The Hong Kong History Podcast · Stephen Davies, DJ Clark

How names tell us a story, Part 2: Ships with Hong Kong in the name

·52 min·3 clips

A customs cruiser launched as Cha Sing was later renamed Hong Kong and ran as a ferry.

1. The Hong Kong History Podcast episode examines ship names that included “Hong Kong” and uses them to read maritime history. 2. DJ Clark hosts from Hong Kong, and Dr Stephen Davies in Chester supplies the ship-name database and historical examples. 3. The episode asks why 127 ships carried “Hong Kong” in their names and what those names reveal about shipping, ownership, and trade. 4. Davies says the first ship called Hong Kong appears in 1843, after British annexation, and that it never went near the city. 5. He identifies the first Hong Kong-named ship as a vessel in the Atlantic sugar trade between Glasgow and Cuba. 6. He says most early Hong Kong-named ships were owned by non-British people, including French, Swedish, German, Dutch, Thai, and Chinese owners in places such as Singapore, Penang, and Malacca. 7. He notes that early Hong Kong-named ships were usually called only “Hong Kong,” with “city of Hong Kong” as a rarer variant. 8. He says the ships were mostly small trading vessels, not brigs, and that they were generally ships, barks, or schooners. 9. Davies reports that 37 of the early Hong Kongs sank, which he treats as broadly average for 19th-century shipping rather than exceptional. 10. He links those losses to uncertain navigation, incomplete charts, and the difficulty of knowing position at sea. 11. He says some ships could not tell where they were within five miles, or even 30 to 40 miles on longer voyages. 12. He describes a Hong Kong that disappeared after leaving Havana for Cork in 1849, with the record reduced to a short newspaper notice. 13. He recounts HMS Hong Kong, the wartime vessel that was renamed from a proposed Royal Navy name and later ran aground during the assault on Canton. 14. He explains that the introduction of submarine telegraph cable in 1872, landing at what is now Cyberport, sped up news and made ship records less uncertain. 15. He describes a Hong Kong built in Glasgow, reassembled in Hong Kong, equipped with engines from the Hong Kong foundry, and later sold to Singapore after its owner’s son disappeared at sea. 16. He also traces coal traffic through Hong Kong, citing 90,000 tons of coal stockpiled in 1904 and the labor of Hong Kong coaling teams on the waterfront. 17. The tone is lecture-like and anecdotal, with Davies moving from database statistics to specific ship stories and industrial details. 18. Clark asks short guiding questions, and Davies answers with named ships, dates, ports, and ownership changes rather than broad generalizations. 19. Best for listeners interested in Hong Kong maritime history and ship-name detective work. 20. Skip it if detailed shipping history and archival examples do not appeal.

As heard by us

A ship name opens onto Hong Kong's maritime history.

The episode uses a ship name to open out into Hong Kong's maritime history, moving from a Jubilee-class locomotive to ferry work, Royal Navy service, a sketched battle scene, and the slow pace of communication before the 1872 telegraph cable.

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When one ship name opens an entire maritime century wide.

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