Piracy, coal, and steamship design come together in a practical Hong Kong history lesson.
The episode keeps coal at the center and uses piracy to trace how Hong Kong's maritime defenses changed as artillery improved and ship design shifted.
The Hong Kong History Podcast
Stephen Davies, DJ Clark
28 episodes listed below
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In their own words
Weekly discussions on subjects related to the history of Hong Kong.
As heard by us
Based on 6 episodes we listened to · September 2026
It turns Hong Kong's boats, fuels, maps, transport systems, and pastimes into precise accounts of how the city developed.
The Hong Kong History Podcast begins with things people cross, burn, name, or take for granted, then follows them into Hong Kong's past. In conversations between DJ Clark and Dr Stephen Davies, ferries become a question of urban growth and transport economics, while junks open…
Why you'd press play
That ferry ride you take for granted? DJ Clark and Stephen Davies ask who pays for it.
Press play if you want
- to hear your everyday ferry trip turn into a question about public subsidy
- to follow coal from its voyage out of Britain to steam vessels in Hong Kong
Talks about
Best episodes of The Hong Kong History Podcast
Short reviews from the PlayNext desk, based on the episodes we processed.
Hong Kong, coal, and the politics of making a port look indispensable.
This final episode of the coal series keeps Hong Kong in view as a first-class coaling station that had to be defended if the empire was to keep moving.
Coal frames Hong Kong history, shipping, and the physical limits of human power.
This episode returns with Series 4 and uses coal as a lens on Hong Kong history, from the early British years to the question of what really won the Opium Wars.
A logbook in San Diego opens onto a layered history of Hong Kong's treaty-port world.
A logbook in a small bookshop in San Diego opens onto late-19th-century Hong Kong and treaty-port life. The strongest appeal is the scale shift, where a modest archival object leads into questions about downtime, late marriages, military custom, social standing, and the…
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.
A harbour discovery leads into salvage work, wartime mobilization, and the practical problem of finding enough people to crew a ship.
A dredger on the Central to Wan Chai bypass project turns up a 90 metre long iron object nobody expected, and the episode uses that find to open out into Hong Kong harbour history and Royal Navy wartime readiness.
Hong Kong sport emerges here as a story of class, waterborne improvisation, and a more public role just before the First World War.
The episode draws a clean line through how sport took root in Hong Kong as a mix of class habit, custom, and plain constraint. It begins with the idea that genteel people were not meant to sweat or look spent, then follows early Western residents in Canton and Hong Kong as they…
A coal shipping story about dirty holds, useful return cargo, and the practical mechanics of break bulk trade.
Coal shipping is treated as a working problem before it becomes a history lesson, and that gives the piece its pull. It moves through Hong Kong, South Wales, Newcastle, and the China run by way of dirty holds, careful cleaning, and the hard logic of finding value in whatever…
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Episodes
- 1
Storing coal
Historian Stephen and his co-host explore the overlooked role of coal storage in Hong Kong's development, from the 1840s through the post-war era.
·56m·2 clips - 2
Where did the coal come from?
Hidden gemCoal sits at the center of the conversation.
·1h 5m·4 clips - 3
How names tell us a story, Part 3: Ap Lei Pai is the wrong name
Hidden gemThe show returns to toponyms.
·1h 5m·4 clips - 4
Shipping coal
Hidden gemThe Hong Kong History Podcast episode “Shipping coal” with Dr Stephen Davies focuses on how coal reached Victoria Harbour and how it was unloaded by lighters, tallymen, and 20-man crews.
·57m·3 clips - 5
Going sailing: The crew of the Kitten
Hidden gemA logbook found in a San Diego bookshop opens the episode.
·53m·3 clips - 6
Suppressing pirates thanks to coal
Hidden gemThe episode stays with coal and turns toward pirates on the China coast.
·55m·3 clips - 7
A ferry story
Hidden gemDJ Clark opens by talking about ferry travel as part of his daily Hong Kong routine, and Stephen Davies starts from a simple question: what makes a ferry a ferry?
·1h 5m·3 clips - 8
Junk dreams
Hidden gemThe episode opens with an apology and a reset around junks, old and new.
·1h 6m·4 clips - 9
What really won the Opium Wars?
Hidden gemSeries 4 opens after a long pause.
·54m·3 clips - 10
Using coal
This episode explores how coal was fundamental to Hong Kong's development from the 19th century to 1945, driving transport, industry, and economic growth.
·59m·5 clips - 11
This sporting life
Hidden gemThe Hong Kong History Podcast episode “This sporting life” traces how rule-governed modern sport arrived in Hong Kong after 1841 and quickly spread through clubs, schools, and colonial institutions.
·1h 4m·4 clips - 12
How names tell us a story, Part 2: Ships with Hong Kong in the name
Hidden gemThe Hong Kong History Podcast episode on ship names starts with Stephen Davies tracing 127 ships that carried “Hong Kong” in their names and using that database to test what the names reveal about maritime history.
·52m·3 clips - 13
Hardly cricket: the wreck of the Bokhara
Hidden gemThe Hong Kong History Podcast uses the SS Bokhara to connect Hong Kong place-names, colonial hydrographic surveying, cricket, typhoon science, and imperial finance.
·57m·4 clips - 14
The small details: Edgar Goodman RMLI
Hidden gemThe Hong Kong History Podcast episode on Edgar Goodman and HMS Tamar begins with a 2013 dredging find off the Central-Wan Chai bypass, where a 90-metre iron wreck turned up exactly where Stephen Davies says a wartime chart placed it.
·59m·3 clips - 15
Defending coal
Hidden gemDeep dive into a hidden layer of Hong Kong's history: its strategic importance as a coaling station.
·55m·1 clip - 16
How names can tell us a story, Part 1: Kwok Acheong
Mar 18, 2024·47m - 17
Historians and Hong Kong: A most colonial ‘Colonial’
Mar 8, 2024·1h 2m - 18
The port
Oct 31, 2022·39m - 19
Troubled times
Oct 12, 2022·38m - 20
Hong Kong's fishing industry
Oct 3, 2022·33m - 21
Ship breaking to container port
Jun 28, 2022·40m - 22
After the war
Jun 15, 2022·43m - 23
World War 2
Dec 23, 2020·52m - 24
World War 1
Dec 14, 2020·52m - 25
Steamy disasters
Dec 4, 2020·53m - 26
The blockade
Nov 27, 2020·48m - 27
What happened next
Nov 18, 2020·57m - 28
Beginnings
Oct 29, 2020·1h 2m