Micheal Hatcher one of the world's most successful salvagors of shipwrecks, discovered the sunken remains of Tek Sing ("True Star"), an unusually large junk measuring approximately 50 meters long and 10 meters wide and weighs around 1000 tons. Tek Sing set sail from Xiamen (Fujian Province) in Jan 1822 (one year into the reign of Qing Daoguang emperor) and headed for Java. It had more than 200 crew members and at least 1600 passengers, majority of whom were emigrants looking for work in sugar cane fields in Java. The fateful disaster ocurred in Feb 1822. Tek Sing hit a reef in the South China Sea, two degrees south of the equator, north of Java, east of Sumatra and south of Singapore. Only 198 people survived the tragic disaster. They were saved by a Captain Pearl, an ex-navy captain, who passed by the place with his ship "Indiana" two days later.

Ceramics finds

Captain Hatcher's crew discovered the wreck on 12 May 1999. Among the salvaged cargo were more than 350,000 pieces of Chinese porcelain, most of them in good condition. Many pieces are simple plates, soup bowls, cups, and condiment dishes meant for everyday use. Other items recovered were mercury, sextants, pocket watches, Chinese ink pads, iron and brass cannon, one bronze cannon, boxes with needles, pocket knives, Chinese brass padlocks, candlesticks, incense burners, telescope parts, coins.