Early China Coast Meteorology

Abstract

Numerous personality clashes and financial and other intrigues surrounded the early efforts to set up an observatory in Hong Kong. Blending personalities, politics, and practicalities of studying the weather, this book provides insights into the public and private controversies growing out of responses to and responsibilities involved in the protection of life and property. This portrait is set firmly in the context of the history of Hong Kong as a British colony on the China Coast and its role as a burgeoning commercial port within the trading complex of the Empire. It brings to life many of the people and institutions in Hong Kong and elsewhere on the development of meteorology on the China Coast. Dr. William Doberck, who became the founding director of the new Observatory, played a crucial role in its development during most of forty years covered by this book. Doberck was an astronomer with little interest in meteorology and a penchant for not suffering gladly those whom he considered to be his inferiors. The book follows many snippets of scandal concerning Doberck and his often cantankerous relationship with his employers and the other stakeholders in the Colony. In later chapters, the book explores the complex dynamics of the contentious interactions between Doberck and the Jesuits in charge of the Manila and Zikawei Observatories. The storms that rage in the narrative as well as the tragedy of the very real storm of 1906 illustrate the drama that played out both locally and internationally in terms of jealousies, rivalries, and many attendant charges and counter-charges animating the controversy.