Victoria Harbour and Kowloon 1896-97

Mon, 09/22/2014 - 23:29
Date picture taken
1896

Comments

This historical albumen print of the Victoria Harbour and Kowloon was recently acquired.  The date should be before 1907 as the signal station at Blackhead Point was not there yet.

CM Shun

Proof positive that this is 1896, probably middle-to-late 1896, and not 1897 is the large vessel on a mooring to the right. This is now the second image that has popped up on Gwulo showing HMS Tamar in the throes of conversion to a base depot ship.

My sense is that this is EARLIER than the other photograph, since it looks as though the work on the fixed awning is less far advanced. 

The Tamar was in HWD in Hung Hom for her engine and boilers to be removed in late 1895. By July 1896 this had evidently been done since there was an advertisement in the newspapers offering them for sale (no idea what happened to them, there were nine, which produced steam at 90 psi and had been manufactured by the reputable firm of Mawdsley in 1883/84).

At some time around that point (mid-1896) the ship would seem to have been moved across from Hung Hom to the mooring she would occupy once she took over from the Victor Emmanuel. She was then there, bar a possible visit to a dry dock for additional ballasting (though that could have been done afloat) in late summer 1897, until her commissioning in October that year, at which point she sprang a leak...but that's another story that you'll have to buy the book (should be out sometime later this year) to find out. The fixed awning was complete by July 1897, when a newspaper story reported that it leaked and that remedial work and the additional ballasting were needed.

So, onto the mooring off the Naval Dockyard in mid-1896 and with a complete (though leaking) roof by mid-1897. I think that implies this image must come from pretty early on - say late summer/autumn-ish 1896 given the state of work we can see.

StephenD