Taipei - A 54-foot replica of a Ming Dynasty (1368-1644) sailboat, the Princess Taiping, on its historic voyage back to Taiwan after cruising the Pacific for close to a year, sank off Taiwan's coast Sunday after being struck by a freighter, officials said. The Taiwanese Coast Guard said all 11 crew members, including six from the US, two from Japan, one from Taiwan and one from China, were rescued by the coast guard.
It said the sailboat, which was built without nuts and bolts according to ancient Chinese shipbuilding techniques, sank after an unidentified freighter rammed it early Sunday. The freighter sailed away after the collision.
The accident came just hours before Princess Taiping was to reach Taiwan after becoming the first known vessel of its kind to make a GPS-guided, trans-Pacific round trip.
"I feel very sorry to all those who have supported us in the journey," Nelson Liu, the Taiwanese captain of the boat, who spent six years building the boat composed of just wood.
The Hong Kong-registered Princess Taiping set sail from Taiwan's northern port of Keelung in June 2008, reaching the US city of San Francisco in October before starting its return trip to Taiwan. The entire voyage covered 14,000 nautical miles.
