Tek Sing

The "Tek Sing" (Chinese, "True Star") [cite web | last = | first = | title =The Legacy of the Tek Sing | url=http://www.seaantique.com/Teksing.htm | accessdate = 2008-05-31] was a large three-masted Chinese ocean-going junk which sank on February 6, 1822 [cite web | last = | first = | title =Treasures of the Tek Sing | url=http://www.nauticalia.com/treasures-of-the-tek-sing.html | accessdate = 2008-05-31] in an area of the South China Sea known as the Belvidere Shoals. The vessel was 50 meters in length, 10 meters wide and weighed about a thousand tons. Its tallest mast was estimated to be 90 feet in height. The ship was manned by a crew of 200. The great loss of life associated with the sinking has led to the "Tek Sing" being referred to in modern times as the "Titanic of the East". [cite news | last =Kam | first =Nadine | title =Own a Piece of China | pages = | publisher =Honolulu Star-Bulletin | date = 2002-11-21 | url =http://starbulletin.com/2002/11/21/features/story1.html | accessdate = 2008-05-31]

inking

Sailing from the port of Amoy (now Xiamen in Fujian, People's Republic of China), the "Tek Sing" was bound for Jakarta, Indonesia laden with a large cargo of porcelain goods and 1600 Chinese immigrants. After a month of sailing, the "Tek Sing"'s captain, Io Tauko, decided to attempt a shortcut through the Gaspar Strait between the Bangka-Belitung Islands, and ran aground on a reef. The junk sank in about 100 feet of water.

The next morning, February 7, an English East Indiaman captained by James Pearl sailing from Indonesia to Borneo passed through the Gaspar Strait. The ship encountered debris from the sunk Chinese vessel and an enormous number of survivors. The English ship managed to rescue about 190 of the survivors. Another 18 persons were saved by a "wangkang", a small Chinese junk captained by Jalang Lima. This Chinese vessel may have been sailing in tandem with the "Tek Sing", but had avoided the reefs.

Discovery

On May 12, 1999, British marine salvor Michael Hatcher discovered the wreck of the "Tek Sing" in an area of the South China Sea north of Java, east of Sumatra and south of Singapore. His crew raised about 350,000 pieces of the ship's cargo in what is described as the largest sunken cache of Chinese porcelain ever recovered. [cite web | last = | first = | title =Tek Sing Treasure | url=http://www.worldcollectorsnet.com/magazine/issue18/iss18p4.html | accessdate = 2008-05-31] Human remains were also found, but these were not disturbed as most of Hatcher's crew, who were Indonesian and Chinese, believed that bad luck would befall any who disturbed the dead.

The "Tek Sing"'s recovered cargo was auctioned in Stuttgart, Germany in November 2000.

ee also

*Archaeology of shipwrecks
*Marine salvage
*Vũng Tàu shipwreck

External links

* [http://www.antiques.dk.com/cat.php/Oriental/Ceramics/Shipwreck%20Cargoes/Tek%20Sing%20Cargo Images of the "Tek Sing"'s cargo]
* [http://www.dtmb.de/Rundgang/Neubau/Picts/schiff/0132-03_TekSing_300.jpgImage of a model of the "Tek Sing"]

References