Mr. Charles H. Lammert of Shameen writes:- The Engine House mentioned in Saturday's article about the typhoon of 1874, was a two-storeyed building near the site now occupied by Messrs. Whiteaway, Laidlaw and Co. The ground floor contained the fire engine and gear belonging to the Hongkong Volunteer Fire Brigade. The upper floor was occupied by the Engineer-in-charge as a residence. Local Fire Insurance Companies bore the expenses of the Volunteer Fire Brigade. My father, whose business (Messrs. Lammert, Atkinson and Co.) was housed in the present Jardine building, told me this story of the typhoon: An American sailing vessel was driven inshore just opposite our house, her bowsprit touching one of the verandahs. The captain's wife and the stewardess were taken across into the flat occupied by my father's partner until the vessel was refloated. I understand all the offices on this part of the waterfront were flooded to a depth of several feet.
Quite a good deal of space has already been devoted to the typhoons which have struck Hongkong since the British occupation. I have already referred to the typhoon of 1841 (see 4/12/33) but additional details of the disaster have now come to hand. These details are contained in an issue of The Penny Magazine, dated December 24, 1842, which evidently reprinted them from "Two Years in China," by D. McPherson M.D.
Before dealing with the typhoon, the article mentions the afflictions which had beset the troops stationed here at the time. In the 17th Regiment, it is stated, out of the complement of 600 men, barely 100 were effective; two of the officers had died and of the 16 remaining, only one was fit for duty. In the crowded hospitals, sores of frightful character made their appearance. The slightest abraded surface speedily degenerated into a foul, malignant ulcer. Many of the troops, proud of their wounds received at the battle of Cheumpee, and thereby disqualified for further effective service, looked forward with pleasure and anxiety to their return Home, but the majority were destined never to leave the Colony.
"The corps was exactly in this state", writes Dr. McPherson, "with the hospital crowded to overflowing, when the typhoon of July 21 came on. It had commenced about midnight, and continued, steadily increasing in violence, until at 6 a.m. it blew a hurricane from the northwest. The hospital of the 37th, which fronted in this direction, was a continued line of building, constructed of bamboo and palmyra leaf, 200 feet long, by 18 broad, into which upwards of 300 men were stowed; an additional hundred having a few days previously been placed on board ship.
"I had about half finished my visit (Dr. McPherson was acting as surgeon to the 37th regiment in the expedition), when I observed the side of the building facing the gale evidently yield to the force of the tempest. I immediately directed those of the sick who could move to leave the building forthwith, and was hastening to do so myself, when suddenly, I heard a tremendous crash, and ere I was able to reach the door, with many others, was thrown on my face, and crushed under the wreck of the building. The shrieks and groans of the miserable bed-ridden patients, the howling of the wind, and the crackling of the beams sounded to me, when I had recovered my consciousness, something more than horrifying, more especially as I was myself deprived, by an intolerable dead-weight upon my shoulders and back, which pressed my chest to the ground, from taking part in it. The ground on which I had fallen was fortunately softened with the rain, the building having been thrown several feet beyond its original foundation. I was thus enabled, after extricating my arms, and assisted by a sepoy, who was equally anxious with myself to become free, to scrape, or rather burrow, my way out, and tottering to my brother officers' quarters, apprised them of their danger, and announced to them what had already happened.
"By dint of very great exertions on the part of the officers, and the Town men who could be procured, the sick were extricated from the wreck of the hospital, and placed in one of the other barracks alas! merely to have the same scene acted over again. Barrack after barrack was levelled to the ground. The officers' houses followed; their kit was flying about in all directions. The force of the wind tore the very flooring from the sleepers. It was now sauve qui peut, for there was danger in remaining in the vicinity of the lines.