When a trawler blew up in Hong Kong’s Aberdeen harbour, killing three marine police officers and injuring 10
- A Hong Kong marine police team were inspecting a trawler near the Jumbo Restaurant in 1977 when the boat exploded and sank
- Three officers were killed and 10 people injured in the blast. An LPG canister in the hold was found to be the cause in the investigation that followed
“A Marine officer was killed yesterday when the trawler he was inspecting blew up in Aberdeen,” reported the South China Morning Post on April 7, 1977. “And last night two of the three Marine assistants accompanying him were still missing.
“Ten people were hurt – five from one family – in the blast […] only yards from the Jumbo floating restaurant at about 4.10pm.”
The next day, the Post reported that a “Marine Department Team has been set up to investigate […] A Marine officer, Mr Thomas Davidson (59), and a Marine assistant, Mr Wong Wai-shing (24), were killed in the blast. Another Marine officer, Mr Lee Wing-tak (21), is missing.
“Mr Wong’s body was found in the trawler’s hold by Fire Services divers yesterday. The search for Mr Lee will continue today. Nine of the 10 people injured are still in Queen Mary Hospital.”
On April 29, the Post reported that the “Marine Department’s team set up to investigate the cause of the Aberdeen trawler explosion is trying to establish whether LP gas containers stored in its hold had caused the blast.
