Tek Sing

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title: "Tek Sing" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["archaeology-of-shipwrecks", "shipwrecks-in-the-south-china-sea", "maritime-incidents-in-february-1822", "1822-in-asia", "bangka-belitung-islands", "1822-in-china", "1822-in-the-dutch-east-indies", "1999-archaeological-discoveries", "ships-of-china", "1822-disasters", "1820s-disasters-in-asia"] description: "Chinese ship that sunk in 1822" topic_path: "history" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tek_Sing" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0

::summary Chinese ship that sunk in 1822 ::

::data[format=table title="Infobox ship"]

Field	Value
display_title	ital
section1	{{Infobox ship/career
country	China
flag	China Qing Dynasty Flag 1889.svg
name	Tek Sing
route	China–Indonesia
homeport	Amoy
fate	Sunk 6 February 1822
section2	{{Infobox ship/characteristics
class	Junk
tons_burthen	800–900 (bm)
length	50 m
beam	10 m
height	90 feet
sail_plan	Junk Rig
propulsion	Wind-powered
crew	200
::

|display_title=ital |section1={{Infobox ship/career |hide_header= |country= China |flag= China Qing Dynasty Flag 1889.svg |name=Tek Sing |namesake= |owner= |operator= |route=China–Indonesia |ordered= |awarded= |builder= |yard_number= |way_number= |laid_down= |launched= |sponsor= |christened= |completed= |acquired= |commissioned= |recommissioned= |decommissioned= |Ship maiden voyage |in_service= |out_of_service= |renamed= |reclassified= |refit= |struck= |reinstated= |homeport=Amoy |registry= |motto= |nickname= |honours= |honors= |captured= |fate= Sunk 6 February 1822 |notes= |badge=

|section2={{Infobox ship/characteristics |hide_header= |header_caption= |class=Junk |tonnage= |displacement= |tons_burthen=800–900 (bm) |length=50 m |beam=10 m |height=90 feet |draught= |draft= |depth= |hold_depth= |decks= |ice_class= |sail_plan=Junk Rig |power= |propulsion= Wind-powered |speed= |armament= |range= |endurance= |test_depth= |boats= |capacity= |complement= |crew=200 |time_to_activate= |troops= |sensors= |notes= The Tek Sing (Chinese: 泰興號, 泰兴号; pinyin: Taixing hao) was a large three-masted Chinese ocean-going junk which sank on 6 February 1822, in an area of the South China Sea known as the Belvidere Shoals. The vessel was 50 meters in length, 10 meters wide and had a burden of about 800–900 tons. Its tallest mast was estimated to be 90 feet in height. The ship was manned by a crew of 200 and carried approximately 1,600 passengers. It is one of the few "Asian vessels discovered in Southeast Asia [whose name is known]"; generally, neither the name nor the date is known. The Tek Sing is an exception." Generally, shipwrecks are named either after a landmark or location near which they or the cargo they held were found.

Name

::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b5/A_trading_junk_RMG_BHC1182.tiff" caption="Chinese "trading junk", 19th-century"] ::

The book The Legacy of the Tek Sing, authored by the vessel's salvor Michael Hatcher and maritime historian Nigel Pickford, suggests her Chinese name to be 的惺, meaning "True Star". However, according to Chinese historian Li Bozhong, the exact Chinese name of the vessel is not known and no mention of the ship was made in Chinese records. Taiwanese historian Chen Kuo-tung called the Chinese name offered by The Legacy of the Tek Sing "inexplicable" in Chinese. In contemporary British records, the vessel is named Teek Seeun. Chen speculated that the name was rendered through the Amoy dialect and suggested the alternative name 得順. The great loss of life associated with the sinking has led to the Tek Sing being referred to in modern times as the " of the East".

Sinking

Sailing from the port of Amoy (now Xiamen in Fujian, China), in 1822, the Tek Sing was bound for Batavia, Dutch East Indies (now Jakarta, Indonesia) laden with a large cargo of porcelain goods and 1,600 Chinese immigrants. After a month of sailing, the Tek Sings captain, Io Tauko, decided to attempt a shortcut through the Gaspar Strait between the Bangka-Belitung Islands, and ran aground on a reef. The junk sank in about 30 m of water.

The next morning, February 7, the British East Indiaman , captained by James Pearl and sailing from Indonesia to Borneo, passed through the Gaspar Strait. The ship encountered debris from the sunk Chinese vessel and an enormous number of survivors. Indiana managed to rescue about 190 of the survivors. Another 18 persons were saved by a wangkang, a small Chinese junk captained by Jalang Lima. This Chinese vessel may have been sailing in tandem with the Tek Sing, but had avoided the reefs.

Discovery

On 12 May 1999, British marine salvor Michael Hatcher discovered the wreck of the Tek Sing in an area of the South China Sea north of Java, east of Sumatra and south of Singapore. It is the largest Chinese wooden shipwreck ever discovered.

Cargo

::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/02/Затонувший_груз_Tek_Sing.png" caption="Porcelain during recovery"] ::

Hatcher's crew raised about 350,000 pieces of the ship's cargo in what is described as the largest sunken cache of Chinese porcelain ever recovered. The bulk of ceramics were Chinese blue-and-white common tableware, consisting of bowls, tea cups and the like, made in the kilns of Dehua, China. Dehua was famous earlier for its blanc-de-Chine pure-white figurines, but during the 18th and 19th centuries began to mass-produce such pieces for the local markets. At a talk that Captain Hatcher gave to the Southeast Asian Ceramic Society in Singapore on 4 October 2000, he noted that the ceramics "had not been made for the European markets—shapes and patterns were not adapted to European taste, but are genuinely Chinese." A number of earlier Longquan celadons were also found, but Hatcher believed that they were probably the personal possessions of one or more passengers given their limited numbers and the fact that they were found separate from the main bulk cargo.

The Tek Sings recovered cargo was auctioned at in Stuttgart, Germany in November 2000, bringing in more than $10 million.

Casualties

Human remains were found but were not disturbed as most of Hatcher's crew, being Indonesian and Chinese, believed that bad luck would befall any who disturbed the dead. According to UNESCO's Silk Road Programme listing of shipwrecks, "The Tek Sing wreck could have given testimony to one of the biggest catastrophes in the history of seafaring: the sinking of this large junk, that occurred in February 1822 on a journey between the port of Amoy (now Xiamen, China) and Batavia, Dutch East Indies (now Jakarta, Indonesia), took about 1,500 people—mostly Chinese immigrants—to the bottom of the sea."

In fiction

• The Porcelain Maker's Daughter, by YU Qiang, translated from the Chinese by WANG Guiping (2025) ISBN 979-8297490147 // 于强著，汪桂平译：《泰兴号》

References

References

1. "Treasures of the Tek Sing".
2. Brown, Roxanna Maude, ''The Ming Gap and Shipwreck Ceramics in Southeast Aisa'', Bangkok, Thailand: The Siam Society, 2009, p. 35
3. Pickford, Nigel. (2000). "The Legacy of the Tek Sing: China's Titanic - Its Tragedy and Its Treasure". Granta Editions.
4. (2022-03-22). "中国古代史系列讲座第三讲纪要".
5. "陳國棟教授講演「的惺號？沉船打撈與歷史考訂」紀要".
6. Kam, Nadine. (November 21, 2002). "Own a Piece of China". Honolulu Star-Bulletin.
7. Knight, Sam. (November 4, 2024). "The Shipwreck Detective". [[The New Yorker]].
8. "Tek Sing Treasure".
9. SEACS flyer, 'The Discovery of the Tek Sing Treasures,' a talk to be given by Captain Michael Hatcher at the ACM on 4 October 1999" quoted in quoted in Welch, Patricia Bjaaland, ''Southeast Asian Ceramic Society 1969-2019'' (Singapore, 2019), p. 242. {{ISBN. 978-981-14-2675-9
10. "Nagel Auctions: Tek Sing Treasures".
11. "Tek Sing wreck". UNESCO.

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