Hong Kong 'NEW WAVE' Chinese Steamship Companies from 1949
[for Ocean Tramping Co. Ltd (and affiliates) and Yick Fung Shipping &
Enterprises Co. Ltd (and affiliates) access via "PRC" page]
1949 年以来的“新浪潮”私人中国轮船公
In this section we present operators, including several who had commenced operations in China before 1937, who post-World War II developed fleets of major significance, operating from Hong Kong and also Taiwan, often under flags of convenience.
Hsu Ting Zuo/Yih Lee S.N. Co./Eddie S.S. Co. (1946)
Hwang Tiong Beng and the China Pacific Group of Hong Kong (1946)
Koo Chung-sui/Tai Chong Cheang S.S. Co./Valles S.S. Co. (1946)
Ping An S.S. Co., Shanghai 平安輪船有限公司 (1946)
Ta Hing/Ta An/Abeto and associated Eddie Wong companies (1946)
Tung Chao Yung/Chinese Maritime Trust/Island Nav. Corp./OOL/OOCL (1946)
Chip Hwa Shipping & Trading Co. Ltd (1948)
Teh Hu S.S. Co. Ltd 德和輪船公司 (1948)
Jebshun Shipping Co. Ltd. 捷順船務有限公司 (1950)
George (Chi Chung) Zee 徐志忠 (1954)
Hsu Tung Zhuo was the founder in 1927 of Yih Lee S.N. Co. outlined in our list accessed via the "Chinese" page. He was succeeded by a son who developed the company, now named Eddie S.S. Co., into a major international operator, and by the current CEO, a grandson. Eddie S.S. Co. has published a detailed illustrated list of the son's oceangoing ships in W.H. Eddie Hsu & All His Ships: The 90th Anniversary of Eddie Steamship, 1927-2017 which it has kindly made available in the PDF file at left - a heavy file which will take a while to download. Acquired in the 1960s were the former Eastern & Australian fast steamers EASTERN and NELLORE, shown below at the Taikoo Dockyard in Hong Kong in a photo by Geoff Wellstead. The ships, each over 500 feet in length, were renamed DORI and ORIANA respectively in the Eddie S.S. Co. fleet, joining other similar acquired and newly-built ships that were operating in services such as to New York and Australia. Shown in the Makassar Strait in a painting by Robert Lloyd is the bulk carrier PANAMAX UNIVERSE, built in 2012 near the Hsu ancestral home on Zhoushan (Chusan) island.
China Pacific Group-Hwang Tiong Beng/T.B. Hwang undertook ship chartering activities pre-World War II and re-emerged post-war, first in Shanghai and then in Hong Kong as one of the more successful middle-tier Hong Kong shipowners of the postwar years. A short history and detailed illustrated fleet list of these ships, researched and written by Howard, is in the PDF file at right. Two typical T.B. Hwang ships are illustrated below. AMOY was a British warbuilt, depicted at Hong Kong in 1961 in a photograph by Dr George Wilson. ATLANTIC TRADER was originally a Götaverken-built tanker converted by Hwang to a bulk carrier. Bill Schell's photo shows her at Hong Kong in 1970.
Koo Chung-sui founded the Tai Chong Cheang S.S. Co. in Shanghai in 1920 and became involved in a range of steamship company interests before 1937, many of which are described in the Koo Chung-sui and Ta Chen Nav. sections of our "Little Yangtse" list. Postwar he developed Tai Chong Cheang and the Valles S.S. Co. in Hong Kong with flag of convenience ships. In 2017 both companies commissioned Stephanie Zarach to publish a history, "To Catch a Goose if the World is Large". Shown below is the VALLES ex RAMONA, reconstructed in 1949 after being bombed during the war. The second photo is of one of Tai Chong Cheang S.S.'s typical bulk carriers CSK BEILIUN (Singapore-flag) having a coal cargo unloaded in at the Dutch port of Ijmuiden in 2009 (Willem Oldenburg).
Ping An S.S. Co. was one of the 'Little Yangtse' operators that later developed worldwide operations. A short history of the wider company has been researched by Howard and is in the PDF at right. The vessel below, shown in a Peter Foxley photograph in the Straits of Malacca (W. Schell coll.) is their first 7,000 g.t. size ship, SOUTHERN MARINER, acquired in 1959.
Ta Hing Company (HK) Ltd, Ta An Co. (HK) Ltd and the colourful Abeto companies-In 1946 Edward (‘Eddie’) Wong Wing-Cheung appears in Hong Kong as one of the founders of the syndicate. Howard has prepared a history and a separate lavishly illustrated fleet list of the associated shipping companies in the PDF files at right. Two ships owned by these companies are depicted in the photographs below. The first, taken by R. Maya and held in Bill Schell's collection is MALAYA FIR, shown anchored inside the breakwater at Tanjung Priok, 26 April 1960, on charter to the Indonesian Army Transport Section. The second, by Peter Foxley and from Stephen's collection is Abeto's MALAYSIA RAYA, on charter to Great Malaysia Line in the period 1971-76.
Tung Chao-yung (C.Y. Tung) was a prewar operator in Tianjin and Shanghai who came to have an important position in private sector shipping services. After the war he sought to reinvigorate coastal, Yangtse and international shipping by consolidating assets with other owners, but with the Revolution moved to Hong Kong where he was able to use his outstanding negotiating skills with a wide range of contacts to build his fleets including the major international shipping line now known as Orient Overseas Container Line (OOCL). Tung married Koo Chung-sui's daughter and their eldest son Tung Chee-hwa became the first Chief Executive of Hong Kong after it was returned to China. The details of Tung's Tientsin Nav. Co. are given in our "Pei" Ships list in the Other Chinese section, and we will be adding more material to this site. In 1970 C.Y. Tung bought the QUEEN ELIZABETH, then the largest passenger ship in the world (first photo below by Stephen Berry). In 1981 he converted a tanker to become the SEAWISE GIANT, by tonnage the largest ship of all time (second photo by Nippon Kokan). In 2017 OOCL took delivery of the 21,413-teu OOCL HONG KONG, at the time the world's largest container ship and the first of six sisters. The company, since bought by COSCO, has since constructed a further 12 ships with a larger 24,188-teu capacity (third photo below by OOCL).
Chip Hwa Shipping & Trading Co. Ltd-Founded in Singapore in 1948 by Fukienese Lou Gaw Tong who owned the Aik Hong Rice Mill in Rangoon, this company initially sought to buy up surplus British military vessels and refit them to ship paddy rice down the Irrawaddy to the mills in Rangoon, and the milled rice from Rangoon to Singapore. In the mid-1950s Lou began to diversify Chip Hwa into general dry cargo shipping, including the conversion of tankers to dry cargo vessels. A subsidiary was registered in Hong Kong and after Lou's death in 1960 the fleet expanded significantly with good general cargo tonnage, all motorships and a full fleetlist is included in the PDF file at right. But by 1970 the shipowning side of the business had ended. The vessel depicted below at Fremantle in Hong Kong unit Hwa Aun Co. (HK) Ltd colours is WING ON, acquired in 1957 and initially registered in Singapore.
Although we lack precision on its stated prewar shipping connections, Teh Hu Steamship Company Limited was formed in Shanghai on 6 June 1948 and has endured and ultimately prospered over more than 70 years. It has managed to straddle the awkward divides between Hong Kong, China and Taiwan and today owns a small fleet of modern ‘Cape-size’ bulk carriers, a far cry from the little old trampships with which it began. A short history and detailed fleet list are in the PDF file at right. Below wearing the old and new versions of the company's funnel markings are the 3952 g.t. AMITA deploying no less than 16 derricks at Adelaide in 1970 (Chris Finney/shipspotting.com), and the bulk carrier PROSPEROUS at Ijmuiden in March 2012 (Marcel & Ruud Coster/shipspotting.com).
Jebshun Shipping Company (Ltd) traced its origins to Jebshun & Co. formed in Swatow (Shantou) in 1931 by Teochew/ Chiuchow merchant Lam Choon-cheong (林俊璋) and began as a ship operator with a charter and the formation of Winly Navigation Co. Ltd in 1950. With further charters of Norwegian-flag tonnage and owned vessels, the comany became prominent in the South China-Straits trade including the transport of passengers. From 1959 the company also moved into the booming regional charter market and in the period 1967-70 acquired seven modern freighters. By 1969 most of the fleet was engaged on time charter to the People’s Republic of China, but after incidents of misfortune, the company applied for bankruptcy in December 1971. Show below in a photograph by Robert Gabriel at Singapore ca.1960 is Jebshun passenger ship SHUN SHING, and beneath that showing the colour scheme in a photograph by N. Brown at Hobart in 1964 is the cargo ship SHUN TAI. The PDF file at right authored by Howard Dick contains a short history followed by a detailed fleet list with many photographs.
George (Chi Chung) Zee (Zee Chi Chung 徐志忠, pinyin Xu Zhi Zhōng) was one of the less well-known among the Shanghai refugee shipowners who relocated to Hong Kong. His initial business was the production of Chinese-style carved furniture, pieces of which today still survive around the world, marked by his small manufacturer’s plate 'George Zee & Co'. In Hong Kong he re-established this profitable business and by 1954 was investing in ships. In mid-1955 he incorporated in Hong Kong his own shipping company, South East Asia Shipping & Trading Co. Ltd. In 1958 he became one of many Hong Kong shipowners to take advantage of the opportunity to charter ships to Indonesia. But his ship-owning activities came to a sudden, tragic end in May 1967 when he fell to his death from the window of his 18th-floor office in the Realty Building. The PDF file at right contains a short history and very fully illustrated fleet list of George Lee's ships. One of the prettiest, chartered to to state-owned P.N. Pelni for the Indonesian domestic express interisland passenger service was KOWLOON STAR, seen here at Singapore at the end of her career, in a photograph from Chris Howell's collection downloaded from Shipspotting.
