HISTORY MATTERS
The Newsletter Publication of NWA History Centre, Inc.
8101 – 34th Ave., So. – Bloomington, MN 55425
(952) 997-8000 – Ext. 8-6102 H.V. "Pete" Patzke, Editor
Vol. 4 - No. 1 March, 2006
More “JUNK” Stuff
In the last issue of History Matters there was an item about the airlines’ purchase of a Chinese Junk. The purchase was made in Asia and the boat was shipped/sailed, to Spokane for the 1974 Worlds Fair and was used to promote the Fair, NWA service to the Orient and as well, the City of Spokane. We speculated that the Junk might have been sailed back to China. Retiree Glen Dobberpuhl, who was involved in the transport of the junk from Hong Kong to the States, as well as a couple of other readers, let us know that wasn’t true. After the fair, the Junk was sold to a Spokane ESM who moved it to Idaho’s Lake Coeur d’Alene where it operated for about three decades. A couple years ago it was again sold. The new owners moved it west and it now sails the waters of Seattle’s Lake Washington.
Retiree Lil (Libra) Antonelli sent us information about another “Junk” promotion of the airline, though I must admit that your editor has absolutely no recollection of that venture. An article from the January/February 1959 Northwest Airlines News by Larry Olenick of NWA PR told the story.
“Picturesque Junk Promotes NWA’s Florida Service”
“Poised on the threshold of the jet age, Northwest Orient Airlines has turned the clock back 40 years to use a poky old sailing ship to stimulate swift air service. The company has leased the Mon Lei, a picturesque Chinese Junk, for the next 12 months as part of a concentrated campaign to acquaint the public along the Atlantic coast with our 11-year old service to the Far East, and to help inaugurate NWA’s new flights to Florida. The project was conceived by Gordon Bain, vice president of Sales, and Win Case of the Campbell-Midthun advertising agency, in their quest to give Northwest positive identification in its new market.
After considerable search and examination of the few junks available in American waters. The Mon Lei was found moored in New York’s Hudson River. Built in the little fishing village of Aberdeen, near Hong Kong, the colorfully-painted vessel is a 50-foot, three-master with two cabins, a galley, bar and elaborate carvings. It had available diesel power, but its once-graceful sails were completely tattered, torn and useless. This proved no handicap as the plans for the NWA program called for the creation of a new mainsail imprinted with “Northwest Orient Airlines”; a new foresail carrying the Imperial Eagle-calling attention to our luxury Imperial Service and an aftsail with the Chinese lettering for Mon Lei, which means “Ten Thousand Miles.” the distance from the East Coast to Hong Kong.
The herculean job of constructing these new sails was entrusted to Louis Larson, renowned New York sailmaker, and a mission that had to be accomplished from drawings, pictures and sketches of other Chinese junks – and mostly conjecture. Meanwhile back at the junk, Messers, Bain and Case enlarged their program (sailing the East Coast to Miami) to include stops at such cities as New York, Philadelphia, Washington, Baltimore, Charleston, Tampa. St. Petersburg/Clearwater and Miami, with scheduled receptions for the press, local officials and travel industry people.
By recommendation of the John Alden Naval Architects, a captain for the Mon Lei was hired, and his official Northwest title as “Commodore” undoubtedly makes Neal Reed the only “pilot” of such rank employed by any airline anywhere. And from the NWA Public Relations ranks, Rita Xavier, born in Shanghai and former stewardess on our Far East runs, was drafted to serve as official hostess at all of the junk’s ports of call.
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