HK Star Ferry
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Star Ferry Rides
  We bimbled up the steps, used two of our
many ferry tickets we were given as part of our hop-on-hop-off tour at the ticket office and settled near the stop sign.
   Solar
Star came in with a bump as Bear waited
quietly for the stop sign to change to green. A fairly orderly queue
embarked and we found a seat.
  Soon we were passing Pisces and the ICC Tower.
 The fishing couple
whilst not as impressive as those fishing between the
shipping lanes off Singapore were nonetheless brave in our
eyes.
 Couple in their own world bib-bobbing
when big boats passed by.
  We
waited for Chai Wan to pass in front
of us and as we approached the ferry dock it looked as if working girl,
Chang Sheng was heading straight for us, but
neatly skirted behind.
 We pulled up alongside
Central Pier.
   Two
chaps made quick work of our ropes.
   Each ferry has her
name shield hanging up both Solar Star and
another girl we went on called Meridian Star
were built in 1958. Amazing to think my parents and brothers would have crossed
on these very girls. (They left Southampton on the 30th of December 1955 and
returned on the 1st of December 1958, back from my dad’s army posting). For now,
we waited for the gangplank to lower and off we went
to explore Hong Kong Island.
 We saw
Silver Star on her way back to Kowloon, she is a fourth generation Star
Ferry.
The Star
Ferry's ferry crossings at Victoria Harbour are acclaimed as an important part
of the commuter system between Hong Kong Island and Kowloon, and essential
journeys for visitors. The National Geographic Traveller named the ferry
crossing as one of 50 places of a lifetime. The ferry ride is also well known as
one of the world’s best value-for-money sightseeing trips. Each day more than
fifty thousand cross on the seven to eight minute journey (less time than the
original journey since so much land reclamation has happened over the
years).
The Star Ferry traces its origins
to 1880 when Dorabjee Naorojee Mithaiwala, a Parsee cook, embarked on a new
vocation. He began a ferry service across Victoria Harbour with his steamboat,
the Morning Star. The fledgling service was known as the Kowloon Ferry Company.
A local newspaper reported in 1888 that the ferry ran at all hours between
Pedders Wharf and Tsimshatsui on a 40-minute to one-hour trip. On Mondays and
Fridays, the service halted for the boat’s coaling. By 1890, the Kowloon Ferry
boasted four single-deck Star Ferries.
  With grateful
thanks to The South China Morning Post who published diagrams of each generation Star Ferry with passenger
numbers. About 50 on the original and a 100 on the second.
  Third generation (250 passengers) and fourth generation (577 passengers).
The
names of the original four vessels – Morning Star, Evening Star, Rising
Star and Guiding Star – were inspired by British poet Alfred Lord
Tennyson’s Crossing the Bar,
which has the line: “Sunset and evening star, and one clear call for me!”
The
four boats had a total capacity of 100 passengers. Later on, the ferries
acquired a second deck. During the next ten years,
businessman Sir Catchick Paul Chater bought all the boats and in May 1898 the
Star Ferry Company, as it is known today, became a public company. Its name
derives from the ferries, which all bore the name “Star”.
In 1912, the Star Ferry Company stirred controversy by rejecting the Canton coinage, which was, at the time, legally accepted tender alongside the Hong Kong currency. In 1933, the company made history again by launching the first diesel-electric passenger ferry, the Electric Star. During the Japanese occupation of Hong Kong, invading forces commandeered two ferries to transport prisoners of war from Sham Shui Po to Kai Tak Airport. Both vessels were sunk in battles against American forces in 1943, but later recovered and fixed after the Second World War. In 1957, the present-day, dual-level piers on either side of Victoria Harbour, designed to accommodate 55 million trips per year, were completed. The Star Ferry remained the primary means of cross-harbour transport until the Cross-Harbour Tunnel opened in 1972. The Company celebrated its centenary in 1998. Its fleet of nine ferries is now serving two franchised ferry routes between Tsimshatsui and Central, Tsimshatsui and Wanchai. In addition to ferry services, Star Ferry launched the only licensed harbour tour in Hong Kong in July 2003. The Star Ferry Company now employs about a hundred and seventy people to manage its nine boats, including one hundred and thirty sailors and engineering staff and forty coxswains.
In the ferry building we saw some old photographs. The Pier in the 1900’s, a second and fourth generation ferry.
Kowloon Ferry Wharf.
Meridian Star and the brightly coloured Night Star.
ALL IN ALL A BUSY BUSINESS VERY EFFICIENT AND FUN
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