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During the Japanese occupation from December 1941 to August 1945, the Japanese Navy and the Port Control Unit established by the Governor's Office of the Captured Territory of Hong Kong, performed some of the functions of the Harbour Master’s Department. Even though there were no official records, as the Japanese occupying Hong Kong aimed at acquiring resources to facilitate the war in other places, it was believed that the Japanese Navy acquired most of the colonial launches managed by the Harbour Master’s Department, leaving only a few for the operations of the Port Control Unit. Since there were limited resources in Hong Kong and the Japanese were focused on the war, the Japanese continued the operation of the Navy Dockyard and closed down the Government Slipway. Thus, the Government Slipway was suspended throughout the Japanese occupation.^[14]

After the surrender of the Japanese in August 1945, the British Military Administration was established in Hong Kong in September with Rear Admiral Cecil Harcourt of the Royal Navy as the Commander in Chief. The British Military Administration was responsible for the rebuilding of Hong Kong. Since most of the colonial launches were damaged or lost, the Military Administration quickly deployed some Royal Navy launches to patrol Hong Kong waters. At the same time, the Military Administration resumed work at the Government Slipway in order to rebuild and repair the colonial launches. On 1 May 1946, the Military Administration ended and the civilian colonial government resumed managing Hong Kong affairs. Most of the services of the Harbour Department were resumed. The Harbour Department and Director of Air Services split and became the Harbour Department and the Department of Civil Aviation in response to the civilian government’s recommendation.

As resources were scarce, the Government Slipway was under utilised. The serious inflation in Hong Kong had also significantly increased the costs for the repair and rebuilding of colonial launches. Thus, the government hired private slipways to repair and rebuild colonial launches, and arranged for the purchase and deployment of launches from the Ministry of Transport, the Admiralty, and the War Office. In 1947, the colonial government took over 60 colonial launches from the Ministry of Transport, 38 from the Admiralty, and 8 from the War Office. They were deployed to different departments, including the Harbour Department, the Port Works, the Agricultural Department, the Fisheries Department, the Sanitary Department, the Police Department, the Medical Department, the Port Health Office, the Stores Department, and others. Most of these vessels were lighters, dredgers and towboats; and the rest were patrol launches, hoppers and barges. The operation of Government Slipway was fully resumed in 1948, seeing 288 days of ship usage. Meanwhile, the number of colonial launches increased to 154 in the same year.^[15]

With the rapid development of trade in Hong Kong, there was continued increase in the number of colonial launches, and it became necessary to expand the Government Slipway. In 1951, James Jolly, the Director of Marine, wrote to Sir Geoffrey Follows, the Financial Secretary, requesting the expansion of the slipway. The request was approved, and in 1954 a new slipway cradle was designed and built to accommodate vessels up to 70 feet in length. The workshops and offices were extended by taking over an adjacent site. In 1956, an electrically-driven machine was installed at the slipway and its effectiveness was quickly demonstrated by cutting the number of workers by 70%.^[16]

In 1957, the colonial government announced that the Naval Dockyard would be closed in 1960. This provided an opportunity for the Government Slipway to select experienced and skilled employees. The exercise took three years to complete in phases, with 108 ex-Naval Dockyard staff joining the Government Dockyard, thereby significantly increasing the capacity of the slipway to repair launches.^[17]

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