Hongkong An Article (or two) for Portwatch Magazine History

Hongkong An Article (or two) for Portwatch Magazine History

Arek Madiun   2:22 AM   Comment  

For those interested, I penned a couple of short articles for a club magazine over the previous summer. Portwatch is the publication produced by the Aberdeen Marina Club in Sham Wan. I figured that with all the information I had on films made in and around the area it might make interesting reading. Sadly the word limit was a bit restrictive - the bilingual nature of the publication meant I only had half of what I would normally get. As a result the editor decided to split the article into two parts. I would have loved to go into more detail but there you have it.

There's no direct link available but you can go to the club's website (http://www.aberdeenmarinaclub.com/portwatch.php) and find the offending material on and either download it or view online:

Aberdeen on Screen Part 1: Jul/Aug 2016 issue pages 30-31

Aberdeen on Screen Part 2: Sep/Oct 2016 issue pages 28-29

Hongkong Fist of the Unicorn � another �lost� Bruce Lee location rediscovered History

Hongkong Fist of the Unicorn � another �lost� Bruce Lee location rediscovered History

Arek Madiun   7:29 AM   Comment  

Not long after finally nailing down the location for the fight scene between Sammo Hung and Bruce Lee at the beginning of Enter The Dragon, I turned my attention to the next Lee-related film location challenge. Strictly speaking the film in question, Fist of the Unicorn (a.k.a Unicorn Fist/Bruce Lee and I), wasn't a Lee film at all - he had simply come to the set as a favour to his friend (the star, Unicorn Chan) and helped choreograph a fight scene. The location involved was a seemingly non-descript rural place with a small river and, other than that, no clues were obvious. It was an interesting bit of investigation and worthwhile repeating for any curious Lee fans who didn't read it when I originally posted back in 2011.

I was curious about this place simply because I couldn't find any other information about it, and I was in full-on Lee location finding mode. This place seemed to have eluded other fans and so I figured it would be good to have a stab and see what I could find.

The back story is also worth outlining briefly because it's a good example of the sort of stuff Lee was dealing with towards the end of his life. 

Lee had returned to Hong Kong to try and secure a film deal on the back of the various film and TV shows he had been doing in the US. Unbeknownst to him at the time, the Green Hornet series had made him into a local hero and as a consequence he was in a good position to try his luck. One of his childhood film star friends, Little Unicorn (whom he had co-starred in an old Cantonese films called Blame it on Father), had pulled some strings for Lee and got him some face time with some of the local film makers including Sir Run Run Shaw. It was a great example of what is known in Cantonese as gwaan hai (??) but is perhaps more familiar by its pinyin form: Guanxi. Basically, the personal networks and favour-granting that are quite fundamental in Chinese culture and are probably largely to blame for the massive corruption culture over here...

Anyway, as a result of these arrangements Lee was indebted to Unicorn and, in the spirit of reciprocation, knew that one day he would be duty bound to offer help in return. As it turned out, Lee was offered a tempting deal by Raymond Chow at the newly formed Golden Harvest and the rest is history. Over the next 2 years, Bruce made three films for Raymond Chow (two of which also featured Unicorn in small roles) and shot to super stardom in HK.

The circumstances aren't clear, but sometime around the middle of 1972, Unicorn approached a production company wanting to make a film and used his friendship with Bruce to secure a deal. The deal was that he would get a starring role as long as he could rope in his buddy in some way or another, that way the film could exploit Bruce's involvement and hopefully make some money.

This alternative title aptly underscores its Bruceploitation! 

Bruce walked into the situation without much choice and with full knowledge that he was being exploited, but it appears he underestimated what the production would do with the footage. It's not known for certain what he was expecting, perhaps he just thought his name would be used in the credits as fight choreographer? But what actually happened that Lee was filmed for several minutes putting some of the actors through their paces in preparation for a fight scene. Whether or not he was aware of the filming isn't clear but the footage was used at both the beginning and end of the film and a double (filmed from the neck down wearing the same clothes!!) was used in an inserted scene at a temple.

When the film eventually saw the light of day in the first few months of 1973 and was marketed as a Bruce Lee film, well, you can imagine that Lee was a bit peeved and it is my understanding that he launched some sort of legal action against the film makers. I don't think it was resolved before his death (he was also in the middle of suing one of HK's tabloid papers for other reasons when he died), and so we are left with a fairly bog-standard kung fu flick with all the usual stuff going on, but with some footage of Bruce Lee messing around with the actors (if you are curious, you can still view the film trailer here)

Anyway, let�s get back to that location. The available footage was filmed somewhere near to what looks like a river, and if you watch the film you will know that this river also has a very distinctive bridge going over it. So here are a couple of screen grabs to set the scene. 

That�s Bruce centre-screen. Note a few things: the river in the background (in the video you can see it is flowing towards us) and the bend it makes at the back. These were my first clues to the location. Let�s see another picture.

This one gives us a few more clues. First is that someone has disappeared into the background and dropped down onto the river bank (you can see their head between the two guys on the right). Also notice the partially exposed river bank in the background � can you see the dark line that runs along the middle? It�s a tidal mark and you should make a note of it because we will come back to it later. 

The next shot is actually taken from the film and I�ll be honest, this was the clincher for me. It took a while to identify but anyway, here it is as it appears on film.

This bridge features a lot in the film. It is basically next to the place where the young boy � played by Meng Hoi � lives with his mum. So it�s no surprise that a lot of filming took place around here and, of course, was next to the spot where Bruce was filmed doing the fight rehearsals. Here is a more modern shot, albeit taken from the opposite side of the river bank. Many people familiar with Sai Kung countryside will probably be able to place this bridge immediately once they see the next picture.

Yes, that�s right, this is the famous stone bridge that crosses the tidal river in Pak Tam Chung � also known as the Fuk Hing Bridge. And, yes, that IS its actual name! In case you need further convincing here is a shot from a HK Govt website that shows the background ridge-line much better than my shot (when I took these photos it was fairly hazy). See it in its original context right here.

Courtesy of AFCD

You can see the same (okay, it's been stretched a bit by the aspect ratio of the film) bumpy ridge-line in the background that can be seen behind the actors in the screen grab below.

Meng Hoi and Unicorn Chan

So what about the place where the fight choreography was going on...where Bruce was being filmed? Well, it�s not far away from the bridge � just a few metres in fact. The actual spot now looks to be over grown and has the Pak Tam Chung nature trail running through it (complete with concreted pathway), but the general area looks quite similar. I can confirm that there is a flowing �river� as seen on the clip but it is a tidal flow from the sea which explains why in the clip the water is running towards us - it was most likely filmed in the morning during an incoming tide. It was doing exactly the same when I was there on my exploratory trip.

There is also a river bank of sorts. It's not seen in the footage but we know its there because someone walks down to it. It's largely rocky and algae covered, but the one thing I did notice (and, remember, I told you to take a note of it) is that the opposite bank of the river � with its dark tidal stripe running along the middle - looks the same as it did in 1972. No surprise really. Here is a shot from my trip.

Compare it again (but remember the film grab is slightly stretched by its letterbox aspect).

Now, I couldn�t create the exact angle from the exact point because it's too overgrown. My camera should really be about 30 or 40 feet to the left of where I was standing so the background isn�t quite perfect - but this is as close as we can get after a break of 39 years. However, even from this closer angle the black line along the far bank is a perfect match. In case you can�t see it here it is indicated.

I reckon that the Pak Tam Chung nature trail pathway runs along the edge of the area they are on (where the guy�s head is) because even today there is a bit of a steep drop onto the river embankment.

Anyway, for those fans who are still keen to visit Lee-related film locations then you can easily get to this place by catching the #94 bus from Sai Kung bus terminus and get off at the Pak Tam Chung barrier gate (which marks the entrance to the Sai Kung Country Park). Walk along the road on the right hand side and after a couple of hundred metres you will see the bridge immediately on your right.

My parting shot is to give you a GoogleEarth shot of the same area (ringed in red) and you can see the Fuk Hing Bridge just to the north of it. Just put these coordinates into GoogleEarth to find it on there: 22�23�53.40?N 114�19�19.69?E

Hongkong King Yin Lei, Wanchai History

Hongkong King Yin Lei, Wanchai History

Arek Madiun   8:48 AM   Comment  

It's probably fair to say that of all the buildings in Hong Kong, King Yin Lei has held my fascination for the longest time. Of course, when I first saw the place I was only about 12 years old and it was the intriguing fortress of an evil drug-producing ex-member of the Shaolin temple who, sadly, ended up skewered on the end of a spear courtesy of a kick by Bruce Lee. But it was my, some might say, "unhealthy" obsession with that film (it was Enter the Dragon in case you hadn't guessed) that really kick-started my whole Hong Kong obsession and ultimately led me to come and live here.

On a few earlier trips out I had tried to find out where this building was and failed miserably. It wasn't until I finally moved here in 2006 that I finally stumbled across it, by accident, on a trip up to the Peak one day on the #15 bus. It's at 45 Stubbs Road.

Since that day, not only have I found a couple of other on-screen uses of it (see later), but also followed with great interest the events that began to unfold in 2007 when its long term owner, Stephen Yow Mok-shing, sold it. What followed the sale was a rather sorry indictment of the way the HK Govt often works (or doesn't work, as the case may be).

Mr Yow had bought the property in the mid-70's as an investment and he and his family had spent various amounts of time there over the years, but the upkeep and maintenance was getting a bit too much and so it was considered a good time to sell. House prices in HK were at a pretty good level and the eventual sale price exceeded, I believe, HK$400m+. I suspect that that price was a pretty good return on investment for the Yow's.

Taken in 2009 after the new roof tiles had been attached 

Unfortunately for the conservation minded, inevitably, the new owner had no intention of keeping the place and just wanted the land for redevelopment and in a rather sneaky bit of cynical manipulation he set about readying the place for demolition. It took a few days for people to notice but all of a sudden some rather large holes started appearing in the external walls, the old window frames were ripped out but most disastrously, the glazed green roof tiles were smashed to pieces and dumped. In hindsight it seems to be that the owner was being careful about not knocking it down straight away but damaging it to the point whereby saving it would be deemed useless by the Govt. It may or may not be a coincidence that the secretive new owner, who'd bought the property via on offshore shell company called Ice Wisdom, was later outed as Cheung Chung-Kiu - a Mainland property developer with very close ties to Donald Tsang's then HK Govt.

In true face saving and buck-passing fashion that people in Hong Kong know so well, the Govt were very quick to lay the blame on the former owner, Stephen Yow. They explained - in this case correctly - that the building was privately owned and therefore they had no way to intercede in the matter. What they neglected to mention - other than their close links to the new owner - was that Stephen Yow had already made several attempts to offer the building for sale to the Govt in order to secure its preservation. This fact didn't come out until several days later, after the Govt had already denied this was the case and after Mr Yow was vilified in the local press as a result of their denial.

Eventually, someone finally owned up to this fact and everyone decided to turn their attention on who the new owner might be (it was still unknown at this point, at least to the general public). What followed was the Govt realising they had to eat some humble pie and make some effort to reach and agreement with the new owner over the building's future and a land swap deal was struck by which an adjacent piece of land of similar size and plot ratio was exchanged for the building. What surprised me about it all was that Ice Wisdom agreed to stump up for the costs of repairing the damage that had been done to King Yin Lei. The place was declared a Monument (protecting it, in theory, from future demolition) and a massive renovation project was launched to fix the holes and restore the roof to its former glory. The building disappeared under blue tarpaulin for a long time before being reopened to the public in 2011. Yes, the place was so damaged it took 3 years to fix!

The restoration project was run by Professor Tang Guo-hua from Guangzhou University and involved work that could only be done by skilled artisans from as far away as Fujian province.

The Govt did run sporadic open days for a while - starting in April 2011 - with a limited number of tickets, none of which I managed to make it to, sadly, and in a somewhat ironic twist they asked Stephen Yow to lend them some of his furniture to furnish the house with for the open days. However, as of early 2014, the open days have now come to a close and the Govt has undertaken a bidding process for the building's adaptive reuse. Unfortunately, one of the main limitations of the property is that despite its 17,000 sq ft size, most of the space is divided into rooms too small to be of any great use, limiting the potential for its future utilisation. I guess we will just have to wait and see what happens.

There used to be a tennis court here until 1966

Anyway, the building has quite a history and we can read some of it courtesy of the recent(ish) heritage assessment carried out by the Antiquities and Monuments Office a few years ago. Here is the link: http://www.legco.gov.hk/yr07-08/english/subleg/brief/175_brf.pdf, but I have cut/pasted the most interesting bits below:

The residence at the site was built in 1937 by Mrs. Shum Li Po-lun (????), the granddaughter of the renowned Chinese merchant and social leader Mr. Li Sing (??) in the 19th Century. Her father, Mr. Li Po-chun (???), was also a notable merchant and social leader in Hong Kong who made great contributions to many social welfare causes. Mrs. Shum sold the house to the Yow family in 1977. The Yow family is a successful merchant clan represented by Mr. Yow Qhei-man (???) who ran dried fruit business in Hong Kong. His son, Mr. Yow Mok-shing (???), is also a famous businessman who was appointed as Chairman of Tung Wah Hospital in 1979.

The site was sold at HK$24,000,000 in 1977, and the Yow family named the house �Ultamia� (???, King Yin Lei), literally �House of Virtuous View�. The name is inscribed on the Pai-lau (??) at the entrance to the site.

Now, of course I mentioned the house's brief but rather spectacular appearance in Enter the Dragon in the beginning of this post, but since I first wrote about this place back in 2006 (on version 1 of this blog, this is version 3) I have also seen it used in Clark Gable's Soldier of Fortune (filmed in 1955) and also the Robert Culp/Bill Cosby vehicle, I Spy (filmed in 1965).

Hongkong Golden Studios - Then and Now History

Hongkong Golden Studios - Then and Now History

Arek Madiun   8:16 AM   Comment  

As a long time HK film fan, Golden Studios holds particular interest for me because it was the filming/production location of many classic kung fu films during the 70's and 80's. Golden Studios was, of course, the name of the studios owned and operated by Golden Harvest. Sadly the studios (and, in fact, Golden Harvest's film production activity) is no longer around, but I managed to obtain an aerial photo (from the Mapping office for $120) of the area in Diamond Hill where the studio was located so that at least we can see where it was in relation to the area now.

This aerial picture was taken during October 1973 (from 1700 ft), not long after Bruce Lee - GH's break out star - had died and also not too long after GH took over the studios in 1971, but well before the company decided to build a Chinese village/street set in 1979.

The studio lot is the triangular area in the top right. I�ve oriented the photo so that east is at the top, itr makes viewing easier I feel, but in reality remember that really the picture should be rotated 90 degrees to the right. The lot was demarcated by hills to the top and right (east and south) and a stream to the left (north) and the point where the stream meets the road is where the studio�s front gateway was.

The large road at the bottom is Hammer Hill Road, with the smaller King Tung Street leading from Hammer Hill Rd up to the studio gates.Here�s another version of the picture showing you these points. Here is a closeup.

The large rectangular block in the middle is the main studio block which contained the two main sound stages: A & B. A was on the right side, B on the left. In front of the main studio block is a car park - a familiar sight to any Bruce Lee fans because he had quite a few pictures taken here. I guess the other buildings are a mix of offices, dubbing studio, film development lab, editing suites, costume dept and the like but which one was which? Sorry, I don't know at this time.

So anyway, what happened?

You may or may not be aware that Raymond Chow (and his two colleagues Leonard Ho and Leung Fung) left Shaw Bros in 1970. Raymond was upset because his main rival, Mona Fong - ex-singer and Sir Run Run Shaw's love interest - had been promoted over him and essentially became his boss and the holder of the purse strings.

So, Chow took some money and talent with him and set up the new company based on a more western-style studio model - whereby GH would provide funding and facilities to independent film companies. GH would then distribute the films around Asia. If the film was successful then the independent film company involved would share in the profits. This was vastly different to the Shaw model which basically controlled everything from inception to production and distribution and kept all its staff on fixed salary terms.

However, when GH first started up, it had no physical studio space and many of its early productions were filmed on location or at rented sound stages (of which there were several available) or a bit of both and it wasn't until Cathay Films (MP&GI) announced their withdrawal from movie making in HK that an opportunity to take over their old studios arose.

These studios, now called Golden Studios, were once some kind of saw mill and had also been the home of an even older film company called Yung Hwa Motion Pictures. GH did a deal with Cathay so they would take over the lease on the studio and Cathay would become the sole distributor for GH films in Malaysia and Singapore.

The creative freedom afforded by GH's production model meant a lot of talent left Shaw's and started their own production companies in order to make films with GH. Not all films were hits but a steady stream of new and fairly inventive films meant that Shaw's long-held power over the homegrown film industry started to erode. As it turned out, Shaw's pretty much ceased all film production in the mid-80's and instead concentrated on television. TVB's (i.e. Shaw's) old TV studios on Broadcast Drive were closed down and the facility was moved to the old Movietown lot in Clearwater Bay. With Shaw's out of the way, GH went from strength to strength.

And then it all went wrong.

At the end of the 1990�s, the Govt � who owned the land that Golden Studios was sitting on - decided to include it in a land sale for redevelopment and told GH it would no longer be renewing the lease. This left GH without any studio space and a search for an alternative site was launched. A new plot of land was found in the newly reclaimed Tsueng Kwan O industrial estate and either through pure coincidence or just out of sheer spite (probably the latter given their histories) Shaw's also decided they wanted the plot for new TV studios and a bidding war broke out between the two companies. Shaw's eventually won and GH was effectively stopped from film production due to lack of studio space. GH made their last film in 2003 (although they had already lost their own studios by then) and then moved over to financing, distribution and cinema management - areas of business they already were involved in but now without much choice to do anything else.

The old studio lot at Hammer Hill stood vacant and derelict for a couple of years (and there are stories about how much old equipment and celluloid was left dumped on-site) before the site formation work started for what was about to replace it - a Govt subsidised housing estate called Kingsford Terrace. The estate was completed and on sale by 2003, but due to the SARS crisis it was immediately withdrawn from sale and proceeded to stand empty for several more years. Here are some Googleearth snaps over the past few years.

Year 2000

The high-rises along King Tung St had actually been built several years before (around 1984) and are called Sun Lai Garden and had already replaced a smaller studio called Asia Studios. So, even before the GH lot was developed, the studio area was slowly being surrounded by high-rises, making outdoor filming of period pictures slightly troublesome. The above shot shows what looks to be initial site formation but it also looks as though the site boundaries haven�t changed even if the buildings inside have.

Year 2000 � later in the year

It looks as though the old stream was filled in (or more likely directed underground) and some semblance of a perimeter wall was being constructed. But you can still see vaguely the shape of where the parking lot was. Film history slowly being removed. Here is a shot the following year.

Year: 2001

The following year you can see that the construction of block 5 at the back is already underway and block 4 next to it has also commenced. There would be 5 blocks in all actually and King Tung St would be extended slightly up the side where the old stream used to be. There is no aerial snaps on Google between the years 2001 and 2008, so the next shot we have is from the latter years when the development was already completed and sold.

Year 2008

The fact that King Tung St and Hammer Hill Rd remain unchanged - in the main (apart from the extension of King Tung Street I just mentioned) - gives you a good reference for comparing the 1973 close up and the 2008 snap. I�ve put in the block numbers below.

You can just about see that Block 1 now stands where the old entrance to GH was. Block 2 pretty much occupies the space where the car lot and main studio building was.

And finally, a comment from Mark who was lucky enough to visit the site in 1998...

I visited the GH studios on 24th July 1998 when Jackie Chan was shooting part of the fight scene for RUSH HOUR that was set in the LA Convention centre, with the bomb vest and the large vase.. it was an amazing place! such a shame they knocked it down and built flats instead!

Hongkong Remembering the Osprey History

Hongkong Remembering the Osprey History

Arek Madiun   7:37 AM   Comment  

Not so long ago, someone started posting pictures on Gwulo.com of the after effects of Typhoon Ellen in 1983. Out of this interesting discussion came the mention of a boat that became an unfortunate victim of the typhoon when it sank several miles south of the territory. A barquentine called the 'Osprey'.

A link to a photograph of the vessel on FLICKR led me to a rather interesting tidbit of information because something about the vessel looked familiar. It turns out that repeated viewings of Jackie Chan's Project A (I had it on VHS tape circa 1988 and watched it almost every week for a loooong time) had burned the image of this ship into my brain because the Osprey made a brief cameo appearance. The Osprey was the sailing ship conveying some rather pompous Colonial types as they are suddenly attacked by some marauding pirates.

The scene lasts about 5 mins in total and we get to see various camera angles taken both on-board and also from a distance � it gives you a pretty good overall view of the Osprey. Here are a selected bunch of screen grabs from the film that feature the various parts of the boat.

 Note the ship�s name in this shot

 

Looks are deceiving because what appears (to a numpty non-sailor like me, at least) to be a fully-fledged wooden sailing boat was actually a sail-training ship made of steel/iron with an engine.

An attractive boat I think you�ll agree and it seems as though this was to be its swan song because this film was made in 1983 � just a few months before the fateful September when the ship was lost in the southern waters of Hong Kong.

So what actually happened? The problem is no one really knows for certain � hearings were held into the incident but due to the fact that the sole survivor of the incident � a Japanese crew member surnamed Ogura � was asleep for the 3 hours preceding the disaster and only awoke just as the ship was beginning to sink, means that there is no facts available and the inquiries conducted had to rely almost entirely on supposition based on various probabilities (although the later discovery of the wreck filled in some of the blanks or at least led to better conclusions).

Here is what is believed to have happened: the ship was anchored in Repulse bay on the morning of the 9th September 1983 and the strong winds of typhoon Ellen meant the boat was already dragging its anchor and a decision was taken by the captain (Gary) to steer the boat into open sea � perhaps to face the winds away from nearby rocks and reefs? So, at 1 a.m the ship set out on a course that would take it down past Lamma Island via its southern coastline. It�s thought this manoeuvre took about 2 hours and the ship would have been clear of Lamma by around 3 � 3.30am.

At this point Ogura was asleep, but sometime around 6 a.m something happened that caused the boat to founder and take on water. Ogura ended up in the sea with 3 other crew � Fortner, Franklin and Ulland and Ogura later testified at the hearing that by the time he realised what was happening the ship was already partially capsized with its bow stick upright out of the water and it was swiftly drifting away from the group.

At some point in the afternoon of the 10th (after being in the water for something like 30 hours), Ogura became separated from his companions and was eventually rescued but the fate of his co-survivors doesn�t seem to have been established and I suspect they, plus the other members of the crew are part of the official statistics of those who went missing in HK during the typhoon (12 missing in total including the Osprey crew).

The actual wreck of the boat wasn�t discovered until the following year when reports from fishermen about an obstruction in the water, tangling their nets and trawling equipment, was investigated and found to be the Osprey sitting upright in 30 metres of water several miles away from where the supposed sinking occurred. The only damage noted was two of the masts were broken (probably after capsizing and they had struck the seabed) and it was completely festooned with snagged fishing nets.

Here�s a quick Google view of some key locations. HK Island is the land mass in the top centre right of the photo with Lantau Island to its left and Lamma Island just off its southwest coast. The thin strip of islands to the south include the Lema Islands (the uppermost part) and are in fact under Zhuhai administration (the area of China immediately over the border from Macau).

Here is the key to the numbers:

1 � the supposed site of the ship�s initial foundering (this was a guess by the inquiry based on the assumed speed of travel and the assumed time of the disaster � 6 a.m thanks to Ulland�s watch stopping at the time when she entered the water with Ogura). The actual position was thought to be within a 4 or 5 mile radius of this position.

2 � the location of the Osprey�s dinghy on the small island of Yat Chau (Yi Zhou) � 8 miles south of the Soko Islands. Found a few days later by a member of the public helping in the search.

3 � the final confirmed location of the Osprey wreck. What is significant is the distance it had drifted from its supposed foundering position indicating it didn�t completely sink initially and floated, fully or partially submerged, for a considerable distance (something in the region of 20 � 25 miles) before finally hitting the seabed.

As far as I am aware the wreck has never been salvaged (officially at least) and I have no idea if further investigation was carried out on it by divers. I�m quite a fan of shipwrecks in general and was pondering the possibility of getting there � nigh on impossible I suspect. The local water visibility and amount of shipping and fishing traffic around this area would make it fairly unreachable. Anyway, if anyone has any information they would like to share, please leave a comment. It would be nice to add some extra information � however trivial � for everyone to see.

I�m not aware of the crews� full names but the re-hearing document lists the following surnames: Gary (captain), Ogura (bo�sun and sole survivor), Hae, Chan, Biron (these two seem to be the only other bodies recovered), Fortner, Franklin and Ulland (Susan Ulland was the only female member of the crew).

Actually, since I first posted this entry back in January 2013, several people who had direct contact or involvement with the Osprey had been kind enough to leave comments and so I have included them below, so many thanks to everyone who shared their memories. I also noticed that a staff writer for HK Time Out had included this little snippet of Project A information in a back page article on typhoons back in September 2013 - it's nice to know people do actually read my blog and get something useful from it. Anyway, on with the comments.

Chris Sledge:

Thanks for this. I was a crew member on the Osprey earlier in 1983. I only found out that the ship had sunk earlier this year and have been looking for some more info on it.Ogura San was ex-Japanese Defence Force and very proud of it, an immensely capable seaman who taught me how to sail square riggers.
When I left, the Captain was replaced at the same time and the ship was being run by the first officer - a guy named Bo, ex-US Navy.
The only Gary that I remember on board (and this may not be the same guy) was an Australian electrician who was the ships engineer.

Matthew Lechtzier:

In late January, 1976, an instant piecemeal crew of young Brits, Americans, a Dutchman and myself, then 20, sailed The Osprey from the Canary Islands to the West Indies, The Bahamas and eventually Port Canaveral. The ship was �owned� then by one Arthur Erikson, an American with a fanciful dream to create a school ship but with nothing but the gift of gab to build it. Its maiden voyage to America (with new rigging outfitted in Denmark) was no doubt more bizarre and certainly more adventurous than the Jackie Chan movie. The following month, having briefly landed in the Turks & Caicos Islands and Grand Bahama we tied up in Florida and were told to vanish for a whole variety of sordid reasons and none of us ever saw the ship again. Notwithstanding all that we had the trip of a life time and I will never forget that adventure across the Atlantic.

Richard Dodds:

I was on the Osprey from Tenerife to Pt.Canaveral in 1976. Our Dutch skipper, a man of 60 who had spent his life in sail, had spoken with the designer of Osprey�s refit in Denmark who had expressed concern as to her maximum safe angle of heel due to the rig not being ideal for the hull form. Baltic traders are by nature shallow draught vessels more often than not fore and aft rigged with shorter masts therefore less tophamper than that of the barquentine rig.
On our Atlantic passage the owner was on watch and reveling in the increasing wind and subsequent angle of heel, water coming over the rail etc. The skipper, whose bunk was athwartships, was apparently woken by the angle of heel and was very anxious to get all hands on deck to shorten sail.
It was once the panic was over and we were all sitting in the deckhouse skipper told us of his concerns.
Had Osprey been hit by excessive wind on the beam and been knocked flat, or beyond her angle of recovery, it is possible she might have foundered.

Alberto Rodriguez:

I am completely blown out by learning about the demise of Osprey and her crew. I just came across this sad news, I feel completely overwhelmed. I sailed onboard her in 1981, if I remember well, from Tokyo to Hong Kong, with a call in Keelung (Taiwan) due to bad weather, typhoon approaching. I remained as a crew member onboard, anchored in Hong Kong harbour for another 6 months, but due to very limited sailing and lack of business I finally departed in another sailing boat to Singapore. 

I remember I was the only westerner onboard (Uruguayan), the rest of the crew was Japanese, and later some Chinese came onboard for daily works. From what I know, and I am pretty sure about it, her owner was the Japanese millionaire Mako Yamawaki. He found her sunk in Bahamanian waters and towed her to Tokyo where she underwent repairs (i worked aboard for the last 3 months before sailing to Hong Kong). I would love to receive some reply from any of you guys that posted info here.. Regards to all of you.. Alberto:aarodgoni@yahoo.es

Marc:

I worked in Denmark building Osprey with Dominique, Jim, Bill , Clive, Paul, Glenn, David, Garry, Wayne, Harland, and Peter. I needle-gunned and painted Osprey. I built the deck with some others, I pushed the concrete in the bottom of the hull to ballast her�.etc. I sailed Osprey with my friends and Richard, Peter, Harriet to the Kiel canal, Lisbon,and Tenerife. Great time.

Paul Onions:

I worked on there in 82 so I must of just missed you...but I was around after I left (boozing with Bo etc.) with the likes of Sarg, Ross, Capt. Berry, Eng. Chris and Ace the bartender...and the total [beep] Chris Scott who was the mate who then and became the skipper edging out old Capt Berry! Gary was Bo Gary - a total cool gent from Hawaii, 6�4?, negro � a rare sight in HK early 80's, especially when we were in Sai kung...you can imagine! I�d love to hook up with any souls from that golden age before it went went totally pear shaped . Paul paulojono@yahoo.com

Jo: 

For some reason today I was thinking about the loss of the Osprey off Hong Kong in the Typhoon and the sad loss of the people on board. I was living in HK at the time and remember Bo well � a lovely guy and drinking companion. Osprey was a beautiful sight when driving over HK island you suddenly saw her ahead of you off Repulse Bay. Such a shock after the typhoon to hear what happened to her and the crew. I was so pleased to find this information on the web � I didn�t know the wreck had been found as I had left HK by then.