PEOPLE

I
I
The Boat Aopk
to dramatize their plight, and another, on 29 June, when the ship's
anchor chains wcre cut and she ran aground.
Inquiries in Hong Kong and the Philippines revealed the outline
of an elaborately organized scheme. On 31 January 1979, around
dusk, a ship remarkably like the Skyhck, but named rhc K-ylu, was
intercepted by a Philippine coastguard curter near Palawan Island
and told to move away. The Kylu headed out to sea, but, according
to refugees on board who werc later interviewed, the ship doubled
back under cover of darkness to a rendezvous off Palawan. 'Ihe plan
was to leave all the passengers on the island but, about daybreak,
two unidentified boats rounded the headland and the captain, thinking
they were coastguard or navy, panicked. He hurriedly raised
anchor and steamed at full speed towards international waters. (in
fact, the twu craft were only oceangoing fishing trawlers calling to
rake on fresh water.)
The Skyluck had left Singapore on 12 January, at about the aamt
time as a ship callcd Lmr'ted Faith (Taiwan-owned and subsequently
scrapped). The Skyluck: had loaded passengers, and the gold in payment
for carrying them, off the porr of Vung Tau, leaving Victnamese
waters on 24 January. A few days later she met the United Faith
nesr Indonesia's Naruras Islands in the southern part of the South
China Sea, The gold was transferred to thc United Faith, which was
there ostensibly to supply the refugee carrier with food and water.
The Shyluck, re-christened Kylu by the simple trick of painting out
the first and last two letters of her name, then wiled north-cast
towards Palawan, The United Faith made a beeline for Hong Kong
where nhc was met, in internation~l waten, by a fishing boat which
ofloaded the gold and ferried it undetected into the British territory.
'A few days later, we saw Vietnamese gold popping up in the local
market, but no refugees,' a Hong Kong official said. The refugees
arrived with the Skyluck (her name freshly repainted) on 7 February
aftcr the plan to land them all on Palawan Island had been aborted.
In March 1979, a %tonne, Panamanian-registered trader, the
Sen# Cheong, 'disappeared' in mysterious circumstances while being
towed from the Pomguese colony of Macao towards Hong Kong,
whrrc it was intended she would undergo repain. The Seng Cheong
had already undergone certain modification3 in Macao, and this
alcncd the suspicions of the Hong Kong authorities. These were
c