The Birth of Hong Kong's Shipbuilding and Repair Industry

Shipbuilding craftsmen were already active in Kowloon in the 1840s. Guangzhou became China's only trading port in 1757. The Guangdong Customs, depicted here in around 1850, was responsible for managing the Thirteen Factories. The Hong Kong government appointed its first harbour master, Lieutenant William Pedder of the Royal Navy, to oversee port affairs as early as 1841. This painting shows Pedder's Hill, named after the lieutenant, and the harbour master's residence. In the mid-19th century, foreign merchant vessels had to berth at Huangpu (Whampoa) in Guangzhou. Pictured in the foreground of this painting is the Lady Mary Wood, the first steamship of the Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Co. (P&O), which arrived in Hong Kong via the Cape of Good Hope in 1845 to begin operating a scheduled monthly route. A view of Victoria Harbour photographed from the east in the 1880s, showing Victoria Barracks in the foreground and the Naval Yard in the distance on the left.

MacDonald's Dock in West Point on Hong Kong Island, 1870. On the left of the dock is the gas plant of the China Gas Company. The wharves that lined the northern coast of Hong Kong Island, photographed here in the 1870s, bear testimony to the city's flourishing trade and commerce. Built by John Lamont in 1857, this dock in Aberdeen was Hong Kong's only dry dock at the time. It was acquired by Hongkong and Whampoa Dock Company in 1865. The S.S. Alaska ran aground in Aberdeen during a typhoon in September 1874, confirming that ocean-going vessels were passing through Hong Kong at that time.