Shipwrecks
The Tek Sing, the Titanic of the East
Sank 1822 · found 1999 · Gaspar Strait, between Bangka & Belitung, Indonesia
SalvagedThe prize. ~350,000 pieces of porcelain, the largest sunken cache of Chinese ceramics raised
Where. Gaspar Strait, between Bangka & Belitung, Indonesia
Status. Salvaged
Where. Gaspar Strait, between Bangka & Belitung, Indonesia
Status. Salvaged
The account
Overloaded with porcelain and sixteen hundred emigrants, the junk Tek Sing took a captain's shortcut through the Gaspar Strait and struck a reef in the night. Around fifteen hundred souls drowned, a toll that earned her the name 'Titanic of the East.' When Michael Hatcher found her in 1999, his crew raised some 350,000 pieces of cargo, the greatest haul of Chinese porcelain ever lifted from the sea.
Leads, where the trail points now
- A Chinese junk that sank in the South China Sea in 1822 with some 1,600 aboard, the Tek Sing was found in 1999 by Michael Hatcher carrying about 350,000 pieces of Chinese porcelain.
- The cargo was raised and auctioned in 2000, the largest sale of sunken porcelain ever; the wreck site is documented.
- The lead for the region is the many other Qing-era junks lost on the same trade routes through the Gaspar Strait.
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