Surprisingly the articles about the NWA junks elicited more comment than any other item. Perhaps this may be true as many of our readers recall the happenings of the sixties and seventies while few are around from the Mod Center and Northern Region days and fewer still for NWA’s first fifteen years.
Skip White, former DSM at PDX recently drafted an article about the Spokane World Fair junk’s travel and ownership up to the present date. Chuck Boos, who was GEG DSM at the time of the fair reviewed the story and contributed useful anecdotes. The article was apparently precipitated by an obituary of the last owner, Jerry Joslin.
Jerry’s Junk
A Chinese Junk sailed the waters of the Pacific Northwest in recent years. The vessel appeared publicly as a star attraction at the Portland Boat Show in 2001. Local news reporters visiting the show broadcast misinformation about the ship and its history. A diligent reporter for The Oregonian newspaper presented an accounting of the boat’s restoration and recent voyages by the owner as part of his obituary. The story prompted me to pursue the remarkable history of the vessel.
The saga began in a Hong Kong shipyard in 1973. Bryan Moon, Vice-President of Advertising for Northwest Orient Airlines, traveled to the Crown Colony to acquire a Chinese junk as a promotional exhibit at the Spokane World’s Fair. Bryan’s efforts to purchase a typical Chinese ship met with disbelief. Foreigners visited Asian shipyards to purchase luxury craft for wealthy yachtsmen, not the venerable cargo or fishing boats.
Bryan finally persuaded the manager of the shipyard he indeed wanted a junk destined to an inland American city named Spokane. The shipyard employees found it amusing that the boat had to be in working order complete with sails, controls and a 5-cylinder diesel engine normally installed in London buses. Bryan was originally from England and appreciated the endurance of the bus power plants. The transaction included the services of a rigger to travel to Spokane for the purpose of properly assembling the boat in operating condition on site at the 1974 World’s Fair.
The junk was renovated and loaded as deck cargo aboard a freighter destined to Portland, Oregon. After arrival in Portland it was placed on a barge and transported up the Columbia River to Pasco. There the boat was placed on a flatbed trailer (the tie downs were borrowed from the Nuclear facility in Richland) for the trip to Spokane. The vessel was too tall to clear beneath freeway bridges. The driver used off ramps and on ramps to avoid the overpasses. In one instance it was necessary to drive many miles on secondary roads to avoid a particularly troublesome bridge.
Following arrival in Spokane the junk was hidden in Highbridge Park (west of downtown) for the weekend, with a 24-hour guard. The craft was positioned on the Spokane River in the middle of the night when there was no traffic to interfere. The next step was to have the sails rigged and the interior decoration installed. The interior phase of preparation went so well the rigger fell under the influence of distilled spirits! He was sent back to Hong Kong and exchanged for a sober rigger who completed the work.
The Hosts and Hostesses on the Junk were Northwest Cabin Attendants and two local hires. One of the local people was the 15-year-old son of Northwest’s Spokane sales manager, Chuck Boos. Northwest Orient Airlines purchased ‘coolie hats’ for Expo 74 with a map of the airline’s route system over printed on the brim. The cardboard hats were one of the most popular items at the Fair and thousands were given as souvenirs. They were rationed daily and the allotment was usually depleted within the first hour of the fair opening.
The junk included fancy sleeping quarters. The bedspread was stolen twice. Visitors pulled the cover off and smuggled it off the boat. Both times the quilt was recovered. Chuck Boos went to a local body shop and obtained a clear plastic cover of heavy material. The sheath was securely fastened to the mattress and discouraged further theft.
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