Taiwan Today

The atmosphere at the National Museum of Marine Science and Technology (NMMST) in Keelung City, northern Taiwan was celebratory and vibrant on July 11 this year, the Republic of China’s (ROC) Maritime Day. The centerpiece of the festivities at the museum was a junk, or Chinese-style sailboat, that had returned to Taiwan from the United States 57 years after it made a transpacific journey from the port city in northern Taiwan to San Francisco. Among the guests invited to the celebration was Paul Chow (周傳鈞), one of the six mariners who sailed the vessel to the United States. “Young people should have a dream, whatever it is,” the 86-year-old says, expressing hope that his maritime adventure will inspire the next generation. “Otherwise it would be a waste of life.”

Chow’s dream started to take shape in October 1954 when he was 28 and earning a living by fishing from a motorized trawler off Keelung. One day the adventurous young man learned about a sailing race from Rhode Island on the east coast of the United States to Gothenburg, Sweden. Inspired, he set his mind on entering the race in a Chinese junk, vessels that were once common on the waters of Taiwan and mainland China. Before entering the transatlantic competition, however, he not only had to find and buy a junk, but then complete the daunting tasks of sailing the ship across the Pacific and somehow transporting it to the east coast of the United States. Undeterred, four other fishermen who, like Chow, moved to Taiwan from mainland China around 1949, signed up to crew the vessel. A sixth adventurer was Calvin Mehlert, then-US vice consul to the ROC, who expressed interest in the expedition when the five local fishermen applied for US visas at the consulate. “I simply thought of it as a great vacation and never knew it would be causing such reverberations today,” says Mehlert, one of the three sailors still living.

Although young and lacking any experience in operating sailing vessels, the audacious six won the support and aid of people who were moved by their spirit of adventure. Chow soon located a privately owned junk that measured 24.2 meters in length and 5.4 meters in width and was believed to have been built in Fuzhou in Fujian province, mainland China in 1890.

After the government stepped up to contribute the vast majority of the money needed to buy the junk, the decision was made to rechristen the vessel the Free China. “A product of the Cold War, the name was chosen to contrast with communist China behind the Iron Curtain,” says Chiau Wen-yan (邱文彥), an ROC legislator, former deputy minister of the Environmental Protection Administration and professor at National Taiwan Ocean University (NTOU) in Keelung who played a crucial role in the junk’s return to that city. During the period of instability following the communists’ complete occupation of mainland China and relocation of the ROC government to Taiwan in 1949, he adds, the heroic undertaking by the six men aboard the Free China served to boost the morale of people in Taiwan.

Chow and crew set sail for the United States to pursue their dream on a spring day in 1955. Damage sustained during storms and a typhoon, however, forced a prolonged stay in Yokohama, Japan for repairs, which meant that the Free China would not be able to make it to Rhode Island in time for the US-Sweden race. Still, the crew decided to push on across the Pacific and arrived in San Francisco on August 8 that year after 114 days at sea.

Following the completion of the Free China’s voyage in 1955, members of Taiwan’s marine sector appealed to the government to establish a national maritime day. It was perhaps inevitable that the inspiring, historic journey made by the six intrepid young men came to be viewed as an echo of the voyages commanded by Zheng He (鄭和, 1371–1433), a Ming dynasty (1368–1644) admiral, diplomat and explorer who sailed as far as the east coast of Africa during a series of journeys between 1405 and 1433. Thus, the ROC government designated July 11 as Maritime Day in honor of the day the Ming mariner departed from Suzhou in Jiangsu province on his first voyage.

With the Free China’s Pacific crossing complete, Chow decided to give the junk to a San Francisco museum in hopes that it would be preserved. In 1961, the museum decided it would no longer be able to keep the vessel and possession of the Free China passed to a series of caretakers. The third caretaker abandoned the junk, which had been removed from the water, at a storage yard on Bethel Island, about 100 kilometers east of San Francisco. As storage fees were no longer being paid, the yard’s owner began making plans to destroy the decaying vessel if no one stepped forward to claim it.

In 2007, the surviving junk-mates, their family members, and Taiwanese and American academics with an interest in maritime history became alarmed to learn of the craft’s looming destruction. In California, Dione Chen (陳玲玲), daughter of one of the three sailors on the Free China who have since passed away, became a key figure in the effort to save the vessel and return it to Taiwan. “History comes alive when you can see and touch a junk,” she says of the importance of preserving the boat, adding that its historical legacy should be used to inspire others to learn more about humanity’s maritime achievements. In 2008, Chen founded Chinese Junk Preservation, a group of volunteers who operate a website devoted to telling the story of the 1955 adventure and raising awareness of the need to preserve the boat.

In 2005, US-born New Zealander Robin Greenberg began work on a feature-length documentary that greatly energized the mission to save the vessel. Titled The Free China Junk, the film recounts the wondrous 1955 sea voyage by featuring interviews with five surviving junk-mates (two passed away before the film was completed in 2010) and 16 millimeter color footage shot by a young Mehlert, who carried a camera aboard. First released in July 2010 at the New Zealand International Film Festival, the movie was recognized with a Rising Star Award in the documentary competition at the Canada International Film Festival held in the spring of this year.

To prevent the junk’s destruction, Chen’s group assumed the responsibility of making payments to the storage yard. The ROC government got involved in the effort in the spring of 2009 and the Council for Cultural Affairs (CCA), which was expanded and renamed as the Ministry of Culture (MOC) in May this year, later commissioned NTOU to devise a homecoming plan. After more than three years of talks between the ROC government, Chen’s NGO and San Francisco Maritime National Historical Park, ownership of the Free China was transferred to the MOC in February this year. The junk was then conveyed back to Taiwan aboard a cargo ship belonging to Yang Ming Marine Transport Corp. and arrived in Keelung in mid-May. While Yang Ming transported the vessel free of charge, the total of NT$4 million (US$133,000) donated by two Taiwanese banks played an indispensable role in preparing the aging boat for its long voyage, thereby preventing further damage.

Kehr Young-zehr (柯永澤) is director of the NMMST and a professor in NTOU’s Department of Systems Engineering and Naval Architecture. “The story of the Free China junk can encourage Taiwanese people to brave challenges and develop a strong interest in maritime affairs,” Kehr says of the importance of the vessel’s return, adding that the boat should be treated as a valuable cultural legacy because it is the only existing Chinese junk in the world to have sailed across a major ocean. Kehr says the boat’s structure is largely intact, despite some alterations having been made by its former American owners and the loss of its sails during its long stay in California.

“Ancient Chinese boat building skills were mostly passed down orally from masters to their apprentices. Written records were rarely kept, which makes it all the more important to preserve the Free China junk,” says Nelson Liu (劉寧生), one of the few enthusiasts in Taiwan with ample experience in sailing long distances across open water. In June 2008, Liu and his crew set off from Keelung on a transpacific round-trip voyage on the Princess Taiping, a Chinese junk newly built in Fujian province. Just one day before his vessel’s expected return to Taiwan in April 2009, however, the Princess Taiping collided with a cargo ship off Keelung and sank. In the future, Liu says he hopes the Keelung museum can use the Free China to educate the public about the unique characteristics of Chinese junks, such as the multiple bulkheads contained within their hulls.

The Free China may be home, but much more work remains to be done if the junk is to be saved. “The American chapter of the Free China story has come to a close,” Chen says. “We’re just beginning to write the chapter of Taiwan’s preservation. It will take vision, imagination, commitment and cooperation.”

Liao Chih-chung (廖志中), director of the Department of Cultural Heritage Conservation at National Yunlin University of Science and Technology, expresses grave concern over the challenges of preserving the junk. “It’s important to keep the wooden boat dry, both on the exterior and interior. But Taiwan is quite warm and humid. It’s definitely more challenging to preserve the Free China junk here than in America if we keep it outdoors as it is now,” the scholar says, as there is already severe rot in parts of the boat.

One solution would be building a dedicated structure to house the vessel, but the NMMST’s budget constraints make that unlikely at the current time. The museum’s funding shortage also prevents the junk from receiving repair work by experts in ancient Chinese boats, although regular checkups of the Free China’s condition and basic maintenance work will be done, Kehr says, adding that the museum will consider reproducing the junk’s sails if finances allow.

Preserving the Free China is all the more important in light of the historical and political significance the junk’s voyage has in regard to the ROC’s sovereignty over the Diaoyutai Islands, which are located in the East China Sea about 102 nautical miles northeast of Keelung. Sovereignty over the Diaoyutais, which are known as the Senkaku in Japanese, is claimed by the ROC, mainland China and Japan. One day in June this year, Chiau was viewing Greenberg’s documentary for the first time when an islet in Mehlert’s original 1955 footage grabbed his attention. In the film, the Free China anchored at the deserted islet and one junk-mate even climbed to a high point on it for a better view. “I strongly suspected it was the main islet of the Diaoyutai Islands, the place where the Free China junk arrived in mid-April [that year],” Chiau says. Chiau confirmed his hunch by checking documents including sea charts and the Free China’s log, as well as by comparing Mehlert’s footage of the islet’s terrain with recent photos of the Diaoyutais. Chiau announced his findings at a press conference in late June this year that was attended by a representative of the Ministry of the Interior (MOI), which has been collecting material to corroborate the ROC’s sovereignty claim. Chiau’s discovery should be very helpful in this regard, the MOI says.

Greenberg is now seeking funding in New Zealand and other countries to complete a sequel to her 2010 documentary. The new film has the working title The Return of the Free China Junk and will focus on the human story behind the vessel’s homecoming. Meanwhile, the Keelung City Government expects to use the ship along with other local maritime attractions like the NMMST and neighboring fishing villages to promote tourism.

The biggest impact of the return of the Free China to Taiwan, however, may well be its ability to inspire local adventurers to dream big and undertake more maritime expeditions. “Taiwan is surrounded by water, but few people choose to venture out on the open sea,” Liu says. “The return of the Free China junk will certainly help encourage people to explore the ocean.”

Museum with a Mission

The major mission of the NMMST near Badouzi Fishing Port, Keelung City is promoting maritime education and research in Taiwan. Although designed as a counterpart to the National Museum of Marine Biology and Aquarium in Pingtung County, southern Taiwan, which opened its doors in 2000, the northern museum is still a work in progress. For now, visitors can access parts of the museum including its Regional Exploration Gallery, which features Badouzi’s fishing culture, and open-air coastal recreation and exploration areas, which take up the majority of the facility’s 48-hectare site. The museum’s main exhibition building is scheduled to open in June 2013, with a large aquarium to follow in 2017.

The government is building most of the facilities and is contracting private-sector concessionaires to operate them for a limited time before the properties are transferred back to government control. The nine-hall main exhibition building currently under construction will be run in this manner and will include a People and the Sea Gallery, where historic objects and documents pertaining to the Free China junk will be part of the exhibition. The aquarium is the museum’s only project being executed under the build-operate-transfer model, which means the initial concessionaire is also responsible for constructing the facility.

A formerly decommissioned 4.3-kilometer railway branch line connecting the museum to Ruifang Station on the main line leading to Taipei will be reopened by the Taiwan Railways Administration to make the NMMST more accessible to the public. Previously functioning mainly for coal transportation, the rail link will start transporting passengers when the museum’s main exhibition building becomes operational in June 2013.

For now, the biggest obstacle to the museum’s development is state-owned Taiwan Power Co.’s plans to build breakwaters and a wharf for unloading coal from cargo ships in the bay adjacent to the museum. While the NMMST is tasked with managing coastal areas on its property, the breakwaters, coal and ships are likely to pose a threat to the marine life in the very water the facility encourages people to get close to. The museum has therefore expressed strong opposition to the wharf project.

While that issue awaits resolution, the museum’s mission remains a vital one. “With the depletion of land-based natural resources, people the world over are starting to compete for ocean resources,” museum director Kehr says of Taiwan’s need to develop a greater interest in maritime affairs. The museum, which operates under the Ministry of Education, has therefore strongly recommended that the government require all elementary and high school teachers in Taiwan to visit the facility. After doing so, the teachers will be able to pass along knowledge acquired at the museum to their students, which will boost enthusiasm about marine science and technology at the grassroots level.

—Oscar Chung

Write to Oscar Chung at mhchung@mofa.gov.tw