Last week in San Francisco's harbor lay the Kwang Yuan, a 28 year-old tramp three-master. Her deck machinery was rusted tight by rain, barnacles were four inches deep on her rusty hull. In the captain's quarters lounged "Captain" Chan Tze-ming; in the engine room "Chief Engineer" Wang Chi-fu reigned over nosy harbor rats and cold, dry engines. It was the Kwang Yuan's third year at anchor.
Three years ago Chan Tze-ming and Wang Chi-fu signed on in Chefoo, China, with 18 other Chinese, to sail the Kwang Yuan. The crew discovered that the "Chinese" company which had bought the craft...