anchored off the naval dockyard in Victoria Harbour in 1905 The first reference to what is now called Victoria Harbour is found in
Zheng He's sailing maps of the China coast, dated c.1425, which appear in the
Wubei Zhi (
A Treatise on Armament Technology), a comprehensive 17th-century military book. While the harbour was charted in later maps, the first map depicting it in detail is an 1810 marine chart prepared for the
East India Company by
Daniel Ross and Philip Maughan, lieutenants of the
Bombay Marine. Some of the first recreational activities to take place in the harbour were water competitions such as swimming and
water polo in the 1850s, undertaken by members of Hong Kong's first sports club, the Victoria Recreation Club. went beyond the end of the runway and down into the water. During the
Taiping Rebellion, armed rebels paraded the streets of Hong Kong. On 21 December 1854, the Hong Kong police arrested several armed rebels who were about to attack
Kowloon City. On 23 January 1855, a fleet of Taiping
war boats was on the verge of a naval battle against Chinese imperial war boats defending the harbour. The Chinese defenders were ordered away by the British colonial authorities. These incidents caused rising tension that would eventually lead to the
Arrow War. The harbour was originally called "Hong Kong Harbour", but was later renamed to "Victoria Harbour", to assure shelter for the British fleet under
Queen Victoria. The subject of pollution came to the fore in the 1970s with the rapid growth of the manufacturing sector. The water club races were stopped in 1973 due to pollution in the harbour, Studies also showed excessive
nitrogen input from discharges of the
Pearl River Delta into the harbour for decades. After completion of the
Central and Wan Chai Reclamation Feasibility Study in 1989, the Land Development Policy Committee endorsed a concept for gradual implementation of this additional reclamation. It consists of three district development cells separated by parks, namely,
Central,
Tamar and
Exhibition. The latest proposed reclamation, extending along the waterfront from
Sheung Wan to
Causeway Bay, faced public opposition, as the harbour has become a pivotal location to Hongkongers in general. Activists have denounced the government's actions as destructive not only to the natural environment, but also to what is widely considered one of the most prized natural assets of the territory. NGOs, including the
Society for Protection of the Harbour, were formed to resist further attempts to reduce the size of the waterbody, with its chairman,
Christine Loh, quoted as saying that the harbour "...is a precious national asset and we must preserve it for future generations. I believe an insightful and visionary chief executive would support our stance and work with us to protect the harbour". Reclamation work also led to the demolition of
Queen's Pier and
Edinburgh Place Ferry Pier, structures of historic significance, to massive public opposition. On November 4th 1993,
China Airlines Flight 605 was a flight that overran a runway at
Kai Tak Airport meanwhile landing in a storm, poor conditions caused it to land in the harbour. It was the first hull loss of a
747-400. ==Geography==