MACDONALD & CO.
As Hongkong's commercial prosperity depends almost entirely upon shipping, it is but natural that the engineering departments of the shipbuilding and shipping trade should have reached a high state of efficiency. One of the leading local engineering firms is that of Messrs. Macdonald & Co., who were the first to undertake the construction of steel piers and wharves. The firm was formerly known as Kinghorn & Macdonald, but in 1903 it was established under its present style. The offices of the Company are in York Buildings, Hongkong, the works are at Kowloon. The equipment of the works enables all classes of harbour and repair work and the construction of marine engines up to 200 horse-power to be carried out. The site occupied forms part of the land that has been reclaimed in the bay, and adjoins the Kowloon-Canton Railway station yard. It has a good water frontage of 400 feet in length, and a slipway capable of taking vessels up to 150 tons. During the past year the firm has carried out a large number of contracts, including the building of eight wooden and steel lighters, and three steam launches of 25, 40, and 50 tons each. Messrs. Macdonald & Co. erected two steel jetties and two steel piers at Canton (one for the Hamburg-Amerika Linie). the principal workshops at Messrs. Butterfield & Swire's new dockyards at Quarry Bay. and two piers at Tai Kok Tsui for Messrs. Arnhold, Karberg & Co. They are now erecting a pier for the Standard Oil Company at Lai-chi-kok. Under contract with the Government, the firm also built Blake Pier, Hongkong's principal landing place. They removed the stone barriers in the Canton River, which were put down during the first war to prevent foreign ships from entering the river, and, under contract with the Imperial Maritime Customs, constructed several lighthouses in the Canton and West Rivers. After the great typhoon of September, 1906, they were called upon to repair many of the lighters and launches that had suffered damage. The Company are agents for A. R. Brown, MacFarlane & Co., Ltd., iron and steel merchants, of Glasgow; C. A. Parsons & Co.'s land turbines; Richardsons, Westgarth & Co.; Lobnitz & Co.'s dredgers, &c.; J. & E. Hall's refrigerating plants; A B C Coupler, Ltd.; Vulcan Crucible Co.; Glacier Antifriction Metal Co.; Robert Brown & Son, Ltd., Paisley; A. & J. Main & Co., Ltd., structural engineers and bridge builders; and the Elaterite Paint and Manufacturing Company.
Mr. Donald Macdonald, M.I.Mech.E., M.I.M.E, the head of the firm, has had a long and valuable training in various engineering works. He served his apprenticeship with Messrs. Craig & Donald, Johnstone, and Messrs. Denny & Co., Dumbarton. In 1878 he was appointed junior engineer to one of Messrs. Jardine, Matheson & Co.'s steamers on the China coast, and four years later became chief engineer. Since then he has had eighteen years' experience in the Colony, seven of which were spent in the service of the Hongkong and Whampoa Dock Company, Ltd. For the last eleven years he has been in business on his own account. He is surveyor to the Bureau Veritas, British Corporation, and other registers. He takes great interest in the Volunteer movement, and holds the commission of major in the local corps. His address is York Buildings, Hongkong.
W. S. BAILEY & CO.
This well-known firm of engineers and shipbuilders was founded in 1897 by Mr. W. S. Bailey, who began business as a consulting engineer and importer of steam pumps and engineers' requisites. In 1900 Mr. Bailey was joined in partnership by Mr. E. O. Murphy, and the present works at Kowloon Bay were established. The firm's first order was for the 50-foot steam launch Ida, and was received from the Hongkong Steam Laundry Company. From that time to the present orders have flowed in continuously, and it has been necessary to make frequent additions to the premises and plant in order to cope with the increasing stream. The works now occupy about six acres, and have a sea frontage of 450 feet, so that eight vessels may be laid down at the same time. When established only three years the Company received the order for the Canton River steamer Kwong Chow (now the Kwong Sai), of 600 tons displacement and 200 feet in length. The boat was completed a year later, and up to that date was the largest steel vessel built in the Colony, In 1905 the firm, in response to a repeat order from the same owners, undertook the construction of the steel twin-screw steamer the Kwong Tung, and while engaged upon this contract they had also in hand four iron barges, each of 600 tons capacity, for Messrs. Markwald & Co., of Bangkok, besides several smaller vessels and general work. At this time upwards of two thousand five hundred men were employed in the yard. Messrs. W. S. Bailey & Co. have recently completed the steel cruiser Loong Sheung (Flying Dragon) for the Imperial Chinese Navy. On the occasion of our representative's visit over a thousand men were at work, and there were on the stocks a steel twin-screw lighter being built, under Lloyds 100 A1 survey, to carry 825 tons dead weight at a speed of nine knots; and a steel oil barge 150 feet in length for the Standard Oil Company of New York. There were also fifty-two steel buoys under construction for the Manila Government. At the same time the firm were erecting large oil tanks at Haiphong and Saigon for the Standard Oil Company, for whom they had just previously completed a similar installation at Hongkong. In seven years the firm have turned out over eighty vessels, including stern-wheelers, light draught vessels, and motor boats, both twin and single screws.
The senior partner, Mr. Bailey, was born in Dublin and served his apprenticeship as an engineer with the Australasian Steam Navigation Company, of Sydney, N.S.W. He came to Hongkong in 1890 and joined the Hongkong, Canton and Macao Steamboat Company, Ltd., in whose steamers Honan and Heungshan he served until he started in business for himself. Mr. Bailey is a member of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, London.
Mr. Murphy is of Irish parentage, and was born in Liverpool, where he served his apprenticeship with Messrs. John Jones & Sons. He was afterwards junior engineer in several vessels of the White Star Line, and arrived in Hongkong, as second engineer of the Abyssinia, in 1895. For the next five years or so he served as chief engineer in the C.P.R. liners Empress of India, Empress of China, and Empress of Japan. Mr. Murphy is a Whitworth scholar, and vice-president of the Institute of Marine Engineers, London.
WILKS & JACK, LTD.
This firm was founded in 1902 by Mr. E. C. Wilks, M.I.Mech.E., as a marine engineers' and surveyors' bureau. Mr. Wilks was joined in 1903 by Mr. W. C. Jack, M.I.N.A., formerly Ingénieur en Chef of the Tonkin River Mail Service, and late assistant manager at the Kowloon establishment of the Hongkong and Whampoa Dock Company. During the five years of their association as E. C. Wilks & Co. the firm designed and superin-
