1909 Panorama of Hong Kong Island from the harbour

David,

There's a small puzzle. At c.16:34, not long after you've left Fenwick Shipyard but before you get to the Sisters of St Paul, I suspect something is invisible (not surprising given the angle at which Praya East is being viewed), or perhaps didn't survive the composition of the panorama.

On 28 April 1909, on Marine Lot 295 on the corner of the new-ish Fenwick St and Praya East, which was successively Nos 8, 9 and finally 21 Praya East, Sir Frederick Lugard  laid the foundation stone for the new Seamen's Institute. It was completed in 14 months, and opened for business on 23 May 1910 by Sir Henry May. 

It was quite a large and handsome three storey building of seven bays "in the style of the Flemish Renaissance" (there's a 1915 photo of it in my Strong to Save (City Uni of HK Press, 2017), in the block of illustrations between pp.288 & 289; the narrative of the construction etc. is pp.98-101). It accordingly seems to me, given your 1909 dating, that between 16:20 and 16:40 something should perhaps be visible of the building site. Just a gap if the image was taken before April, then progressively more structure as the year wore on.

Your identification of the USS Helena is possible, though it could be her sister ship the Wilmington, which was in HK, for example, in February 1908 (China Mail, 24 Feb) and again in Sept 1901 (HK Telegraph, 30 Sept). Both were part of the South China and Yangzi patrols c.1906-1916 (both ships were out of commission 1904-1906). It would help to identify what looks like a second, very much smaller USN vessel to the right. I suspect it was one of the captured Spanish gunboats/patrol craft (one of the Albay, Alvarado, Arayat, Calamianes, Callao, Ectano, Leyte, Manileno, Mariveles, Mindoro, Pampanga, Panay, Paragua, Quiros, Samar, Sandoval, and Villalobos), though the newspapers for 1909 seem silent on the presence of two USN ships - maybe I haven't looked hard enough.

Anyway, fascinating photo.

Best,

StephenD

Much the most intriguing bit for me is the 'unknown' ship just before the photo ends.

It is clearly a warship (I suspect just within the Man of War Anchorage), and a fairly new one too. It has (probably) Wasteney-Smith pattern stockless anchors (or close variants) in hawse pipes on each bow of the then fashionable ram configuration (all down to a misinterpretation of the Battle of Lissa). Only British naval ships built post 1900 had been built with stockless anchors (largely as a result of RN trials 1885-1900), and most other navies rather took the Brit lead on such stuff...though not always by any means. Hence the conclusion that this is a fairly modern ship.

There is a residual figurehead decorating the bow - a short-lived substitute for a full figurehead, usually styled a 'bow decoration' - adopted from c.1895 through until the whole game was abandoned before the beginning of WW1. The resolution at max zoom isn't good enough to identify detail, but it conforms to doyen (and strongly HK connected) David Pulvertaft's description of the most usual style, "the royal arms in a cartouche with carved scrollwork flowing back on each side of the bow" (Figureheads of the Royal Navy, Barnsley: Seaforth, 2011, p.197).

All one can say here is that what's in the cartouche is not the arms of Britain's royalty and I am pretty sure the ship is not British. I've looked at such examples of German, Italian, Austro-Hungarian, Portuguese, Imperial Chinese and Japanese warships of the period as I can find, all of which sported bow decorations. There are family resemblances, but no 'ahah' moment. I'd like to believe it to be the Portuguese unprotected cruiser Adamastor, which gave its name to Adamastor Rock between Cheung Chau and Lantao after it had hit it, very likely as a result of an RHKYC member in the yacht Erin insisting that power gave way to sail. Unfortunately between 1908 and 1911 the ship was not in HK.

That noted, when the Adamastor hit the rock, she was assisted by the Portuguese Navy gunboat Patria. Is the Patria the quarry? She was launched in 1903 and completed in 1905, coming out to the Macau station in 1908, where she stayed until she was sold to the Chinese Navy in 1930, becoming the gunboat Fuyu (富裕 ) in 1931 (and sunk by Japanese aircraft in Guangzhou in 1937). In general some things fit well. The ship in the image is pretty small, and the Patria was just 750 tons full load and 63m loa. The open bridge is very small - maybe room for three or four people if they don't wave their arms around too much? But, sadly, the Patria didn't have stockless anchors, so the search continues.

The officer of the forecastle's spotting platforms for coming to a mooring or anchor are both lowered, so I suspect the ship hasn't long been moored or is preparing to depart. The forecastle awning has either just been spread or will be struck once everything is ready for slipping the mooring. There's a mooring buoy hauled close up on the port bow aft of the spotting platform. Not sure why - it'll be something to do with the chain coming up and in over the port bow just abaft the anchor, so either connecting things up or getting everything ready to slip.

Maybe someone else has some better ideas?

Best,

StephenD