[ { "id": 215559, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-2001", "page_number": 336, "title": "RAS-2001", "content_text": "286\n\nof gravity of the tower low and to afford the minimum resistance to wind and wave. This lighthouse became superfluous and stopped operating in 1896 after Waglan lighthouse came into operation in 1893.\n\nSeveral considerations\n\nIn building Hong Kong's first lighthouse many factors were considered, such as need, finance, location, the apparatus to be installed and the staff.\n\nIn the beginning of the 1870s the need to erect lighthouses was envisaged by the Western mercantile community. In fact, in 1872, the combined tonnage, outwards and inwards, amounted to about six million. The need to provide navigational aids for the heavy sea traffic was thus obvious. The revenue raised by levying vessels entering Victoria Harbour would be able to support the running costs of lighthouses.12\n\nSurveys were conducted to look for suitable sites on which to erect lighthouses to light the approaches to Hong Kong harbour. The three best sites were considered to be,\n\n• Waglan, an island off the south-eastern extremity of Hong Kong,\n\n• The North East head of Lema Island, and\n\n• Gap Rock, 26 miles southward of Hong Kong.\n\nHowever, all these three were then under Chinese jurisdiction. Negotiations with the Chinese Government did not reach satisfactory conclusions for both parties. This was because the Chinese Government would not cede or lease any island for such purposes and the British Government did not wish to spend money on projects not under its direct control.\n\nThe second-best sites, all within the jurisdiction of Hong Kong, were considered to be Cape D'Aguilar, Green Island and Cape Collinson, as reported by the Harbour Master, H.G. Thomsett in March 1873. Lighthouses in these places would cover the eastern entrance and the western entrance to Hong Kong harbour. Eventually, this is", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2001.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zg651950g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 215561, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-2001", "page_number": 338, "title": "RAS-2001", "content_text": "288\n\nCape Collinson Lighthouse\n\nThe light at Cape Collinson was established on 1st March 1876, the year following the other two lighthouses. The reason for being later was that its apparatus was mistakenly sent to the Cape of Good Hope. The illuminating apparatus was fixed Dioptric of the Sixth Order. The focal plane of the light was 200 feet above mean sea level, and in clear weather it could be seen for a distance of eight miles. This lighthouse showed a white light on the bearings from N. 22 W. by East to S. 22 E. Ships heading for Victoria Harbour from the North and the Eastward were thus able to avoid Bokhara and Tathong Rocks, also the rocks outlying Sy Wan Bay by keeping the white light in sight. It also showed a red light from S. 22 E. by West to N. 22 W.20\n\nWhen all three lighthouses were first in operation, vessels entering Hong Kong harbour were adequately provided with navigational aids. Gradually, as time passed, lighthouses were required to display their own distinguishing characteristics and to repeat these at shorter intervals for more frequent observation as the speeds of steamships increased. In the beginning of the 20th century an 18-knot ship could travel over a quarter of a mile every minute. The older optics that revolved at the speed of four minutes per revolution were replaced by new ones revolving at 15 or 20 seconds. This was made possible by floating the lantern in a mercury bath causing it to revolve with minimum friction. This new technique was installed in lighthouses built in the 1890s.\n\nNew lighthouses\n\nIn 1892 and 1893, after much discussion and negotiation between Hong Kong and China, lighthouses were built on the two best sites initially chosen to light the approaches to Hong Kong: namely on Gap Rock and Waglan.\n\nAs early as 1867, before the building of the first lighthouse in Hong Kong, Commander Reed, a naval surveyor, was instructed to investigate suitable locations for lighthouses to cover the port approaches. He proposed Waglan Island and Gap Rock, small islands to the south of Hong Kong Island en route to Singapore. However, as neither of the proposed locations was within Hong Kong waters, these recommendations were not pursued.21", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2001.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zg651950g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 215562, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-2001", "page_number": 339, "title": "RAS-2001", "content_text": "289\n\nIn 1888 the Chinese and Hong Kong Governments reached agreement. Gap Rock Lighthouse would be built by the British and maintained by them. The island remained Chinese territory not to be used for any other purpose. On the Chinese part, the Kowloon Customs was to contribute $7,500 towards the initial cost of the light and $750 annually towards its maintenance.22 The agreement was not put into effect. Towards the close of the nineteenth century, however, the proposal for lighthouses at the two main approaches to Hong Kong, on Gap Rock and Waglan Island, was revived. The previous agreement was then implemented.\n\nIn 1891 a lighthouse was built on Gap Rock, at the south-western extremity of Lema and Kypong Islands. Lighting equipment was constructed in Sweden and the light was first shown in April 1892. Three years later the lantern was smashed by a severe typhoon. According to experts' opinions later the lighthouse should have been built on the northern part instead of the southern part of the rock. But to rebuild it would cost somewhere near $140,000. So, the original light continued to function usefully through forty years of typhoons until the Japanese invasion in 1941.\n\nGap Rock is in the form of two hillocks, about 80 to 100 feet high, and the gap between gave the place its name (in Chinese it is called Man Mei Chau, meaning the last island or Mosquito Tail Island). The lighthouse tower is nearly 50 feet high, and the light is thus about 142 feet above mean sea level. In heavy storms seas broke right over the lighthouse but it stood, as a tribute to its builders and a pointer to the developments which have marked the growth of the port of Hong Kong.23\n\nWaglan Lighthouse\n\nUnlike Gap Rock Lighthouse, Waglan Lighthouse has a different history. It was constructed by a Paris company for the Chinese Customs Light Department of the Imperial Maritime Customs in 1893. It started to operate on 9th May in the same year. It was run by the Chinese Maritime Customs from Shanghai. Following the lease of the New Territories by Britain, in 1898, it was transferred to the administration and control of the Hong Kong Government on 1st January 1901.\n\nWaglan was a First Order light of 45,000 candle-power burning", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2001.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zg651950g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 215566, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-2001", "page_number": 343, "title": "RAS-2001", "content_text": "293\n\nsame purpose as a breeches buoy. With extremely bad weather it could mean, with supplies running low, men having to stay on the island for an extra couple of days or so before they could be relieved.30\n\nBut lighthouses are constructed in exposed positions because of their role and for much of the time out there in the South China Sea life can be anything but enviable. One can even be swept away by hurricane force winds and huge waves in mountainous seas (Jones; 1985, 387). One only has to live in Hong Kong for a relatively short period to realize what the weather can be like (Dyson; 1983). For example, the typhoon which struck the colony on 2nd September 1937 was said to have been the worst natural disaster in Hong Kong's recorded history. Estimates of the final toll range up to 11,000 dead.\n\nBy comparison the Battle of Hong Kong, which lasted from 8th to 25th December 1941, saw some 2,250 Allied servicemen killed, an estimated 4,500 Japanese deaths, plus unknown but significant civilian casualties (Dyson; 1983, 62). Since World War Two, death tolls from typhoons have been lower because of today's more efficient weather forecasting and warning systems.\n\nThe maximum recorded gust in Hong Kong was 259 kilometres an hour at the Royal Observatory during the passage of Typhoon Wanda, on 1st September 1962 (Hong Kong Observatory; 1999). On that occasion Waglan recorded a gust of 216 kilometres an hour. The maximum gust ever recorded at Waglan was 230 kilometres per hour. This was during the passage of Typhoon Ruby on 5th September 1964.\n\nTry to imagine being cooped up in the cylindrical prism of Waglan Lighthouse, with windows that do not open and no air-conditioning, after the Number Ten Typhoon Signal had been hoisted.31 This signal indicates a probable direct hit. It was not until the 1970s that the lighthouse watch tower was air-conditioned.\n\nIt is recorded that, in 1893, a severe typhoon passed over Gap Rock (which can be seen by telescope from Waglan).32 This caused extensive damage to the lighthouse which extinguished the light for several days (Hong Kong; 1962, 14). In spite of the base of the tower being well above sea level and the lantern windows being situated approximately 15 metres or so above the base of the tower, the windows", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2001.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zg651950g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 215567, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-2001", "page_number": 344, "title": "RAS-2001", "content_text": "294\n\nwere smashed by the mass of water being blown against them.\n\nThe Royal Observatory reported:\n\nGap Rock is lying very near the track of the worst typhoons that have been felt in the Colony, in an exposed position, and the conformation of the sea bottom, as well as the shape of the rocks causes the sea to be much worse than in other places (Bruce; 1990, 3).\n\nIt was reported in 1984, that the Royal Observatory and the Guangdong Meteorological Bureau had signed an agreement to set up a joint venture automatic weather station on Huang Mao Zhou, about two kilometres from Gap Rock so, presumably, the weather is as interesting today as it was in the 1890s (Bruce; 1990; 3).\n\nIt is obvious that lighthouses have to withstand immense force during bad typhoons. Consequently, they are designed circular on plan so as to offer the least resistance to both wind and sea. Lighthouses are expensive to construct. Nevertheless, like the cast-iron tower at Waglan, they can be reasonably pleasing in appearance.\n\nBefore December 1952, and from 1964 onwards, weather observations on Waglan were taken by Marine Department lighthouse keepers and transmitted by radio (Hong Kong Observatory; 1999). 33 The Observatory staff started taking weather observations on Waglan in 1952 and withdrew from the Island to the meteorological station at Cape Collinson Lighthouse in 1964.\n\nAs Waglan was no longer manned after 1989, the observatory constructed an automated weather station on the Island. The old weather recording station and a small store where equipment was housed were still there when the author visited in 1999, although the latter is no longer used. But the typhoon mast, where signals used to be hoisted, has been taken down.\n\nWater supply\n\nWaglan has no wells or springs. Keepers depended on rainfall for their water supply. Catchment areas consisted of roofs of a clutch", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2001.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zg651950g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 215569, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-2001", "page_number": 346, "title": "RAS-2001", "content_text": "296\n\nby a second team. The change-over day was Tuesday. This meant, roughly, one week on and one week off. The light would be manned 24 hours a day, with four hours on duty for keepers (who wore uniforms) and eight hours off. There were also two replacement Marine Department staff who stood by at headquarters in the event of a lighthouse keeper taking leave or falling sick.\n\nEvery Sunday there would be a lighthouse \"spring clean,\" when windows would be cleaned and everything made shipshape. In addition, equipment would be checked and minor maintenance carried out. Nevertheless, a maintenance section would visit the island once a month to attend to anything not functioning correctly and which was beyond the capabilities of lighthouse keepers to rectify.\n\nDefence\n\nIn addition to Marine Department staff, it is understood that during various periods, for defence purposes, British soldiers were stationed on Waglan. Quarters for a military presence were provided. Similarly, a squad of Japanese soldiers was stationed there during the Second World War.\n\nBoth Waglan and Gap Rock, where there were air-raid shelters, were damaged by bombing during World War Two. There are said to be two Japanese ghosts on Waglan, with one Japanese soldier, so it is believed, having been buried under what is now the floor of the recreation room which was built later. One member of staff of the Marine Department said to me:\n\nIt's no wonder keepers saw ghosts on Waglan, cut off from their families as they were. It was a psychological thing.\n\nTo defend Waglan in the event of attack, at the start of the 20th century, cannons were mounted on the island. These were said to have been transferred later to the Government Queen's College (Bruce; 1990, 7). There are, in fact, two cannons in the grounds of the College. The cannons are marked:", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2001.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zg651950g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 215582, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-2001", "page_number": 359, "title": "RAS-2001", "content_text": "309\n\n19 Antiquities Advisory Board site visit 1996.\n\n20 HKGG 12 February, 1876, p. 87.\n\n21 http://www.lcsd.gov.hk/dept/pressrelease/dec/2912h.html\n\n22 HKPRO HKRS156 1/144 No.49, 1888 May 21.\n\n23 The Hong Kong Chamber of Commerce, on page 330 under the heading Gap Rock Lighthouse.\n\n24 T. Roger Banister (1932). The Coastwise Lights of China, Shanghai: Inspectorate General of Customs, Statistical Department.\n\n25 Patrick Beaver (1973). A History of Lighthouses, Citadel Press, p.5.\n\nPart Two\n\n26 Loran (Long range navigation) is a navigational system operating over long distances. Synchronized pulses are transmitted from widely spaced radio stations to aircraft or shipping, the time of arrival of the pulses being used to determine positions.\n\n27 Tat Hong Lighthouse, on Tung Lung Island, was the last to be manned in Hong Kong. It was manned by two technicians until 1993.\n\n28 [Hon. Editor - Died 27th December 2002. R.I.P.]\n\n29 The author was informed by retired Marine Department staff member, James Deakin, in 1990, that a baby was born in the Cape Collinson Lighthouse at the turn of the century. On reaching maturity, he too became a lighthouse keeper.\n\nAs another aside, in Ma Wan Village, not far from Kap Sing Lighthouse, a large quantity of gold was discovered on Tung Lung Island after World War Two. This was handed over to the government.\n\n30 In the spring of 1999, the dilapidated basket was still kept in a store (which had a telephone when the lighthouse was manned), halfway up the steps to Waglan Lighthouse.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2001.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zg651950g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 215583, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-2001", "page_number": 360, "title": "RAS-2001", "content_text": "310\n\n31 Under such conditions temperatures could reach 40 degrees Celsius.\n\n32 Gap Rock is sometimes known as Daam Gon Shan, in Cantonese, meaning \"Carrying Pole Hill,\"\n\n33 Besides Waglan Island, lighthouse keepers on Green Island (who were also Government Marine Department Staff) carried out weather observations and passed information on to the Royal Observatory Office at Kai Tak Airport.\n\n34 When the author visited Waglan, in 1999, all the buildings, including keepers' and soldiers' quarters and the fog-horn building, were still there although they were generally dilapidated.\n\n35 Author interviewed Tam Cheong-wai, then Superintendent of Aids to Navigation, Government Marine Department, 22 February 1999. Tam has since retired.\n\n37\n\nIX\n\n10\n\nB.P. stands for \"Bailey Pegs\" the maker's name.\n\nFare was not spartan if compared to that given to British soldiers during World War Two when, the author recalls, on active service \"iron rations\" sometimes consisted of a tin of bully beef and a packet of \"hard tack\" (army biscuits) for each soldier.\n\nAuthor's interview with Lai Tak-wah, Government Marine Department, 12 February 1999.\n\n38 Sometimes known as the \"Rose of China.\"\n\n39 A number of rocks in Hong Kong are imagined as resembling animals, birds and other objects. There are Lion Rock, Amah Rock and Lovers' Rock (\"Marriage Fate Rock\"). The last is along Bowen Path and is supposed to symbolise an erect phallus.\n\n40 The author recalls in Britain, between the two World Wars, that there were still a number of pictures of Grace Darling hanging in homes showing her rowing a lifeboat in a storm.\n\n42 The notification of marriage appeared in the South China Morning Post in August 1935.\n\nPage 360\n\nPage 361", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2001.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zg651950g", "rank": 0 } ]