In December, 2008, we posted about “A Junk at Risk.” The Free China, a historic century-old Fujian sailing junk, was on the verge of being scrapped. The junk made international headlines in 1955 when an inexperienced crew of five Chinese fishermen and one American diplomat beat the odds to make a transpacific voyage from Taiwan to San Francisco. In our post we quoted Dione Chen, who was spearheading the effort to save the old 80-foot long fishing vessel. Her connection with the junk was personal. Her father had been one of the sailors on the momentous voyage across the Pacific.

Now 4 years later, Ms. Chen has found a way to save Free China. Later this month, the junk will travel back to Taiwan, but this time, Free China will travel on the deck of a container ship from the port of Oakland. Once back in Taiwan, the junk will be restored using a combination of Taiwanese government funds and private money and put on display at the National Museum of Marine Science and Technology. Thanks to Tom Russell of the Traditional Sail Professionals Linked-in Group for passing the news along.