A. Macdonald & Co Shipyard [1864-c.1880]

Alexander Macdonald set up A. Macdonald & Co. in West Point (Whitty Street and Queen’s Road West today) in 1864. His patent slip in West Point was opened on 9 August 1869 by Governor MacDonnell. Despite a mishap to the 1,200-ton iron vessel Cataluna, the slip opened for business, with the facility to haul a ship 250 feet in length clean out of the water. Its water depth at spring tides was 28 feet, allowing vessels drawing 13 feet or ships of 1,500 tons to be taken up. The machinery accessories were bought from Scotland personally by Macdonald. The planning had started three years earlier, with an investment of £20,000. Macdonald died in November 1872 in Scotland, and the patent slip was taken by Captain G. U. Sands in 1874. Captain Sands owned two patent slips in Belcher Bay, known as the Sands Slip (where Sands Street stands today), which took most of the small vessels’ building and repair business. He died in 1876. His three patent slips were then sold to the HKWDC at a cost of $150,000 in August 1877, after prolonged legal cases lasting for nearly four years

Source: Marine Department