Evening star., 1933-10-16

~ sea goo from lllS carved ltdh-
NN wood tabernacle below, the
Chinese-built. Americande-
signed auxiliary schooner
Hal Loong. rides today at a mooring
in the Washington Channel of the
Potomac River while her crew and
passengers visit in Washington before
sailing South to Miami for the Winter
The Hal Loong-pronounced "Higl,
Low-ong' and translated Sea Dragon
is unique from keel to truck. She is
owned by Lloyd G. Thompson and
Theodore Kilkenny, American traders
in the Far East and is skippered by
the former. who is the son Of Senator
w. H. Thompson of Nebraska.
Besides the owners. Hal Loong car
ries Mrs Thompson and their 1l-year-
old daughter. Barbara. and William
Bill" Joyce the only paid hand.
Story Smacks of Sea.
The story Of this vessels conception
and construction is tale salty as the
sea and incensed as joss. Mr.. Thomp-
son and Mr.. Kilkenny were in Hong
Kong when a copy of an American
Yachting magazine carrying on a single
page the incomplete plans of a schooner
designed by Fenwick c. Williams, New
England marine architect, fell into
their hands. The design. following
closely the lines of the Gloucester fisher
man vessels. pleased the Americans
They tore the page from the magazine
and showed 1t to Chinese boat build
er whose clan was renowned for the
building of the queer looking but crack
sailing Chinese junks. They wanted
some alterations made in the design
and the old Chinese went to work. HIS
only drawings were a profile. interior
arrangement plan. and section or TWO
which he executed.
Medieval methods went into the fash
ioning of that hull. Chinese workmen
laboriously cut from a huge yacal tree
and yacal a Burmese wood, is heavier
than water and harder than IRON
the keel. No machinery reduced the
work; that would have displaced men
and the leader of that clan preferred TO
see his brethren eat their fish and rice
regularly. no matter how many suns
and moons crossed the sky before the
task was accomplished.
Sea God Watched Work.
Almost Immediately upon the cutting
of that keel. the little sea god for that
particular ship was brought, with cere-
mony, into the growing hull. The god
is a lacquered figure, intricately carved
and brilliant IN its coloring. He
watched over every bit of work in the
ship. When things went wrong, the
builders burned joss before him and
things went clear again.
The frames or ribs of the hull were
cut by hand from yacal. The planks, 2
inches thick. were hand-sawed just as
laboriously from teak. The >rudder,
fashioned from yacal and weighing 1900
pounds, was hand cut and shipped as
the laborers of long past centuries
might have accomplished it. No spin
ming band-saws or whirling planers
shattered the quiet of that shop. There
was heard only the slow, rhythmic
sweep of an ancient saw drawn by men
in pairs, who cadenced their strokes
with songs of labor.
When the hull took form, the little
Sea God was placed within the hold
There he remained. and there he Is
today, watching placidly from his perch
on the starboard side of the main cabin
The Chinese builders exhorted Mr.
Thompson and Mr.. Kilkenny to keep
that god within Hal Loong forever. He
will watch the little ship in fair weather
and foul, for Hal Loong of Hongkong Is
his ship.
Panels Are Put In.
The main construction of the craft
completed, the Chinese builders resort
ed to the arts of their forefathers
Panels. which in ordinary yachts are
highly vanished, were fitted with hand
carved camphor wood plaques. These
delicate carvings have not been var
nished, but will be permitted to age
and mellow with the years. Other
panels of beautifully adorned porcelain
decorate other parts of the vessers
bulkheads. :.
When the stem was completed, 1t
was fitted with a carved f1gureneao
of a dragon-the Sea Dragon that
marks the chinese junks. It is this
dragon f1gurehead beneath her quite
Occidental bowsprit that attracts at
tention of passersby to Hal Loong. 1t
is brilliantly colored and contrasts
strongly with the warm, brown tones
Of the natural-finished teak planklng
of the ships sides.
Mr.. THOMPSON and Mr.. Kilkeeny
planned to sail Hal Loong to the United
States, across the Pacific ocean
through the Panama Canal and on up
the Atlantic seaboard But the Chinese
workmen plodded on unhurried and the
monsoon season waits for no man
Hence, Hal Loong made the long trek
across the seas to New York aboard
freighter. She was rugged in New York
and this is her first real cruise.
Has Auxiliary Motor.
Technically, Hal Loong is two
masted auxiliary schooner. She has 9
gaff-rigged foresail and Marconi
mainsail. Her auxiliary power Is a
56-horsepower American marine engine
operating through a reduction gear. She
is capable of sailing on any or all OF
the seven seas
None is more enthusiastic about the
ship than little Barbara Thompson