Freighter rams junk on last leg of historic Pacific voyage

SHANGHAI- A replica 17th-century junk built to prove that China's ancient mariners could have reached America before Columbus or Magellan has sunk off the coast of Taiwan just a day's sailing short of its 27,360km return crossing of the Pacific.

The Princess Taiping was within sight of shore off Su Ao in northeast Taiwan when it was sliced in two in a collision with a Liberian-registered cargo vessel.

"They could already see the lights on the shore before they were hit by the ship," said Mark Peng, executive director of the Chinese Maritime Development Society that commissioned the vessel.

All 11 members of the crew, including six Americans and two Japanese, were rescued after spending 4 hours floating on their shattered hull.

"We all but made it," said Liu Ningsheng, the ship's 62-year-old Chinese skipper. "We had earned 99 marks [out of 100]. It's a pity that we couldn't earn the last one mark. No word can describe how sorry I am."

A furious Liu claimed that after contacting the cargo ship via VHF radio to warn that they were on a collision course, it had appeared on his port side.

"Immediately, the duty officer of the ship called back and said to keep our boat on their starboard.

"I stepped out of the cabin and saw the ship right in front of us, maybe 15-20m away. Three seconds later it hit us in the middle of our port side. The name of the cargo ship was the Champion Express."

Despite the sinking, the Chinese Maritime Development Society said it believed the ship had "accomplished its mission".

IMPERIAL MIGHT
*The 16m, three-masted junk was built by 30 traditional shipwrights in Fujian, southeast China, using axes, chisels and models of the early Qing Dynasty.

It set sail from Hong Kong in June 2007. Powered by its cotton sails, the ship reached San Francisco five months later after surviving several storms.

The almost-completed voyage appeared to prove that it was technically possible that China's greatest explorer, Zheng He, could have sailed to America 600 years ago.

- TELEGRAPH GROUP LTD