1930 YMT Ferry

Wed, 06/14/2017 - 23:00

Text on Flickr: Is this ferry boat to Jordan or Yau Ma Tei?

The ferry Man Chung was built by the Hong Kong and Whampoa Dock Company in 1925.

Source: This image came from Flickr, see https://flickr.com/photo.gne?id=27436715426

Date picture taken
1930s
Author(s)

Comments

Hi There,

Zomming in showed the Ferry was Man Chung (民忠).

But I had a feeling the skyline at the back is Hong Kong Island.  But that would put the pier somewhere on the Eastern Side of Kowloon.  Could that be Kowloon City?  Or Ngau Chi Wai?  I am uncertain.  Just hope the photo was not blurred out at the back.

T

In my 1980 HK Tourist Assiciation Guide Book a ferry link from Wan Chai to Jordan, operated by HK&Yaumati Ferry Co (HYK), is mentioned. Couldn't this be the Wanchai Ferry Pier ? I think in the back its Kowloon with the KCR Railway Clock Tower. Of course, I'm not sure.

 

Hi Klaus,

You may be right.  Back in the old days there were two such piers in Wanchai Water Front.  But the depth of the photo made it very difficult to identify the details in the background.

Anyway, maybe some ferry enthusiasts out there could help reverse-lookup the route using the name of the ferry.

Thanks & Best Regards,

T

Found some information on industrialhistoryhk.org

1928 The Company received a franchise to operate new passenger ferry services between Hong Kong Central/Hung Hom/Kowloon City and Hong Kong Central/Hung Hom/Sai Wan Ho/Shau Kei Wan. Four passenger/vehicular ferries the Man Kung, Man Kim, Man Yeung and Man Gock were ordered from the Hongkong & Whampoa Dock Co., Ltd.

So the pier shown isn't located in Wan Chai. Can we attribute Cheung Wan to Central?

Regards, Klaus

The location of the pier on Hong Kong Island that was used to ferry passengers to Yau Ma Ti was also located on Jubilee Street. I think the pier with the white structure looks like the pier above. So not Sheung Wan as previously stated.

1920s Praya Central Piers
1920s Praya Central Piers, by Moddsey

From : Sham, W. C. (2007). The history of Hong Kong and Yaumati Ferry Company limited, 1923 to the 1970s (Master's thesis, Lingnan University, Hong Kong). Page 33

In January 1919, the Kau Lung Sze Yeuk Kai Fong Ferry Company Limited, the first licenced ferry company, started to operate three ferry routes,
Central Market (Jubilee Street) and Yaumati (Public Square Street),
New Western Market (Morrison Street) and Mong Kok Tsui (Shantung Street),
West Point (Eastern Street) and Sham Shui Po (Nam Cheong Street).

All routes were taken over by HYF later in the 1920's. 

So it could be at Jubilee or at Morisson Street. We have a place for the Morisson Street Pier (Connaught Road Pier for ferries to Mong Kok & Sham Shui Po [????- ]), we should add one for the Jubilee Street one. I'm not sure which one (of the many) it would be.

Regards, Klaus

I'll vote for Jubilee Street - if you zoom in on this photo:

Ship
Ship, by Admin

About half-way between the ship's funnel and the Central Fire Station under construction there's a pier building with a concrete roof that looks very similar to the one in the main photo.