Old photos of Hong Kong’s harbours show city’s vibrant maritime life since the 1890s
- David Bellis, administrator of the website and Facebook page Gwulo, tells the stories behind the vintage photos in his new book
- From Chinese women who cleaned and painted the sides of ships to the coal stokers who fuelled the ship’s boilers, it’s a glimpse of a forgotten past
It’s 1911 and six men are posing for a photograph. Their collarless shirts are buttoned to the neck, and one’s high-waisted trousers are held up by braces. Another wears a pinstriped waistcoat, while two standing at the back are in T-shirts. All have close-cropped, British Army-issue haircuts.
The sign at their feet indicates they are at Mount Davis, on Hong Kong Island, and would have been building a battery and emplacements to house five 9.2-inch (233.7mm) anti-ship guns. In the foreground are six sturdy pith helmets to keep the sun at bay. Look a little closer, and a seated man in uniform has a puppy on his lap.
“These powerful guns could fire a 170kg [27 stone] shell over 26km [16 miles],” writes David Bellis in his latest book, Old Hong Kong Photos and The Tales They Tell, Volume 3.
This volume is full of “harboury” photos, as he calls them, including maritime scenes of crews and cleaners; two submarines in a naval dry dock where China’s People’s Liberation Army barracks in Central stand today; Aberdeen harbour sampans; dragon boat races; leisure boats of a genteel age; and swimming parties.
Now back to the men at Mount Davis. The photograph was possibly taken to celebrate that their work on the gun emplacements is complete. In a way, it’s an ordinary shot. The men were not famous, and this was not a landmark political moment, but Bellis specialises in taking a closer look “with his magnifying glass and flippers” to see beneath the story.
In his new book, with the maritime theme, he is also focusing on the people, trying to dig a little deeper into what their lives would have been.
