Cheng Ho

The Hoodoo On The

Unlucky Career of a Luxury Junk

jITHEN the famous Chinese lux r? ury junk Cheng Ho was built for Mrs. Anne Archbold in [ongkong in 1939-40, the greatest are was taken to propitiate the ods. The usual Chinese cere tonies were carried out, with care, t the laying of the keel, and at the munching.

According to the article in the merican magazine, Yachting, of muary, 1953, the junk’s Chinese Aider even took a day off, and ent to the Lamo Lo, to find out hat day would be number one ss (or extra lucky) for the unching; and all the rules were rictly observed.

But the soothsayers somehow got eir josses crossed. Cheng Ho has id no luck—except perhaps for e occasion when she sneaked out Hongkong and dodged a Japa :se destroyer, and reached Manila, iere her owner, with the Fairchild tanical research party, took pos ssion.

Soon after the junk—a beautiful ing at that time, carrying every vice made for human comfort— d set off from Manila on her nse among the East Indies mipelagoes, events in Europe same more and more serious, and 3 menace of World War II began overshadow her days, Now, let 3 Yachting article continue the •ry: HEN one day fire broke out in her engine room; and though the flames were soon under itrol, it became obvious that the jedition had met its end there Amboina, where this added set -3k was too much to cope with.

Juch of the original crew left 1 somehow, slowly and arduous the junk made her way eastward ough the tropics and against the ivaihng easterlies, to Fiji, Samoa, ' .Cook Islands and, eventually, biti. Half a year before the out ak of war with Japan, Cheng Ho de her way to Hawaii, where she vwed the bombing of December 1941, and started her Naval eer.

'he was sold to the US Navy, as ,e ,^ y <J achts ’ for the sum of With LXS2” plastered on her topsides, she set about duties first as a patrol vessel, n picket, and later station ship Hawaiian waters. Many of the leless carvings and fittings were loved to a Navy storeroom never 3e seen again.

March of 1946 the Navy re turned her to Honolulu Har r where the local papers

made a great commotion over the Once Glamorous Junk—alone and blind at Honolulu after four years’ unsatisfactory service as a Navy patrol craft.” Other headlines ineluded. Now a Tramp, once a Girl, Navy Jj ie ,? to , find Sr K f ouldnt . please like her back but entangiements were considerable, for the vessel had entered JhP C M* n w y du A ty - free as a S if t to Arrangements were made with the Sea Scouts, in August of 1946, to take her over as a training ship, but the deed of gift no Tn r 1Se ’A 7 * n February, 47 Otto Degener, t . he 1 scientific expendition, officially took over from the Maritime Commission as agent for the former owner. Late that year it was announced that Cheng Ho

would operate for the Cheng Ho Trading and Exploring Company, a commercial scientific venture between Honolulu and French Oceania. Into this with Otto went Eric De Bisschop, an old hand at such ventures.

Uuder this organisation, and with the French flag flying, the junk set sail for Tahiti in January 1948 with foodstuffs as cargo and a shipload of happy adventurers aboard. She arrived back in Honolulu in August, 1948 her cargo north consisting of two tons If vanilla beans. • The P a P ers came out one morning with the news, “Cheng Ho at tached.” Strangely enough, the suit was filed by Otto Degener against the company. Not long afterwards two crewmen filed for $1 500 and $1,400 wages. Then came libel against

the junk for a half-month’s pay and $6,472 for transportation of eight Tahitian crew members back to Tahiti. The schooner yacht Ornant was finally chartered and lailed them safely home to Tahiti.

After 17 weeks of legal red tape, Uheng Ho finally was cleared, and iisappeared. Eighteen days later she arrived at Papeete, with a message for Honolulu that she was aot coming back—“too much trouble”.

The last word which we received, n the fall of 1951, was that, stripped of her furnishings, gutted sxcept for a few dank living juarters aft, she was doggedly )lying her trade as a copra-boat.

Several coral groundings had not soticeably bothered her sturdy racal hull. ♦ ♦ ♦ riT is the end of the extract from Yachting. In 1952. as already told in PIM, De Sisschop placed the Cheng Ho at iioorings in the bay off Papeete, saving her ownership to be settled t law as between himself and Otto tegener.

Degener was expected to arrive i Tahiti late in 1952, to start pro eedings for the recovery of the hip. But he has not come and, r hen last heard of, he was residing i Germany.

Meanwhile the Cheng Ho,

dirty and unpainted shadow of her once glorious self, swings desolately at anchor off Papeete. Definitely, the wrong joss was in the ascendant the day she was launched.