The side-wheeler paddle steamer Hankow was the last of the River Yangtze steamers to be built. All future craft being screw propelled. The Hankow proved suitable for use on the daily overnight Hong Kong-Canton passenger service. She played a starring role in the cession of the New Territories to Hong Kong when the Hankow was commissioned to convey Governor Blake's party to Tai Po, where the formal flag-raising ceremony would take place to mark the occasion on 7 th April 1899. Tragedy struck on October 1906, when Hankow was gutted by fire as a result of a passenger's cooking stove overturned. One hundred and thirty people were killed in the shipping company's worst ever (Non-wartime) disaster. In 1907 Hankow was towed to Shanghai and converted to a hulk. After being transferred to Shasi in 1938, the ship survived as a pontoon when she was finally sunk in an American bombing raid during the Second World War.