo Dock

The Hongkong Telegraph had used the sub-headline “The Biggest Boat Ever Built in Overseas Dominions” in its coverage of the historic event that occurred at the Taikoo Dock on 27 March 1917, two years before the HKWDC constructed the warships. Governor Sir Francis Henry May was present, along with Lady May, who performed the naming ceremony. The Autolycus was successfully launched. The owner was Messrs. Alfred Holt & Co., which had been so far-sighted that the ship was built not only according to the requirements stated in the British Corporation rules for classification of vessels and those for freeboard certificate, but also to many of the requirements of the latest Merchant Shipping (Convention) Act, even though the Act had yet to come into effect. Requirements of the Act included an emergency plant for wireless, and additional pumping and lighting installed on the weather deck. G. T. Edkins of Messrs. Alfred Holt & Co. disclosed that the Autolycus was the largest ocean-going steamer so far constructed in the British Dominions overseas, although vessels of similar size were being built in Canada at that time. The ship had an overall length of 441 feet 6 inches, a breadth of 52 feet 4 inches, and a depth of 33 feet from the upper deck to the bottom of the keel. It was of 6,000 tons gross tonnage, and its dead weight capacity was over 8,000 tons.

The Anhui, the biggest vessel ever built for the China Navigation Company, was launched on 2 October 1924.^[27] It was of the awning-deck type, and had an overall length of 350 feet, a beam of 49 feet, and a depth of 34 feet to the awning deck. It was constructed to scantlings approved by the British Corporation on the deep-framed system, with a cellular double bottom fore and aft, three complete decks, and four cargo holds. Turbines and boilers were constructed by the Taikoo Dock, with an anticipated speed of over 13 knots.

The record for the biggest vessel built in Hong Kong shipyards -- set by the Autolycus in 1917 -- only lasted for 22 years. The sub-headline “Largest Vessel Ever Built in Hongkong Dockyards” appeared in The Hongkong Telegraph on 3 February 1939. The Breconshire, a 10,000-ton passenger-cargo liner of the Glen Line, was launched at the Taikoo Dock by Lady Northcote, wife of the Governor Sir Geoffry Alexander Stafford Northcote, before a crowd of more than 1,000 guests on 2 February.