Typhoon

 

According to Hurricane Research Division (2011), typhoon is a regionally specific name for strong tropical cyclones. Once the tropical cyclone reaches winds of 33 m/s (64 kt, 74 mph), then it will be regarded as typhoon in the Northwest Pacific Ocean west of the dateline, which includes China, Thailand, Korea, Japan, the Philippines, and Hong Kong. 

 

Apart from the piracies, poor navigation, lack of reliable charts and ferocious typhoons made the outcome of any journey undertaken to or from Hong Kong uncertain. Here are the two examples for showing how the typhoons destroyed the ships in their ways to or from Hong Kong.

 

In an August 1848 typhoon at Hong Kong and Macao, five ships were driven on shore and six others were dismasted. During the same storm, the American opium clipper Antelope was making a passage from Shanghai to Hong Kong and was knocked down into the trough of sea.

 

A typhoon in June 1869 engulfed two steamers (the P. & O. steamer, Corea, and one of Douglas Lapraik’s fleet of vessels, Chanticleer) on their way to Hong Kong from Swatow. They both disappeared leaving no trace behind. (Latham & Kawakatsu, 2009)