View source for Taikoo Dockyard

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[[File:Dkbkpl19.jpg|thumb|A map in 1900s showing Taikoo Dockyard]]
'''Taikoo Dockyard and Engineering Company''' ({{zh|t=太古船塢|j=taai3 gu2 syun4 ou3}}) was a [[dockyard]] in what is now [[Taikoo Shing]], [[MTR]] [[Tai Koo station]] and part of [[Taikoo Place]] of [[Quarry Bay]] on the [[Hong Kong Island]] in [[Hong Kong]]. It predates the era before the reclamation of [[Victoria Harbour]].

==History==
[[File:Takoo Dock.jpg|thumb|The foundation stone of Taikoo Dockyard in what is now Taikoo Shing]]
[[File:HMAS Whang Pu.jpeg|thumb|Taikoo Dockyard built the river steamship SS ''{{HMAS|Whang Pu||2}}'' for [[China Navigation Company|China Navigation Co]] in 1920]]
The idea that [[Swire|John Swire and Sons]] should have their own dockyard in Hong Kong to service, repair, adapt and build vessels for [[China Navigation Company|The China Navigation Company]] was first put forward when the [[Taikoo Sugar Refinery|Sugar Refinery]] was established at Quarry Bay and surplus land remained on that site. The suggestion was made several times in the late 19th century but was opposed by [[John Samuel Swire]] as uneconomic and too far outside their usual interests.

The need, however, for adequate, reliable and easily available overhaul facilities in the East increased and the dockyard was eventually begun in 1900–01 at Quarry Bay.<ref>The archives of John Swire & Sons, including papers of the Taikoo Dockyard and Engineering Company, are held at the School of Oriental and African Studies in London: http://www.soas.ac.uk/library/archives/</ref> It was registered in Britain with John Swire & Sons appointed as London Managers, Butterfield & Swire Eastern Managers and [[Scotts Shipbuilding and Engineering Company]] as expert advisers.

The first ship for CNCo was built by 1910, but it was 16 years before there was a profit on the working account and 20 before a dividend was declared. The dockyard's chief competitor was the Hong Kong and Whampoa Dock Company from whom the new firm faced considerable hostility for many years until a working agreement was reached between them in 1913.

Beginning in [[Colonial Hong Kong]], [[Hong Kong and Whampoa Dock|Whampoa Dockyard]] Company and "Taikoo Dockyard and Engineering Company" were crucial for the economy. Together with the [[United Kingdom]], these two docks in Hong Kong built the largest ships in the world in that era.<ref name=Allen>{{cite book |last1=Allen |first1=G.C. |last2=Donnithorne |first2=Audrey G. |year=2003 |title=Western Enterprise in Far Eastern Economic Development |location=London |publisher=[[Routledge]] |isbn=0-415-31295-7}}</ref>

Simultaneously, China had multiple dockyards such as Shanghai Dock and Engineering Company in 1906, Tung Hwa Shipbuilding Works in 1910 and the Shanghai Dockyards Ltd in 1937.<ref name=Allen/> Though Hong Kong's dockyards always gave the British complete freedom in ship construction.

In the 1930s, [[Shanghai]] experienced difficult times through events such as the [[Battle of Shanghai]] in the [[Second Sino-Japanese War]]. Hong Kong's Taikoo Dockyard continued its own government training schools, which were later superseded by [[Hong Kong Polytechnic University|Hong Kong's Technical College]].

By the Second World War other countries finally began building larger ships than Hong Kong.<ref name=Allen/>

In 1940 the British company went into voluntary liquidation so that a new one could be opened and registered in Hong Kong and the dockyard continued to expand after the Second World War despite the destruction caused by the Japanese in their occupation in 1942–45.

The [[Swire|Swire Group]] subsequently decided to use the land to develop a large [[private housing estate]], Taikoo Shing. Closing in the early 1970s,<ref>
{{cite book |last=Jones |first=Geoffrey |year=2000 |title=Merchants to Multinationals: British Trading Companies in the 19th and 20th Centuries |location=Oxford |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]] |isbn=0-19-829450-6 |page=not cited}}</ref> the operation later merged with [[Hong Kong and Whampoa Dock|Whampoa Dockyard]] of [[Hutchison Whampoa]] to form a [[Hongkong United Dockyards|Hong Kong United Dockyard]] at the west coast of [[Tsing Yi|Tsing Yi Island]] on the western shore of new territories.

==Ships built==
[[File:SS Shuntien (1934).jpg|thumb|Taikoo Dockyard built the coastal steamship {{SS|Shuntien|1934|6}} for China Navigation Co in 1934]]
* ''Wuchang'' 1914 for the China Navigation Co – coal fired passenger ship on the Yangtze converted as [[Submarine tender|submarine depot ship]] HMS ''Wuchang'' and in 1942 used as for the evacuation of Singapore.
* ''Autolycus'' 1917 for the [[Ocean Group plc|Ocean Steam Ship Company]] - Steamer, 5,806 tons. Was the largest vessel built in a British territory outside the United Kingdom at the time.<ref name="HKMarineDept">{{cite web |url=https://www.mardep.gov.hk/theme/port_hk/en/p2ch1_7.html |title=A brief history of the Hong Kong dockyards |last= |first= |date=2019 |website=mardep.gov.hk |publisher=Hong Kong Marine Department |access-date=20 August 2019 |quote=}}</ref>
* {{HMAS|Whang Pu||2}} 1920 for the China Navigation Co – converted as a submarine depot ship and then in 1943 by the [[Royal Australian Navy]] as a mobile repair ship; returned to [[Royal Navy]] in 1946 and returned to CNC in Hong Kong and broken up in 1949.
* ''Anhui'' 1924 for the [[China Navigation Company]]<ref name="HKMarineDept"/>
* ''Taishan'' 1925 for [[Jardine Matheson]] Co.
* ''Wusueh'' 1931 for the China Navigation Co.
* {{SS|Fatshan|1933|2}} 1933 for the [[China Navigation Company]], later captured by the [[Imperial Japanese Army]] in service as {{ship||Koto Maru|1933|2}} before its return to C.N.C. after [[WWII]]. Sold several times between Hong Kong companies before acquisition by [[Shun Tak Holdings|Tai Tak Hing Shipping Company]]. Sunk with loss of 88 lives during [[Typhoon Rose (1971)|Typhoon Rose]] in 1971.
* {{SS|Shuntien|1934|2}} 1934 for the China Navigation Co – {{GRT|3059}} passenger and cargo liner sunk by {{GS|U-559||2}} near Tobruk in 1941.
* ''Breconshire'' 1939 for the [[Glen Line]] - 10,000-ton passenger-cargo liner and largest ship built to date by any Hong Kong dockyard.<ref name="HKMarineDept"/>
* {{HMAS|Poyang||2}} 1941 for the China Navigation Co – converted as an Armament Stores Issuing Ship by the [[Royal Australian Navy]]; returned to CNC in Hong Kong and broken up in 1970.

==See also==
* [[Hong (business)|The Hongs]]
* [[Hongkong United Dockyards]]
* [[Cosmopolitan Dock]]

==References==
{{reflist}}

==External links==
{{Commons category|Taikoo Dockyard}}
*{{cite web |url=http://www.members.dodo.net.au/_mervynw/index.html |title=Allied Chinese Ships WWII |last=Wildy |first=Merv |date=14 July 2003 |accessdate=24 October 2010 |archiveurl=https://webarchive.nla.gov.au/awa/20031028130000/http://pandora.nla.gov.au/pan/37835/20031029-0000/members.dodo.net.au/_mervynw/index.html |archivedate=28 October 2003}}{{cbignore|bot=medic}}
*[http://www.wikiswire.com WikiSwire website]

[[Category:Quarry Bay]]
[[Category:Dockyards in Hong Kong]]
[[Category:Former buildings and structures in Hong Kong]]
[[Category:Ships built in Hong Kong]]