1 (1878): "Many fine ships have been lost in Gaspar strait; not a few on the Alceste reef, from wrongly estimating their distance from the land; but the majority of instances from causes which might have been guarded against by the exercise of due care and judgment.

"[2]On 6 February 1822, the Tek Sing, a large three-masted Chinese ocean-going junk, sank in an area of the South China Sea known as the Belvidere Shoals, near the northern entrance to the strait.

The boat and its cargo, dubbed Belitung shipwreck, testified that Tang China was producing mass-produced commercial items that it exported by sea.

Most scholars believe dhow was heading to the Middle East, probably from Guangzhou (Canton), the largest port on the Silk Road.

Among the tens of thousands of bowls found in the wreck, one bore this inscription: The sixteenth day of the seventh month of the second year of the reign of Baoli, or 826 apr.