From the SFist blog:
It was called the Princess Taiping and its mission was to complete a round trip journey from Taiwan to prove that Chinese sailors may have reached North America before Columbus. Well, sadly (but also comically), in the waters just off Taiwan, the Princess Taiping was struck by a freighter and sunk just 30 miles from the end of its 14,000 mile journey.
None of the 11-man crew was injured and the other ship barely registered the collision as anything more than an offshore speed bump…No word on whether the freighter was being skippered by one of Gavin Menzie’s many dedicated detractors. Conspiracy theories abound.