Quiz of this week #4

Mon, 09/22/2014 - 21:35

Where?

Photo was taken in mid1890.

Date picture taken
1895

Comments

It's the old Sailor's Home in West Point, opened in 1865, and the Seaman's Church next to it.

Actually if you blow it up you can make out the words on the building. But I had a feeling about it before I did that. One of the main characters in The Great Fire of Hong Kong worked there for a while. A snippet from the book:

Although it was hoped that the Home would keep sailors out of trouble and off the bottle, in August 1866 a police inspector at the trial of a drunken seaman said that there were ‘more rows and disturbances at the Sailor’s Home than in all the boarding houses and grog shops in Queen’s Road put together.’

Dear HF Siu,

This is by far and away the best photograph of the Sailors' Home in its original setting that there is. After 1885 its waterfrontage was removed by reclamation for a new Western Market. I've been asked by the Mariners' Club to write their 150th anniversary history (based on a mistaken dating of the opening of the home (actually 19th January 1865). It will have images and if it would be possible to use this one, we'd be over the moon. Would that be possible - you would of course by fully acknowledged.

Best,

Stephen Davies (daiwaisi@hku.hk)