I'm working on another historical book about Amoy, and have run into a dead end trying to find a copy of the Popular Mechanics December 1922 edition. Does anyone have an idea where I can get it, other than the low quality scan at Google Books? I'd love to get either the original page or a high resolution scan of page 823 (I do have the original photo from which the page was made, but need the sketches in it--a scan of the entire page).The China Review, Volume 3, tells the story of how Waard prepared to cross the Pacific in his Amoy junk. It turned out to be quite a challenge for him, his son, and his Chinese wife and crew.
Fortunately he did have a Chinese wife, who knew the junk, and brought her through typhoons so severe that they lost the rudder not once but twice! But Waard said that only an Amoy junk could have made the crossing. The waters off Amoy (now Xiamen) have long been notorious for their dangerous currents--even though Amoy harbor itself has for at least 500 years been prized as a great port and safe haven.
Read the China Review article, the December 1922 Popular Mechanics article, and after that, read "The House with Red Sails," a novel by Leone Adelson based on the family's life upon the junk named Amoy (I like its dozen or so pencil sketches).
Click these images for larger views of the China Review article, and the illustration in Popular Mechanics.
Enjoy Amoy!
Dr. Bill
Bill Brown
Xiamen University
www.amoymagic.com
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