100203 Madera Tribune

Their quest:
a lost ship
Glenn County
legend revived

By Walt Wiley
Bee Staff Writer

GLENN, Glenn County -- The legend of Glenn County's Chinese ship has been an enduring tale for at least 70 years in this area long the Sacramento River between Willows and Chico.

Dave Stewart and John Furry had heard the legend for decades, and independently they decided years ago that it would be wonderful to see if there was anything to the stories.

Stewart, 55, a third generation Glenn County resident whose grandfather used to farm just down river from the ship's alleged location; and Furry, 51, a Chico archaeologist, finally got together the other day and took a major step toward unraveling the mystery.

They talked Sacramento dewatering contractor Dale Fox into drilling some 25-inch diameter holes for them, and while they didn't find absolute proof of a Chinese ship they did find enough stuff that a full-scale archaeological dig is almost certain to follow.

"We didn't bring up a bronze Buddha, but what we did bring up is enough that I don't want to disturb this ground any more until we've done some remote sensing and know just exactly what we have," said Furry, a brawny, animated fellow who could have played archaeologist Indiana Jones in the movies.

Sacramento Bee
January 2, 2001

A crew drills for what third generation Glenn County resident Dave Stewart and Chico archae-
ologist John Furry believe might be the remains of a Chinese sailing ship. The crew found wood, pottery, and millions of black seeds. Fueled by their find, Stewart and Furry are having the wood carbon-14 dated, the seeds tested by a botanist and the pottery analyzed by a scholar. Bee photographer Hector Amezcua

So far, all he has from his quest is a couple pieces of wood, millions and millions of tiny black seeds that look like poppy seeds and a strange piece of pottery, perhaps from a jar that promptly broke in two after being picked out of the mud and gravel.

"When the drill bit hits the seeds, the water turned black as oil. There were seeds everywhere," Furry said. "I think we got into a pottery jar of them -- maybe a bushel or more."

He has submitted the seeds to botanists to be identified, showed the pottery to scholars and will have the wood carbon-14 dated, he said, even though it looks identical to other wood found at the site last summer that was carbon-14 dated to some time between 1180 and 1410 A.D.

Samples of wood and seeds also will be sent to a Chinese university for study in case there is indeed a link to China with the buried ship.

"There's no doubt in my mind we have a ship," said Furry. "We traced its shape with a magnetometer, and now to bring up this new material means to me that there's a lot more than just wishful thinking here."

Furry's map of the site shows magnetometer hits arranged in the shape of an 85-foot ship with its bow pointed upstream. A magnetometer measures disturbances in the earth's magnetic field, such as might be caused by a foreign body.

The site is on land owned by heirs of the late Benny St. Louis, a citrus grower whose father bought the property around 1900, sold it in the 1920s, then bought it back around 1940.

St. Louis said in a 1975 interview that when the land was out of family hands, a well driller struck material so hard he could go no deeper. And as he was pulling his equipment out of the hold to dig somewhere else, he brought up two chunks of metal.

The metal was the basis of the legend. It was the color of lead but much harder, and some unnamed expert said it appeared to be Chinese armor.

The metal has disappeared and there seems to be no one left alive who remembers seeing it or hearing the story first-hand. But the legend will not die.

"I'd been hearing about it off and on, and after I read about it in the 70s I was determined to go after it myself," said Stewart, wiry and serious.

In 1979, he said, he obtained permission and brought out a stack of 2-by-6 lumber and 1 1/8-inch plywood. He picked up his shovel and began to dig, shoring up a 4-by-4 foot shaft with the wood as he went down.

"At 20 feet I hit water and at 22 feet I had to stop. And I didn't find a thing," Steward recalled.

Last summer, Steward and Furry arranged to have local driller Carl Calvert sink a conventional well shaft at the site, and he was able to bring up the tiny wood samples that have been carbon-14 dated.

This week's dig was exactly on the spot where Calvert and Steward had been before. Fox's drillers kept going through Stewart's shoring as they went down. They were at 35 feet when they brought up their finds.

Furry said the concept that the ship is Chinese is certainly a possibility, although there does not appear to be a reason to exclude other origins.

"The exciting thing is that it's before Columbus. And our Northern California native Americans didn't have boats this big, didn't use pottery," he said.

Louise Lavathes, a Washington, D.C., author who has written a book on Chinese maritime history, said she doubts the boat is Chinese because the carbon dating of the wood does not coincide with likely periods for Chinese to be on this side of the Pacific.

"The period of the great Chinese treasure fleets was roughly 100 years before Columbus, but their attention was all toward the south and west, Indonesia, India, and Africa," she said.

She suggested that the boat could be from an American Indian culture. South American natives had large, fast and nimble sailing rafts, for instance. "And our own coastal native Americans probably had more of a maritime tradition than we know about," she said.

For Furry's purposes, such speculation may not be necessary. "I'm not even going to worry about it. We'll know soon enough. There might even be that bronze Buddha down there waiting for us."

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Their quest: a lost ship Glenn County legend revived By Walt Wiley Bee Staff Writer GLENN, Glenn County -- The legend of Glenn County's Chinese ship has been an enduring tale for at least 70 years in this area long the Sacramento River between Willows and Chico. Dave Stewart and John Furry had heard the legend for decades, and independently they decided years ago that it would be wonderful to see if there was anything to the stories. Stewart, 55, a third generation Glenn County resident whose grandfather used to farm just down river from the ship's alleged location; and Furry, 51, a Chico archaeologist, finally got together the other day and took a major step toward unraveling the mystery. They talked Sacramento dewatering contractor Dale Fox into drilling some 25-inch diameter holes for them, and while they didn't find absolute proof of a Chinese ship they did find enough stuff that a full-scale archaeological dig is almost certain to follow. "We didn't bring up a bronze Buddha, but what we did bring up is enough that I don't want to disturb this ground any more until we've done some remote sensing and know just exactly what we have," said Furry, a brawny, animated fellow who could have played archaeologist Indiana Jones in the movies.	Sacramento Bee January 2, 2001


A crew drills for what third generation Glenn County resident Dave Stewart and Chico archae- ologist John Furry believe might be the remains of a Chinese sailing ship. The crew found wood, pottery, and millions of black seeds. Fueled by their find, Stewart and Furry are having the wood carbon-14 dated, the seeds tested by a botanist and the pottery analyzed by a scholar. Bee photographer Hector Amezcua

So far, all he has from his quest is a couple pieces of wood, millions and millions of tiny black seeds that look like poppy seeds and a strange piece of pottery, perhaps from a jar that promptly broke in two after being picked out of the mud and gravel. "When the drill bit hits the seeds, the water turned black as oil. There were seeds everywhere," Furry said. "I think we got into a pottery jar of them -- maybe a bushel or more." He has submitted the seeds to botanists to be identified, showed the pottery to scholars and will have the wood carbon-14 dated, he said, even though it looks identical to other wood found at the site last summer that was carbon-14 dated to some time between 1180 and 1410 A.D. Samples of wood and seeds also will be sent to a Chinese university for study in case there is indeed a link to China with the buried ship. "There's no doubt in my mind we have a ship," said Furry. "We traced its shape with a magnetometer, and now to bring up this new material means to me that there's a lot more than just wishful thinking here." Furry's map of the site shows magnetometer hits arranged in the shape of an 85-foot ship with its bow pointed upstream. A magnetometer measures disturbances in the earth's magnetic field, such as might be caused by a foreign body.	The site is on land owned by heirs of the late Benny St. Louis, a citrus grower whose father bought the property around 1900, sold it in the 1920s, then bought it back around 1940. St. Louis said in a 1975 interview that when the land was out of family hands, a well driller struck material so hard he could go no deeper. And as he was pulling his equipment out of the hold to dig somewhere else, he brought up two chunks of metal. The metal was the basis of the legend. It was the color of lead but much harder, and some unnamed expert said it appeared to be Chinese armor. The metal has disappeared and there seems to be no one left alive who remembers seeing it or hearing the story first-hand. But the legend will not die. "I'd been hearing about it off and on, and after I read about it in the 70s I was determined to go after it myself," said Stewart, wiry and serious. In 1979, he said, he obtained permission and brought out a stack of 2-by-6 lumber and 1 1/8-inch plywood. He picked up his shovel and began to dig, shoring up a 4-by-4 foot shaft with the wood as he went down. "At 20 feet I hit water and at 22 feet I had to stop. And I didn't find a thing," Steward recalled. Last summer, Steward and Furry arranged to have local driller Carl Calvert sink a conventional well shaft at the site, and he was able to bring up the tiny wood samples that have been carbon-14 dated.	This week's dig was exactly on the spot where Calvert and Steward had been before. Fox's drillers kept going through Stewart's shoring as they went down. They were at 35 feet when they brought up their finds. Furry said the concept that the ship is Chinese is certainly a possibility, although there does not appear to be a reason to exclude other origins. "The exciting thing is that it's before Columbus. And our Northern California native Americans didn't have boats this big, didn't use pottery," he said. Louise Lavathes, a Washington, D.C., author who has written a book on Chinese maritime history, said she doubts the boat is Chinese because the carbon dating of the wood does not coincide with likely periods for Chinese to be on this side of the Pacific. "The period of the great Chinese treasure fleets was roughly 100 years before Columbus, but their attention was all toward the south and west, Indonesia, India, and Africa," she said. She suggested that the boat could be from an American Indian culture. South American natives had large, fast and nimble sailing rafts, for instance. "And our own coastal native Americans probably had more of a maritime tradition than we know about," she said. For Furry's purposes, such speculation may not be necessary. "I'm not even going to worry about it. We'll know soon enough. There might even be that bronze Buddha down there waiting for us."