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formed in 1872 by John Swire and Sons of London, primarily to trade on the Yangtse River.
In 1870 communications between Hong Kong and China were greatly improved when the Great Northern Telegraph Company started operations along the coast. The firm still has close con- nexions with Hong Kong and its cable-laying vessel, Store Nordiske, usually anchors off Wan Chai awaiting calls for her services.
Up to 1867 all imported gunpowder was stored in a privately owned junk moored outside the harbour. In that year a schooner was alongside the junk discharging gunpowder when an explosion occurred, causing serious loss of life. The Government decided to take over full responsibility for the control and storage of gun- powder and in the same year purchased a hulk and anchored it off Stonecutters Island. Imports of gunpowder began to increase immediately and it was necessary to use the old jail on Stonecutters Island as an additional store. A properly constructed powder magazine was finally built on Stonecutters Island in 1876, but some 13 years later the harbour master reported that the buildings were in a deplorable condition. Despite this warning it was not until 1906 that the present gunpowder depot was constructed on Green Island.
In Hong Kong's early days ice was imported from North China and stored for use in the summer. Later the Tudor Ice Company imported ice from North America and a sailing ship arrived annually with the Colony's supply, the blocks being stored in a depot in Ice House Street. This continued until 1874 when two Scotsmen, Kyle and Bain, started the first ice-making business, which Messrs Jardine, Matheson and Company took over in 1879. Sailing vessels brought kerosene from North America and the Asiatic Petroleum Company, later taken over by the Shell Company, was one of the pioneers of the trade with a bulk depot at Causeway Bay. The Standard Oil Company of New York, now known as the Mobil Petroleum Company Incorporated, started operations in Hong Kong in 1894 and built their present oil berth and tank farm at Lai Chi Kok in 1904.