Sea History 120 - Autumn 2007

Page 55

recovery are helpful. There are a few minor errors in the rexr, but they do nor detract from rhe book's usefulness. These small concerns aside, Quarsrein's beautifully conceived and well-researched book is a wo nderful resource and a handy reference. For rhose interested in ironclads and Civil War navies, yo u should buy rhis book ROBERT BROWNING

Dumfries, Virginia

Chinese Junks on the Pacific: Views from a Different Deck by Hans K. Van Tilburg (Universiry Press of Flo rida, Gainesville, 2007, 272 pp, illus, rabies, nores, gloss, biblio, index, I SBN 978-0-8 130-305 3- 1; $59.95 hc) Between 1906 and 1989, ren Chinese junks began rransPacific voyages from Asia to America. Nine of them sailed across all o r parr of rhe wo rld's largest ocean, and o ne arri ved aboard a container ship (rhe Beihai junk) . This important and original srudy, wirh the rarher unlikely selection of twentieth-century representatives, reaches far beyond that era to explain rhe historical and cultural significance of a vessel type poorly understood by Westerners. The C hinese oceangoing junk is borh mys terio us and enduring. Even rh e origin of rhe wo rd "junk" is nor known, rhough it appears to derive from rhe Portuguese junco, an adaprarion of rhe term djong used by Javanese mariners in Southeast Asia. The story begins wirh the voyage of the Whang Ho to San Francisco for use on Hollywood movie sers. The Ning Po (138 feer and 500 tons) follows, wirh a checkered history that included arres t by rhe Royal Navy, and another arrest in 19 11 by C hin ese revolutionaries, before ending her days as a derelict on Catalina Island. Amo ng rhe stories of rhis unusual fleer is an examination of the Sea Dragon, a 75foot Wenchou-sryled three-masted junk. Adventurer Richard H alliburton had swum the H ellespont, was imprisoned at D evil's Island, and had trekked to the far corners of the world. Now he wanted to sail a junk across the Pacific to America. Sea Dragon was built for that purpose. 1he vessel and her crew disappeared during the crossing in 1939. The most famo us of the junks to successfully cross the Pacific was the Free China. C rewed by Taiwanese fis hermen, SEA HISTORY 120, AUTUMN 2007

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