Whicker's Orient - Alan Whicker (1972) - R.M.S Queen Elizabeth

Next up on the tycoon checklist is C.Y Tung. Tung is still famous, even now, for not just his noble but ultimately futile attempt to turn the former Queen Elizabeth cruise ship into a floating university (called Seawise, a play on his initials) but also because one of his children, Tung Chee-hwa, was the first Chief Executive of Hong Kong following the handover in 1997.

Anyway, Whicker interviews the old man on a boat as they head over to the ship and Tung talks about the cost and his hopes for it as well as telling Whicker about the problems he has had with the labour force. You can view the episode yourself on Youtube, but to summarise - his shipworkers were all controlled by a Communist labour union. The workers insisted on taking their lunch on shore EVERY DAY, which meant that out of an 8 hour working day, 5 hours were spent going to and from shore to eat lunch. It's important to put this into context because the relations between Tung and the labour unions have often been cited as a possible reason for why the ship eventually caught fire under "mysterious circumstances" and was left to rot in the harbour for several years (and went on to become another film location). The ship was destroyed about a month after this episode was first broadcast, so I think the lower images of it burning were added in for later showings.

That Man Bolt - Fred Williamson (1973) - R.M.S Queen Elizabeth, Victoria Harbour

A year before Roger Moore made The Man with the Golden Gun which used the RMS Queen Elizabeth as a secret office of the British Intelligence Services, we can see it in the background of one of the scenes when Bolt meets Griffith's way out on a boat in the harbour.

Actually, seeing as the thing caught fire in January 1972, I imagine these pictures were taken not that long after the "accidentally-on-purpose" accident - well perhaps less than a year at least.

Now, we know the approximate position of where the wreck was towed to following the fire thanks to looking at it previously (somewhere under Tsing Yi's more recently reclaimed Container Terminal #9 on its SE tip), which would make the area where the boat is somewhere between Tsing Yi and Stonecutters Island - the lower/southern end of Rambler Channel.

However, it's always nice to have a bit of extra confirmation and we get this with a couple of extra shots that show Mei Foo Sun Chuen in the background (see below behind Fred's head).

And also a quick look over to what I believe must be Stonecutters Island (due to its rather low profile) with HK in the far background.

The Man with the Golden Gun - Roger Moore (1974) - R.M.S Queen Elizabeth, Hong Kong Harbour

When I did a locations thread for this film on Gwulo a while ago, this was by far the most interesting one - mainly because no one knew where it had finally sunk. Anyway, the guys on there got their resourceful hats on, as always and finally nailed it as being a part of the sea off Stonecutters Island that now sits under a bit of reclaimed land.

Of course everyone who has seen the film knows this location served as the covert HQ of Bond's boss in HK but, in reality, it was the old Queen Elizabeth ship that had been bought by the shipping magnate C.Y Tung (the father of HK's first lame duck Chief Executive - Tung Chee Hwa - the first of many I suspect). He bought the ship and was in the process of turning it into a floating university (called the S.S Seawise - C.Y's...geddit?) when it caught fire under mysterious circumstances in January 1972 and was burnt to the rusty hulk you see on film.

The main part of the superstructure that was above water was broken down and (I believe) was used to form some of the ground on which Chek Lap Kok airport now stands whereas the remaining part remained on the seabed until the area known as CT9 was built over it (CT stands for Container Terminal) at the SE tip of Tsing Yi island (the new Stonecutters Bridge virtually passes over the top of the area now).