TAIKOO DOCKYARD AND ENGINEERING COMPANY LIMITED


Date(s) of creation: 1907-1972
Level: Sub-collection
Format: Archive           

collection SOAS Archive
id JSS.6
recordtype archive
scb_item_location Archive & Special Collections
item_location Archive & Special Collections
scb_loan_type Reference only
callnumber JSS/6
callnumber_txt JSS/6
callnumber-sort JSS/6
scb_alt_ref_no JSSVI
prefix_number 6
title TAIKOO DOCKYARD AND ENGINEERING COMPANY LIMITED
scb_date_creation 1907-1972
scb_level Sub-collection
level_sort 7/Collection/Sub-Collection/Sub-Sub-Collection/Sub-Sub-Sub-Collection/Series/Sub-Series/Sub-Sub-Series/File
scb_extent 56 boxes
format Archive
scb_admin_history The idea for a dockyard in Hong Kong to service, repair, adapt and build vessels for the China Navigation Company [CNCo] was first put forward when the Sugar Refinery was established at Quarry Bay and surplus land remained on that site. The suggestion was made several times during the late Nineteenth Century but was opposed by John Samuel Swire as uneconomic and too far outside their usual interests. The need, however, for adequate, reliable and easily available overhaul facilities in the East increased and the Dockyard was eventually begun in 1900-1901 at Quarry Bay. It was registered in Britain with John Swire & Sons appointed as London Managers, Butterfield & Swire as Eastern Managers and Scotts Shipbuilding and Engineering Company as Expert Advisers. The first ship for CNCo was built by 1910, but it was sixteen years before there was a profit on the working account and twenty before a dividend was declared. The Dockyard's chief competitor was the Hong Kong and Whampoa Dock Company from whom the new firm faced considerable hostility for many years until a working agreement was reached between them in 1913. In 1940 the British company went into voluntary liquidation so that a new one could be opened and registered in Hong Kong and the Dockyard continued to expand after the Second World War despite the destruction caused by the Japanese during their occupation from 1942-1945.
scb_related_name_code GB/NNAF/C215913
GB/NNAF/C215919
GB/SOASNAF/P1048
GB/NNAF/C215949
GB/NNAF/C117945
scb_related_name_relationship Subject of
Subject of
Subject of
Subject of
Subject of
scb_place_code 1819730
1814991
1269750
2643743
scb_access_status Open
scb_copyright Copyright is owned by John Swire & Sons, Ltd, 59 Buckingham Gate, London, SW1E 6AJ
scb_use_restrictions Copying for personal research purposes is permitted. Please contact the archivist for all publication requests.
language English
language_search English
scb_finding_aids Paper handlist available
scb_related_material Related MaterialThe early development of the Company is covered in the main JSSI correspondence series, see JSSI 1/13-15 and JSSI 2/9-11. There are no general correspondence files for the Twentieth Century but the accounting side up to the liquidation of the British Company in 1940 is well covered and many of the legal papers connected to the formation of the firm survive (JSSVI 5). Additional material on the early years, particularly the financial aspects, can be found connected with the legal disputes which arose over the settlement of Edwin Mackintosh's estate, JSSI 8/8. A little material on the Twentieth Century can be found scattered through the files of letters from B&S Hong Kong whose responsibility the Dockyard's general development chiefly was (JSSII 2).
hierarchy_top_id_raw JSS
hierarchy_sequence JSS.006