Clarence Spohn has provided this blog with wonderful photographs from Taipei, CCK, and now Kaohsiung.
On one of his visits to the south of the island, Clarence ended up at the Kaohsiung Harbor.
He photographed the harbor ships and some of the fishing boats unloading their catch of fresh seafood.
Few of us have seen Kaohsiung port and less have taken the time to visit the fishing boat docks. .
Here's how it looked Back in the Day, of April-May 1969...
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| Fishing boats tied up as far as you can see. |
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| Good haul of seafood today. |
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| Naval ship of some type. Anyone recognize her. |
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| Good view of the harbor. Check the running lights on the mast, and 2 lines of radio antenna. |
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| Look at that tanker! Could be hauling just about anything, probably crude oil. |
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| What's up on the top of that hill? Maybe a Pagoda or is that a light house? |
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| My attention was drawn to the 2 small boats. Do they haul fresh seafood to the markets? |
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| Let's get those fish out of the hold. |
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| What's in the box, every one's attention seems to be drawn to the box.(Clarence reports the box contains eel.) |
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| Sorting fish and seafood. |
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Clarence's favorite photo of the port area. It looks like the boat Captain has started the engine. It's time to head out for the fishing grounds and these boys have probably been told to get off the boat. But, these youngsters may be heading out with the boat, there surely must be jobs for boys of this age to do on a fishing vessel, and child labor was not uncommon during this time in Taiwan.
On Saturday, 12 November 2011, I visited the Kaohsiung harbor area.
The area has changed very much since these photos were taken.
I took this photo of the harbor from the top of the Ferry Boat I rode to the harbor landing.
It was smokey and overcast, lots of stuff in the air, not a good day for photographs.
This photo was taken in same area as the first photo of this post. Go back up to the first photo and see how packed the fishing boats were in 1969 vs today. |
10 comments:
On the hill, tt's a light house!
The Navy ship is a gasoline tanker. This is the info I gleaned from Wikipedia:
USS Namakagon (AOG-53) was a Patapsco-class gasoline tanker built for the United States Navy during World War II. In some sources, the ship's name is also spelled Namakogon. After her decommissioning from the U.S. Navy in 1957, the former Namakagon served as Antarctic supply vessel HMNZS Endeavour (A814) for the Royal New Zealand Navy (1962–1971), and as ROCS Lung Chuan for the Republic of China Navy. Lung Chuan ended active service when she was decommissioned from the Republic of China Navy in 2005.
The former Namakagon was leased to the Republic of China Navy in 1971 and renamed ROCS Lung Chuan (AOG-515).[1] Her pennant number was later changed to AOG-507. Although Lung Chuan remained in the custody of the Republic of China Navy, the vessel was returned to the U.S. on paper in 1976, struck from the American Naval Vessel Register on 15 April, and sold back to the Republic of China. Lung Chuan was decommissioned on 1 April 2005 at Kaohsiung, Taiwan. Her final disposition is unknown.
The dates of the photos do not jib with the date that Taiwan acquired this ship, so I may be all wet in my assumption here. :)
John Quinn
Unfair to look at. Those days were indeed horrible.
@epm training, I do not understand you comment. Please help me understand.
For me, and most of the folks I know that were in Taiwan during "those days" consider them some of the best days of our lives.
John Quinn
epm training
Were you in the military ?
If so what branch & unit ?
This will help us understand your comment . I was in Kaohsiung 1968 & 1969 I know about some of the problems .
In last photo, there is a propaganda poster with two columns of eight Chinese characters on the electric pole. Each column has four Chines characters.
Characters in right column are 「不聽匪俄」.
「不」means 「Don't」.
「聽」means「listen」.
「匪」means「bandit」. It refers to Communist China.
「俄」means「Russia」.
Evidently these four characters are only an upper part of a sentence.
I guess the whole sentence must be something like 「Don't listen to propaganda of Communist China and Russia」or「Don't listen to radio programs of Communist China and Russia」.
The first character of the left column is「不」.It means 「Don't」.
I can't recognize the second character because two wires cover it. But I'm sure it must be a verb.
The third and fourth charters are 「反動」. It means 「reactionary」or「counter-revolution」. It's an
adjective and must be followed by an object which is not shown in this photo.
Interesting photo, interesting political propaganda poster. It reminds me of my childhood in Kauhsiung City.
Wang Chun
In the box next to the boat are probably White Beltfish, 白帶魚, a member of the cutlassfish family. They look like eels and are considered prized food fish in Asia. I loved them fried.
Great pics and thanks for sharing.
This is what I found about AOG-507 or ROCN or the Chang-Bai from the National Repository of Cultural Heritage:
民國50年4月24日上午10點40分，美國贈送我國一艘中型油艦，在高雄左營海軍基地碼頭舉行舉行交接典禮和成軍典禮，美國方面由美國駐華軍援顧問團團長戴倫少將代表贈送給我國，由我國參謀總長彭孟緝上將(民國前5年 8月17日出生，曾擔任台灣省警備司令、 陸軍總司令、參謀總長、國防部長、總統府戰略顧問等軍職，其軍人官職最高為陸軍一級上將，一生中引人爭議的則是「二二八事件」中所扮演角色；民國86年12月20日，病逝於台北榮民總醫院，享年91歲)代為接受，我國將這艘郵件命名為「長白號」(原名為「Pecatouica」，編號為「AOG-57」，由美國的「Cargill」所建造；贈送給我國後改為「長白號」，編號為「AOG-307」，我國首任艦長為韓瑛中校；其功績在二次大戰中擔任美國航空飛行器補油的運輸工具)──舉行移交典禮的一景。
Original URL along with a photo of it being transferred from USN to ROCN:
http://nrch.cca.gov.tw/ccahome/search/search_meta.jsp?xml_id=0004506596&dofile=cca100062-hp-kh2002_019_140_0002-i.jpg
1st photo: The place is called 「鼓山漁港」.
「鼓山」（Gu-Shan) means 「Drum Mountain」. 「漁港」means「fish harbor」
We can see a small hill in this photo. Beyond the other side of this small hill is Taiwan Strait. And the beach on the other side of this hill is Shi Tze Wan （西子灣）.
In 1969 when this photo was taken, somewhere in the deep end of Shi Tze Wan was President Chiang Kai-shek 's resort.
In summer of 1975 righ after Chiang's death, the place was opened to the public.
Three years later, National Sun Yat-sen University （國立中山大學）was established in that place.
About 400 meters away from the point this photo was taken now stands a terminal station of Kauhsiung Mass Rapid Transit System.
3rd photo:Naval ship 507 was anchoring at Pier 13. Out of Pier 13 is Chi Shan Third Road（七賢三路）, a short bustling street with tens of bars on both sides in that time. Also Sea Dragon Club stood on the north side of this street.
During Vietnam War period, if you walked down this street, you would see more US sailers than local people.
5th photo: A huge tanker was just sailing through the mouth of Kaohsiung Harbor into inner space.
The cliff with a lighthouse on it is the north end of Chi Jin Island（旗津島）.
That cliff was restricted military area in 1969. A small number of Chinese Marine Corps garrison was stationed in that area.
About 15 years ago (I'm not sure ), this area was opened to the public.
Three years ago I visited Chi Jin Island and climbed all the way up to the lighthouse. I found that the cliff had some underground bunkers, machine gun nests, tunnels here and there.
That day I stood at the top of the lighthouse and overlooked Kaohsiung Harbor. I found one of Taiwan's two submarines
bought from Holland anchoring at Pier 13.
6th and 7th photo: We can see a three-story concrete building and a wooden tower were connected by something like a bridge.
That concrete building was an ice factory and the bottom of the ''bridge'' was paved with rollers.
Huge ice cubes were sent from a higher point at the concrete building to a lower point at the wooden tower by sliding through that ''bridge''.
Ice cubes were made for fishing boats' freezers.
9th photo: Things in the box look like 白帶魚 to me. They don't look like eels
I don't know how you guys call it in English. 「白」means「white」.「帶」means「belt」.「魚」means「fish」.
白帶魚 is common and ordinary in Taiwan and East China.
Sea eels are way precious and expensive than 白帶魚. It is very hard to get a whole box of sea eels in one fishing trip.
Last photo: when this photo was taken I was about the age of the left one of the three boys.
Like your phtos.
Best Regards
Wang Chun
It looks like an AOG but didn't think numbers wentthat high.....
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