The ship was commissioned by 61-year-old Liu Ningsheng ("Nelson Liu"), possibly the first Taiwanese person to ever
circle the earth in a
yacht, to demonstrate the plausibility of the theory that the Chinese explored the
American West Coast decades before the
voyages of Christopher Columbus. It was entirely wind-powered, with three cotton sails. The ship was launched in June, 2008 from
Xiamen, in the
People's Republic of China. It made of its trip, stopping in California, Hawaii, and Japan, among other places, before it was rammed by the
Champion Express, a Liberian-flagged Norwegian
chemical tanker, near the
Su Ao Harbor in northeastern Taiwan, 20–30 miles from the end of its voyage back in Keelung. The
Princess Taiping sank. Although the
Champion Express did not stop to give assistance, Liu sent a distress signal by radio beacon. At the time of the sinking, a similar replica of a Ming Dynasty vessel was under construction in Tainan. This replica named "Taiwan Cheng Kung" set sail from Anping Harbour on Saturday 4 December 2010 and travelled to the estuary of Luermen Creek in Taiwan. in San Francisco ==See also==