Taikoo Dockyard and Engineering Company (Chinese: 太古船塢) was a dockyard located in the present-day Taikoo Shing and part of Taikoo Place of Quarry Bay on the north shore of Hong Kong Island in Hong Kong.
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The idea that John Swire & Sons should have their own dockyard in Hong Kong to service, repair, adapt and build vessels for 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 1900-01 at Quarry Bay. [1] It was registered in Britain with John Swire & Sons appointed as London Managers, Butterfield & Swire Eastern Managers and Scotts Shipbuilding and Engineering Co 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.
Beginning in Colonial Hong Kong, Whampoa Dockyard Company and "Taikoo Dockyard and Engineering Company" were crucial for the economy. Together with the United Kingdom, these 2 docks in Hong Kong would build the largest ships in the world during that period of time [2]. Simultaneously, China had multiple dockyards such as Shanghai Dock & Engineering Company in 1906, Tung Hwa Shipbuilding Works in 1910 and the Shanghai Dockyards Ltd in 1937[2]. Though Hong Kong's dockyards always gave the British complete freedom in ship construction.
During the 1930s, Shanghai would experience difficult times through events such as the Battle of Shanghai within the Second Sino-Japanese War. Hong Kong's Taikoo Dockyard would continue its own government training schools, which were later superseded by Hong Kong's Technical College.
By World War II, other countries finally began building larger ships than Hong Kong[2].
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.
The Swire Group subsequently decided to use the land to develop a large private housing estate, Taikoo Shing. Closing in the early 1970s[3], the operation later merged with Whampoa Dockyard of Hutchison Whampoa to form a Hong Kong United Dockyard at the west coast of Tsing Yi Island.
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