seven masted working junks still sailing

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  • 02 Mar 2020 09:44
    Reply # 8786192 on 8774837
    Anonymous member (Administrator)

    Whatever the source might be - you dug it out + you had that contact. As for the characters, I am sure we will not be carving them yet..... 

  • 01 Mar 2020 21:27
    Reply # 8785400 on 8774837
    Anonymous member (Administrator)

    Hi Linda, the actual "font of information" is Mr Google, but I was lucky enough to make contact with someone who had sailed on Cocachin on her first cruise.



    Just for the record, those were not actually the traditional Chinese characters. They were the so-called "simplified characters" which are used in  Mainland China (and elsewhere) today, some of them are slightly different.

    "simplified" for Kuo Kuo Zhen is 


    and "traditional" is 


    Last modified: 01 Mar 2020 21:54 | Anonymous member (Administrator)
  • 01 Mar 2020 11:05
    Reply # 8784886 on 8774837
    Anonymous member (Administrator)

    Dear Graeme, 

    You are such a font of knowledge on everything junkie and probably much more. 

    Thanks so much for unveiling some of Cocachin's fate as well as providing traditional characters for Kokachin. We named her as such for many reasons about which I will write at some other point.  So, yes it is Linda & Pete - working on our new boat. 

    The films are mesmerising and we will watch them over few nights as they are a real feast. Thanks for posting it. 

    For those who can't see them there was a way to install an extension/app HOLA on your browser  and you can chose the country from which to watch. https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/hola-free-vpn-proxy-unblo/gkojfkhlekighikafcpjkiklfbnlmeio/related?hl=en

    Off to work now, too late already !


  • 01 Mar 2020 03:23
    Reply # 8784590 on 8774837
    Anonymous member (Administrator)

    Does anyone knows what happened to Cocachin ?

    After a voyage to Shanghai and back, Moran was unable to continue with the Marco Polo project, as the Gulf war was in full swing making impossible sponsorship for a voyage to that area. Moran wrote to James Baldwin: “Cocachin was eventually sold and has sadly been radically altered with a fixed steel rudder and a horrific wheelhouse on the poop deck as well as the masts being replaced as the owners were informed that she would tip over in a typhoon!”

    Rex Warner next reported (to Baldwin) seeing her lying in Hong Kong in a poor state of repair, in 1998.

    She re-appeared in July 2009, evidently having been refitted and with a cut-down rig, as part of a campaign to “promote Guangzhou and the Games, an ambassador of peace, friendship and Asian culture across the world” according to the Deputy Director of Marketing Department under the Guangzhou Asian Games Organising Committee.


    According to the somewhat garbled news article: “On July 9, the Cocachin will be returning to Guangzhou in the dock of White Swan Hotel, ending her journey to the Road of Asia”. (http://en.olympic.cn/news/olympic_news/2009-07-06/1834301.html 2009).

    The White Swan Hotel is on Shamian Island in Mainland China so I presume she is now in the ownership of one of the Chinese ministries.

    I too would be interested to know if there is any more up-to-date news.


    (PS Is this Linda on Kokachin? I can’t make out the Chinese characters now painted above the name Cocachin, in the photo above, but I can tell you that in Chinese the name is kuò kuò zhēn”  阔阔真 Actually, it does look as though the first three characters are in fact 阔阔真.This is a Chinese translation of what would have been a Mongol name. (China was ruled by a Mongol dynasty at the time of Marco Polo (the Yuan), and Princess Cocachin was Mongol). Spelling in alphabetic characters is fairly aribitrary. "KuoKuoZhen" is how it would be spelled in Mainland China today. "Zhen" is pronounced pretty close to "Jen".)


    Last modified: 01 Mar 2020 04:00 | Anonymous member (Administrator)
  • 01 Mar 2020 00:52
    Reply # 8784460 on 8783420
    Anonymous wrote:
    Anonymous wrote:

    Thank you David,

    Sadly it appears that "the uploader has not made this video available in your country".

    In my case South Africa. :-(

    Same for Canada..
    And New Zealand :'-(
  • 29 Feb 2020 22:13
    Reply # 8784354 on 8774837
    Anonymous member (Administrator)

    Does anyone knows what happened to Cocachin ?  

    on the junk Cocachin on her first foray out of Hong Kong in 1989, in a lead-up to the Marco Polo sea voyage which was later to be shelved 

  • 29 Feb 2020 08:21
    Reply # 8783760 on 8774837
    Anonymous member (Administrator)

    David, sorry - you're right. I got mixed up between your link and Hans-Erik's.

    Last modified: 29 Feb 2020 08:24 | Anonymous member (Administrator)
  • 29 Feb 2020 07:41
    Reply # 8783725 on 8783539
    Graeme wrote:

    David wrote: 

    It's https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_FOjphe5NCo

    The Chinese Dragon at Sea/Setting Sail.

    But both videos come from Timeline.

    In the link David refers to, it is "Precious Dragon" which is at sea/setting sail.


    I think it's the other way about, Graeme. The link

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h4YEADagu0o

    is about the recreation of one of Zheng He's voyages, by westerners.

    The above link is about archeological excavations of ancient Chinese shipyards, the Ming dynasty voyages, the system of Chinese canals, and footage of one of a number of fishing junks built in the 1940s and 1950s, originally called "Number 20" and now called "Chi-Wei" (I think). It is engaged in pair trawling with another similar junk, on an inland lake, where fishing is restricted to sailing vessels only, as the fish stocks are very low. The family crew can be seen setting and hauling in a mile-long trawl by hand. It's absolutely fascinating.

    In the description on youtube, it says "Content license from Off The Fence to Little Dot Studios. Enquiries, please direct to owned@littledotstudios.com". Maybe try a direct approach, those of us who can't see this?



    Last modified: 29 Feb 2020 07:53 | Anonymous member
  • 29 Feb 2020 02:39
    Reply # 8783539 on 8774837
    Anonymous member (Administrator)

    David wrote: 

    It's https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_FOjphe5NCo

    The Chinese Dragon at Sea/Setting Sail.

    But both videos come from Timeline.

    In the link David refers to, it is "Precious Dragon" which is at sea/setting sail.

    Precious Dragon had been built for the Sydney Expo, shipped there and back afterwards. Owner, Marc Cuthbert, rented her out for filming kung fu movies and staging beauty pageants, then decided to sail to England, and in the process re-trace the route of Zheng He’s voyages up through the Indian Ocean.

    The plan was to arrive back in the UK by 1 July 1997 (the day Hong Hong was officially returned to China.). However after being “held up by authorities” at two of the stops along the way, (including military arrest in Vietnam and imprisonment in India) Precious Dragon did not arrive until four months after that date.

    After Marc Cuthbert successfully sailed the Precious Dragon to Britain, he was contacted by fellow Englishman, a maritime adventurer named Rex Warner, who wanted to charter the ship to recreate one of Zheng He's Voyages. (Warner was no novice on the subject of historical junk voyages, having previously crewed on the on the junk Cocachin on her first foray out of Hong Kong in 1989, in a lead-up to the Marco Polo sea voyage which was later to be shelved -  and after that in 1993, on the junk-rigged raft Hsu Fu (Tim Severin, China Voyage).

    In 1998 Precious Dragon was shipped back to Hong Kong and preparations began.

    I think the "at sea/ setting sail" in the video clip David refers to is from Rex Warner's voyage.

    If you to the website http://www.dragonvoyage.com/ you will be invited to download a 60 minute documentary of Precious Dragons and Rex Warner's 14,000 km voyage along the route of Zheng He’s treasure fleet. This website also gives an introduction to The crew, and a section entitled “The route” which gives an itinerary of the “Dragon Voyage” and links to further adventures along the way. 

    Also, there is an article on Precious Dragon to be found in JRA Newsletter #46 (JAN 2006) in which Rex Warner describes some technical aspects of the vessel’s rig.



    Last modified: 29 Feb 2020 02:54 | Anonymous member (Administrator)
  • 29 Feb 2020 00:36
    Reply # 8783420 on 8775977
    Anonymous wrote:

    Thank you David,

    Sadly it appears that "the uploader has not made this video available in your country".

    In my case South Africa. :-(

    Same for Canada..
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