Princess Taiping rammed by unknown vessel

All crew members save Thomas were released after treatment.

Launched at Amoy or Xiamen in January last year, the Princess Taiping, which was 45 feet wide at the beam, was an exact copy of a war junk of Koxinga's navy.

Koxinga, a loyal general of the Ming Dynasty (1369-1644), drove the Dutch out of Taiwan and claimed the island for China in 1572. He tried in vain to restore Ming rule to China, overrun by the Manchu, who set up China's last imperial dynasty.

War junks of Koxinga fought and defeated the much better-equipped Dutch fleet in 1671 and his Chinese troops landed successfully to besiege Zeelandia, present-day Anping near Tainan.

Last June 26, the Princess Taiping, which means Peace in Chinese, left Keelung on the trans-Pacific voyage. Captain Liu, a yachtsman, was the first Taiwan mariner to accomplish a round-the-world voyage by yacht in 2001. It took 877 days to make the record.

After crossing the ocean, the handcrafted junk was supposed to end up in Vancouver after a 69-day motor-less voyage from Japan. But a tropical storm drove it to Eureka, California, instead. It then sailed to San Francisco on October 14.

Then the Princess Taiping crossed the Pacific again to reach Saipan, where American crew members and Angela Chao, a writer and painter from Johannesburg, South Africa, were interviewed.

Chao had every faith in the skipper. “Scared,” Chao said, “No, our captain is very reliable. He has sailed around the world. He's very experienced.”

Zeiger, a newly graduated agriculture student from the University of Hawaii, said she would never forget her “lifetime experience.”

Hunter said it felt like they were cast members of the famed reality TV show, “Survivor,” while Monroe pointed out he and his shipmates want “to preserve Chinese shipping culture and create awareness about Chinese sailing history.”

From Saipan, the ship sailed for Naha. The mishap occurred on its way back to Taiwan from Okinawa. They tried, and almost succeeded.

The Princess Taiping was also a replica of one of the great Chinese war junks Zheng He, the eunuch admiral under the third Ming emperor, led to pacify all Southeast Asia, and reached as far as North Africa.

At the time of Zheng He, China had the world's most powerful navy.

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