1874 Hong Kong typhoon

The 1874 Hong Kong Typhoon was the third worst typhoon to hit Hong Kong, striking during the night of Tuesday 22 September and the morning of Wednesday 23 September 1874.

Aftermath of the Typhoon in Yau Ma Tei. Photo by Lai Afong.
Aftermath of the Typhoon. Photo by Lai Afong.

Course of storm

The typhoon hit Hong Kong with "unprecedented violence"[1] and left no less than 2,000 people injured. However, around 5,000 people lost their lives in Macau, making the typhoon the worst storm on record to hit Macau, with Typhoon Hato in 2017 being the second worst.[2]

The Colony experienced a period of low pressure, typical of the eye of a typhoon. From 8 pm, winds raged and howled with ear-deafening sounds, alongside the painful cries of many people who had become homeless. The typhoon increased in strength steadily up to 2:15 am in the morning. Modern analysis in 2017 indicated that this great typhoon passed approximately 50 to 60km to the south of Hong Kong at its closest approach, similar to Hato in 2017.

Some adventurers went out to the Praya at 11 pm and found themselves knee deep in the water and risked being washed away by the waves hitting the shore. They were forced to retreat by 1 am as the winds were reaching a new high. The East Point on Causeway Bay recorded a water level 4 feet above its average. Many stores and shops, even far away from the Praya waterfront were flooded and water damaged.

The typhoon began weakening after 3 am, yet its two-hour impact had injured and killed many in the Colony. Telegraphic communication was interrupted and communication with Hong Kong island was cut for a time. The town had sustained great loss, its roads were deserted and strewn with debris, house roofs were ruined, windows shattered and walls fallen and cables and gas pipes were blown away and trees uprooted.

Aftermath

Most of the 37 ships in port were damaged and hundreds of fishing junks and sampans were either wrecked or broken up despite having sought shelter in the bay. At this time Hong Kong did not have its own weather observatory and many people were expecting the storm from a different direction, while others were caught off guard and either shipwrecked or lost their homes. A few false typhoon alerts had been announced earlier in the year.

The next morning, the Praya scene from west to east was heart-rending: one could easily find boats capsized and corpses floating and drifting on the water with some bodies washed ashore by the high tides.

The sizeable Stonecutters' Island Gaol was left in ruins and both the Police Courts and Victoria Gaol were unroofed. The damage overall was considered "incalculable".[1]

Ernst Eitel recounted how many of the European and Chinese houses were ruined and became roofless; big trees were unrooted and corpses were found in the ruins and started surfacing at the waterfront from the wrecked ships.[3]

A visitor arriving on a steamer from Peking during the typhoon reported that the waterfront was nearly swept away, hardly a tree was left standing in the Botanical Gardens and many buildings were found roofless and in ruins. People were hastily burying the dead for the heat was intense and there was great concern over the outbreak of contagious disease.[4]

Controversy

Captain Superintendent of Police Walter Meredith Deane attracted severe criticism for ordering his men confined to barracks rather than to risk rescue of the crews on the wrecked vessels Leonor and Albay. Refusing calls for a public inquiry, Governor Sir Arthur Kennedy passed all papers on the matter to Secretary of State Lord Carnarvon who affirmed Kennedy's decision.[1]

See also

References
  1. Norton-Kyshe, James William (1898). History of the Laws and Courts of Hong Kong. 2. Vetch and Lee Ltd (1972 reissue). p. 237.
  2. "TERRIFIC TYPHOON IN HONGKONG", The Straits Times, 10 October 1874, Page 1
  3. Eitel, Ernest John (1895). Europe in China: the history of Hongkong from the beginning to the year 1882. London: Luzac & Co.
  4. Mrs Hugh Fraser, (1911) A Diplomat's Wife in Many Lands. Hutchison & Co.: London. Vol 2, Chapter XXIII, Two weddings and a voyage to the East : in the wake of a typhoon, p397-400.

Pictures

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