Grace Quan Sails to Sacramento Gold Rush Festival!
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Last Fall, San Francisco Maritime National Historical Park Associate Curator John Muir's crew of dedicated volunteers constructed a traditional Chinese Shrimp Junk boat, the Grace Quan, from the ground up. On Saturday, April 10, the crew raised a handmade sail on the boat's polished mast, and sailed the 40-foot vessel on her maiden voyage along San Francisco’s waterfront.

San Francisco Maritime National Historical Park celebrated this historic event with lion dancers and firecrackers. Speakers included Park Superintendent Kate Richardson, California State Park Ranger Pat Robards, historian Phil Choy, and author Amy Tan (The Joy Luck Club).

BACKGROUND

From March through September 2003, the  Small Craft Department of San Francisco Maritime National Historical Park, in conjunction with China Camp State Park, built a full-scale reconstruction of a hard-working San Francisco Bay Area fishing boat: a Chinese Shrimp Junk.

Working from historic photographs, oral histories, and archaeological information, the largely volunteer crew, led by San Francisco Maritime NHP curator and boatbuilder John Muir, constructed the forty-two foot junk. It was built outdoors at the site of one of the largest of the Chinese Shrimp fishing villages: China Camp State Park, in San Rafael, California.

The SF Bay Shrimp Junk Project boatbuilding team constructed the junk using, as much as possible, original materials and traditional Chinese boatbuilding techniques. The team hand-forged its own nails and mixed its own caulking putty. They also used the traditional Chinese method of bending wood through the direct application of fire.

These single-mast vessels, ranging from 30 to 50 feet in length, were built almost entirely of local redwood. The long and narrow junks plied the waters of the shallower regions of the Bay Area from circa 1860 to 1910. The fishermen worked large triangular nets staked to mudflats, and brought their catch of shrimp ashore to small fishing villages. The shrimp were boiled, dried and processed for shipment to Hawaii and Asia.