10 Chinese Hijacked Ship, Crew Claims; Officials Doubtful

They paid $10,000 each for a chance at life in America. And for nearly seven weeks, they risked their lives inside cramped compartments in the cargo hull of a rusty fishing boat.

As their boat crossed the Pacific, the 10 Chinese passengers were forbidden from moving without permission from the captain, an imposing figure who demanded they call him “Boss.”

The voyage ended Thursday at about 2 a.m., when the men were ordered on deck and told to swim ashore. If the boat tried to dock, the crew told them, they would all be caught.

The account of the men’s 7,000-mile journey is based on their interviews with immigration officials and made public Tuesday as federal prosecutors charged the vessel’s captain and engineer with smuggling immigrants into the United States.

But the captain and the engineer gave a vastly different story about how the 10 men came to paddle ashore north of Laguna Beach, naked and clinging to makeshift floats.

Handcuffed and clad in blue sweatpants, the captain, Jin Yinn Wang, said in federal court Tuesday that he never intended to steer near California.

“The ship was brought here, I was kidnapped, and that’s all I know,” Wang said in Mandarin.

Wang laid out a more extensive version of events shortly after he was detained by immigration officials Thursday. According to court documents, Wang said that he and his first mate were alone shark fishing 600 miles off the Hawaii coast when they picked up the 10 men as crew members.

Wang said the new crew hijacked their boat, the Fu Ching. When the boat arrived off Laguna Beach, Wang said he was bound and locked inside a storage room. He told investigators that the men stole his ring, equipment and cash before jumping overboard.

Wang said he managed to free himself and tried to send a mayday broadcast for help. U.S. Coast Guard officials said they were not aware of any mayday calls sent.

But the agency mounted a search for the Fu Ching after police found the boat’s name on lifesaving equipment the 10 immigrants had left behind. Coast Guard helicopters caught sight of the boat about 100 miles from San Diego. Authorities ordered the Fu Ching to stop, but it failed to comply.

After boarding the boat, the Coast Guard officials examined a global positioning system aboard the vessel. The instrument showed the Fu Ching had touched land off Laguna Beach, close to where the men swam ashore.

Three weeks earlier, the owner of the Fu Ching had notified Taiwanese authorities that he had lost contact with the vessel. But Taiwanese officials say they never could determine if the crew had been hijacked or simply stopped communicating with the owner.

Authorities said it’s far from the first time that boat captains accused of smuggling immigrants have claimed they were victims of a mutiny.