SAILORS FROM FORMOSA

foreign Journey your television passport to the world of Adventure bringing you each week a guest to his journey far here to present tonight's Journey with actual films is John Stevenson [Music] good evening ladies and gentlemen tonight we have the actual films of a most unusual Journey a journey across the white Pacific and of all things a Chinese junk the starting point is the harbor of key lung in Formosa or Taiwan and the crew is made up of four Chinese Sailors a young American who was the United States Vice Council to Formosa and tonight's guest Mr Paul Chow now here's the story behind the story the junk was scheduled to sail from Formosa to San Francisco then be freighted to Rhode Island to enter an international sailing race to Sweden well as we'll discover in a moment the junk never got to the Atlantic but it did successfully sail from Formosa to San Francisco and the actual films of this colorful Crossing will begin in just a moment my pleasure to present one of the crew members who sailed the Chinese junk from Formosa to San Francisco a distance of more than 7 000 miles Mr Paul Chow now a student at City College in San Francisco how are you Mr chalice nice to have you in our program Siri nice to be here now why don't you sit down and make yourself comfortable now did I introduce you properly and did I get my facts straight yes our plan was to get that in junk said a junk across the Pacific to San Francisco and then freighted across the country to enter the international yacht race from Rhode Island to Sweden a junk in a yacht race did you have a chance we were accepted into a yacht race and they promised to give us a fair rating and that means we handicapped I say well that makes sense yeah it's quite an interesting story I believe on how your junk got its name could you tell us that please oh we were going to carry the dragon seat first um but when the former owner of the junk learned that we're going to go to America and they thought we're going to become millionaires so they raised the price the mayor of kilo heard it then he said he would give us one thousand dollars if we call it the city of kilong but the governor governor of Formosa heard about it he said he would buy the whole boat for us if we'll cut it the free China so we caught it a free time naturally as I understand it the American passenger in your crew was the vice Consul to Formosa is that correct yes he was the vice concert to Taipei we had to go to him to get our visa to come to the United States when he heard about our Voyage he asked if he could come along so we talking all right Mr Chow thank you suppose we see these fine films of the sailors from Formosa and their courageous crossing of the Pacific in a Chinese junk John this is the junk on which we cross the Pacific on her bow we had two eyes to seed away seven to eight feet overall Lane 16 feet wide we crossed the Pacific from Formosa to Okinawa then to Japan this is Formosa my country famosa we call it Taiwan this is the farm the street scene those are the street signs [Music] in the street you can see almost every day a parade celebrating the birthday or the death of some gods or idols the idol writes in this sedan chair here's where I work we bought this junk but we had to repair it on a stir there was two ears painted there and it's supposed to keep the big fish and evil fishes away and you got here and so naturally it did that's right [Music] we had to make a new sale and France came down there to help us and they came down there to have us repairing the boats also some friends came down to visit us while we were working this girl was holding a tiller that Terror measures 10 feet long and six inches in diameter we broke about a dozen of them and this was all manually operated that's right on a day of departure friends came down there and there were thousands of people I never didn't know how many there were because I was too excited of course she gave us a big send off John the mayor of kilong and our boss went down there to give a speech and as usually we were sent off by a firecracker which we use in almost every celebration in China our boss gave us a big speech then we were towed away from kilo Harbor we had to be towed away because we started inexperienced we didn't know how to sail order of boats and harbor they turn around and wavered us so we were towed out of the Breakwater and we took it last site of kilo Harbor our home park the Topo cast us off so what were your feelings at this moment Mr Chow we were so excited but only worry is to race the sail we had a terrible time in raising it we didn't know how to raise it so we start to argue and quarrel and everybody get his own opinion in how to erase mute me already huh but finally we did it we had it all set up the main and the floor and we were underway with the Formosa codes to receding behind us these are my Shipmates the captain Marco Chong he's in Northern Chinese is also a musician ships Purser Reno Chan [Music] ship's commenter banish you ship's Chief photographer Kevin Mater she was the American Vice Consul in Formosa this is myself Navigator and the radio operator we met into a typhoon right after we left Formosa it was so rough that we couldn't take any picture everything broke down we had to be towed into Okinawa for repairs we met some Chinese overseas there and lots of Americans the Cub Scouts of the American families there they went down to devote to visit us and they've invited us to their homes to have dinners and goats I seeing we were quite surprised to see that Okinawa was restored so fast new buildings everywhere no sign of War what's this our Lifeboat but France wouldn't trust our last boat they gave us a rubber Lifeboat and they insist to pump it out for us to test it every week in Okinawa we left for Japan we were tore Away by a carotex thug Marco says thank you to the friend in Okinawa that's an international sign but thank you now we are sailing toward Japan there was 1200 miles we were learning fast and we were getting used to see now Hulu is making his daily check on the sale on these Chinese sale you can walk right up to the top of the Mast on those bamboo battens weather's warm there we didn't have to wear much we received a passenger from Okinawa to Japan she stayed there for three days but she refused to eat and died oh that's very sad we carried 300 bottles and which would put a note and asking people to send it back to us to test the currents John we have already received 10 of them back well that's quite a good percentage of returns yes Marco is taking a swim into a warm crucial cards so we stayed on toward the Rising Sun we made this Japanese flag as a curtsy one early morning we found us in the harbor of Yokohama boats came by Custom Boats Harbor Police Coast Guard and immigrations they came up they said we came in against all regulations we shouldn't anchored there they said we should have more papers they look very mad and some big officials came aboard and they look very serious they send down a tug they told us past all these spaceships we thought they were going to arrest us instead of cops we saw these people that are welcoming us at a Quay what a reception [Applause] they came down there and there are big signs saying welcome to Free China long life for 10 000 years that the Chinese creating Word officials from the American Consulate and the Chinese Consulate went down there to create us they took us to the Chinese Ambassador in Tokyo where we had to honor and taking a picture with Dr Hollington Tong the Chinese ambassador he's certainly a very distinguished looking man so we were told to Yokosuka to have the boat repaired some artists came down to paint our boat and a lot of visitors we made a lot of friends there they brought things down to us and invited us to their home was it quite unusual for them to see a Chinese junk in their Harbor yes that's right two Chinese seders they went down there and asked us to take their pictures I think we did even better we put it on American television sure did [Music] a friend of ours gave us a Jolly Roger our chicken ranch on the junk they deliver one egg every day Faithfully never failed so we take turns in eating the eggs once every six days we had to put the junk up the slipway because the bottom wasn't rotten and it sprung a leak it was so rotten that you can pick it off with your finger and we couldn't afford to pay for the repair so we just let it go that way and put some putties in Calvin had a friend in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs he took us to their home in the countryside his sisters dressed in traditional Japanese way greeted to each other and the parents greet each other too his sister made all these Japanese dogs by hand I think it is a geisha girl and she gave it to us to bring it across the ocean as a mascot this again is our American Vice Council yeah that's right this little boy uh his son all the time they were trying to make him smarter us he wouldn't but finally they got him to wait uh it's good for him time to leave Japan are the Chinese in Yokohama went there to send us off some reporters from Stars and Stripes the American Navy gave us a tug and tow us out of the Breakwater into the Tokyo bay some boats came around and circle on us wave us goodbye helicopters waved to us on our way out we met President Madison they gave us a long tooth but we didn't have anything to return so we raced this ah that must have shaken them up a little we could hear the laughter so now we went out of Japan let's go to America 7 000 mile route is in front of us now thank you very much Mr Paul ciao we'll continue this daring journey of the sailors from Formosa in just a moment John now we are out in the Pacific we were not making very good speed so we tried to put up this sale that they didn't work one morning Benny shouted Wales what Wales they came and kept skimming I think they thought we were a whale and it took them about half hour to pass us we couldn't see their tail so we started an argument what are the tail of the fish is perpendicular or horizontal to the body perpendicular horizontal and who won we never found out because we couldn't see it now you take a look yourself what we're seeing is their dorsal fin right that's right Reno is looking at Calvin pumping the lifeboats we check it several times at sea our chicken takes a walk on the Promenade deck once in a while this is our vegetable garden we had fresh vegetable all the time Hulu decided to give us a haircut right in the middle of the ocean I was the first one to take it that's a two-week scroll he's the ship's doctor because he's a horse doctor by professional we had all the time a fishing line trolling behind us trying to catch some fish and seagulls thought we were going to catch fish they followed us or no but all we got was the seagull in measure six feet spread [Music] we couldn't do anything with it so we wrapped a ring around its leg on which bear the name of our junk and date we caught it and we let it go the naturalists of America would be very happy with you where you conducted this experiment the ownership we met was a Jammy stinker she passed us without stopping so we raised this flag they came right back and turned around they shouted to us what do you want we said we got so lonesome that we just want to talk to you lonesome Pirates there are many comms and on those days we have our things out to dry and relax Kevin is on Escape pee we take turns in cooking once every six days our main diet is rice we save every grain of it nothing ought to be wasted we wash it in seawater on my birthday they gave me a dinner party huh Calvin was learning Chinese Orlando Voyage Captain Marco Chung was his teacher he's writing a flash card he says decision Kevin learned about 2 000 characters on The Voyage we weren't making very good speed so we were all the time we were trying to put out extra sale which we found in the hold to get some more speed but we never could figure out this time we've tried a outbreaking boom but it put the boat sideway as a matter of fact John without fur figured it out and we still don't know how to what was your average speed during the trip about four and a half knots uh-huh but on a storm like this we run about eight and a half knots it was just with half sail and it's really traveling [Music] the only thing we worried at that time is the Mast there was no shroud on the Mast it rocked two inches to each side on its base it's very difficult to navigate in this weather sometimes it took me half an hour to take his side because I couldn't get any Horizon yeah on 4th of July we honored our American Crew Calvin Maynard [Music] I think I know what this is going to be it was a good sport [Music] so we sailed toward the east America [Music] but it's very slow and we were Reading Writing books carving boats looks like we're going to miss the yacht race our only Compass is a Lifeboat compass many foggy days in North Pacific although if there's no boat Iran we still observe the international Rose of the road we blew our Foghorn once every two minutes which looks like a conch shell yeah 500 miles from illusion we saw seals they look so tiny but no sign of land we had this sale up to catch Rainwater that's the only time we can wash we have to save all the fresh water for food and drinking ropes start to give away first we replace them with the new ropes but they gave away so we had to find an old ropes and splice them up and get the rotten part away Calvin is Manning the flower sacks we got some Rats on board Hulu is our only musician on board he had a Chinese bamboo flute now we're getting closer to American Shore everybody's happy one morning Fanny shouted land hole we saw this island Southeast parallel on San Francisco Coast then immediate after we saw boats fishing boats then the movito news boat came the Coast Guard they threw us ice cream pies fresh breads they are awfully nice people they escorted us all the way in and the newspaper boats some more newspaper boats and Yachts finally we saw this sign which we have dreamed for four months the Golden Gate Bridge we're all excited take pictures this must have been a very proud moment for you Mr Chow to hit San Francisco after crossing the ocean a tribute to your navigation I'd say thank you John let's go to luck the immigration and the Customs officers boarded our vote they cleared us within a minute when we raise the voter boats in and we beat them all so we put up all of our flags and we sailed towards Fisherman's walk Chinatown sent out a boat on which were the queen of Chinatown see this crowd Calvin Miller took a reunion with this family his mother brother sister-in-laws the mayor of Berkeley invites us to breakfast the next morning we were very proud we get our new friends in on a fun we take them on a jar right around San Francisco Bay on this Chinese junk that came all the way from China thank you Mr Chow in Ocean Crossing in a Chinese junk is something you have to see to believe and why did you happen to stay in San Francisco instead of crossing the country with your boat and entering this race out of Rhode Island um when we got here it was that the race was already over but the people was very nice to us and the Chinese in San Francisco Chinatown gave each of each of us one thousand dollar scholarship to go to school well how wonderful of them um so I stay here in City College of San Francisco and what happened to your crew members Marino Chan the Purser also stayed in City College of San Francisco the chips commoned her any shoe he went to Sacramento State the ship's doctor Hulu he took the scholarship in Japan and study Fisheries there but uh Captain Marco Chung he couldn't wait to get back to get a mayor with his girlfriend and Formosa and what are your plans now as far as college do you have a uh some subject you're majoring in I majored in mechanical engineering and what about the American Vice Council what happened to him his migration was up so he had to go back to Formosa now he's stationed in Vietnam I'm sure all of us would be interested to know of your life in Formosa what did you do there Mr Chow I worked in government fisheries and so do all my other four friends now in the course of the narration we've talked about the word and we've used the word jump junk junk but where did the name come from uh we called it uh Jung in Chinese when the British first came to China they saw this jungle and they caught a junk so the word junk is actually an anglicized word of the Chinese Chong that's right well that's a very interesting story I'm glad I asked and now Mr Chow since you've come such a long ways from Formosa maybe you'd like to give our audience a greeting in your native Chinese sure I would this will be in Cantonese and would you mind telling us what you said now how are you we and for most uh say hello to you well wonderful and one final question Mr Chow what happened to your junk Museum in San Francisco has taken it over they're going to put in Aquatic Park right at the foot of Finance Avenue uh it's a very fitting end for a very courageous vessel Mr Chow we surely enjoyed having you as our guest here for the past few days and we want to wish you the very best in your new life here in the United States goodbye and good luck thank you John next week we welcome a famous name in the field of exploration Mr Grant Pearson Mr Pearson guided the highly publicized Washburn expedition to the peaks of Mount McKinley and will give us the facts of the case as superintendent of McKinley National Park Mr Pearson caps a lifetime devoted to preserving Our Last Frontier here's the land of the grizzly bear and the Beaver still building his Dam of wood there are no roads so man's best friend his dog didn't prove himself highlighted is the McKinley climb with Mrs Washburn becoming the first woman to top the highest mountain in North America they're constant avalanches and dangerous crevasses to master that's next week Northern guide this was the most unusual sea Voyage we had tonight wasn't it and we want to thank Mr Paul Chow's friend for writing to us and telling us about this adventure and if you have 16 millimeter films of an interesting Adventure you've experienced please remember that I'd appreciate hearing from you John Stevenson care of this station thank you and good night [Music] foreign