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Some of you may recall the replica of a 17th Century Chinese war junk that toured through San Francisco last fall. It was called the Princess Taiping and its mission was to complete a round trip journey from Taiwan to prove that Chinese sailors may have reached North America before Columbus. Well, sadly (but also comically), in the waters just off Taiwan, the Princess Taiping was struck by a freighter and sunk just 30 miles from the end of its 14,000 mile journey.
None of the 11 member crew were severely injured, but the ship was split in half and the freighter that struck them, after a brief pause, soldiered on across the Pacific without offering any assistance. For a look back on the pretty little boat that almost could, here's a slideshow from its tour through the Bay last fall.
The captain, Nelson Liu, said he felt "more than regret" about having come so close. We suspect the crew might have started partying a little prematurely and drifted into a shipping lane... but hey, accidents happen.
Photo by Christopher Buhl.
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The hypothetical pre-columbian chinese explorers probably would have found a way to avoid being rammed by freighters during their voyage.
I hope a full investigation is done. I have heard some stories about this Nelson Character about how he suffers from constant sea sickness.
When I visited the ship at the warf here last year the ship had no short wave radio or an epirb, the kid on the boat didn't even know what an epirb was.
He put those kids lives at risk.
my homie, hugh, was on that boat. he said that the ship told them go get, i believe, to the starboard side and then all of a sudden the ship altered coarse and collided with them before they could adjust. I believe everyone was asleep, except those on watch. What a ay to wake up, huh?