Junk dreams

Shanghai and Hong Kong have been the starting point for more ‘sail a Chinese built junk across the seas’ than anywhere else. Hans van Tillburg has identified sixteen 19th century junks reported arriving on the west coast of North America. I’ve tallied thirty three reported on from around 1900 to c.1990. In Hong Kong the story starts with the Keying in 1846 and ends – maybe – with the Taiping Princess/Taiping Gongzhu in 2008. On the way would be the ill-fated voyages of Richard Halliburton’s Sea Dragon and Aussie J. Peterson’s Pang Jin. The botanical expedition followed by the wartime service of the whopping Cheng Ho – the only junk ever to serve in the US Navy. The first solo crossing of the North Pacific under sail in the High Tea. The Rubia that sailed to Barcelona…and the Golden Lotus that made it to Auckland. The ill-fated Tai Ki. There was the 1950s Hong Kong Junk Racing Club, with more modest local ambitions. The Chuen Hing Shipyard in Shaukeiwan that built at least four modified junks for export to the USA. There was a lot of cross-cultural fertilization going on too – the junks for export were designed by Ronald Clegg, Butterfield and Swire’s Radio Supervisor!