ΤΥΡΙ
"yphoon Rose will be remembered in Hong Kong as one of the worst since the Second World War, and probably the worst ever to affect the harbour. The full impact of the storm came to light in the early hours of Tuesday, August 17, after the Colony had been battered by wind gusts of up to 150 knots and drenched by con- tinuous torrential rain. The Hong Kong-Macau ferry, Fat Shan, capsized with a crew of 92 on board; there were only four survivors. An older ferry, the Lee Hong, which had been laid up at the Sham Shui Po anchorage for the past 10 years, sank with the loss of all her crew of nine, including the captain. In addition, 26 ocean-going ships were grounded in various parts of the harbour or just outside it, as a result of which some had later to be sold for scrap, and numerous other smaller craft were lost or damaged. Of the fleet of 14 hydrofoils operating between Hong Kong and Macau, only two were not affected. On land, the casualties and losses were not as great. During the storm and in the days immediately following, the Government gave top priority to distributing relief to those affected and to repairing the wreckage. At the height of the typhoon, the anemometer on Tai Mo Shan was broken shortly after recording a wind gust of 150 knots.
The picture on the title page shows the capsized Fat Shan in a bay on the north-east coast of Lantau Island. Opposite, the scene in Kowloon Bay beside the airport runway where a number of ferries and hydrofoils were blown ashore.