It had all the pomp and circumstance of an arriving dignitary on a ship of state. On August 8, 1947, hundreds gathered at the Port of Albany, both on the shore and in the water. Yachts from the Albany Yacht Club escorted the honored vessel under the Dunn Memorial Bridge. A Navy LCVP, or “Higgins Boat,” along with a Navy K-67 blimp that was rechristened as the “Tydol Flying ‘A'”, accompanied the visiting ship to the Capital District as it docked.

This was no ordinary arrival. The boat was the Chinese junk Mon Lei, purchased by its owner only a year earlier. The owner – and guest of honor in the Capital District – was Robert Ripley, the famed oddities expert and author of the popular cartoon and radio show Believe It Or Not!. And thanks to a personal invitation by the Times-Union’s publisher, Fred Archibald, Ripley was visiting the Capital District for the weekend.

The TU promoted the event for days, with big articles about the arrival of the legendary world traveler. A student at the College of Saint Rose, Ellen Chan, was featured in the Times-Union as one of the guests to greet Ripley upon his arrival; Chan, attending Saint Rose as part of a scholarship program, previously attended the University of Hong Kong, where her father operated an import-export business; Chan would be the first, along with local Cantonese restaurateur James T. Moy, to welcome Ripley to the Albany shore. In another article, actor Bela Lugosi, who was at that time performing in Saratoga Springs as part of the Spa Summer Theatre’s revival of Arsenic and Old Lace, hoped to also meet Ripley and share some of his own “Believe it or Not” stories with the world traveller.

There were even articles about Ripley’s boat, the Mon Lei. According to Ripley, the Chinese junk was built in 1939 as part of a fleet for a Chinese warlord. It left China shortly after the Pearl Harbor invasion in 1941, and Ripley purchased the vessel in 1946, when he found it anchored off the coast of Florida. Ripley boasted in an article that the Mon Lei would be the strangest ship the area had ever seen sail up the Hudson River since the Half-Moon.

And on Friday morning, August 8, 1947, the Mon Lei sailed up the Hudson River from its previous docking point the night before in Poughkeepsie. One of the Mon Lei‘s diesel engines started to malfunction as the junk passed Castleton. The skipper of the junk, William Platt, tried to unfurl the sails and use wind power to arrive in Albany; unfortunately, the only wind power available that morning resided in the Capitol itself. The Mon Lei instead was towed into port.

Ripley arrived, however, to a cheering crowd. The Higgins Boat arrived to greet Ripley on the Mon Lei, and Ripley, along with members of the Times-Union staff, twelve Fort Orange Council “Sea Scouts” and several political dignitaries, left the Mon Lei for the Albany shore.

Ripley had a very busy weekend, although he made time for all the necessary meetings and greetings. History reports that Ripley had an early afternoon luncheon with members of the Rotary Club at the Ten Eyck Hotel; he conversed with TU publisher Fred Archibald and Albany High School principal Dr. Harry E. Pratt. At the luncheon, Ripley recounted a time when, while traveling in China, he was served a 40-course meal – everything imaginable in Chinese cuisine except for one dish, chop suey.

“Of this dish the Chinese had never heard,” said Ripley in a Times-Union article recounting the event. “Chop suey was invented by an Irishman in San Francisco. But the dinnedid include spaghetti. The Chinese knew all about that long before the Italians did. Marco Polo brought back spaghetti from his travels in China.”

Ripley then returned to the Mon Lei for his weekly broadcast over the NBC radio network (and carried locally on WGY at 1:45 p.m.), in which he recounted various “Believe It Or Not” stories submitted by Capital Region residents. Among the stories recounted by Ripley, and retold in Times-Union news clippings, included a Second Street resident in Albany whose Selective Service draft number was 1492. Why so unusual? The resident’s name is Christopher Columbus. Believe it … or Not! Another story involved a Ticonderoga lineman, Charles Donovan, who came into contact with a high tension wire, took a jolt of 4,800 volts, fell 45 feet to the ground and landed in a baby carriage. The baby inside the carriage was miraculously unhurt, and Donovan survived the accident with only a scar on his forehead. Believe it … or Not!!

A party was held aboard the Mon Lei later that afternoon, where Ripley met with Times-Union reporters and columnists George Sokolsky and Ruth Alexander; along with Albany Common Council president John J. Murray and New York Lieutenant Governor Joe Hanley. A photo from the event also shows that Bela Lugosi was an invited party guest as well.

And then another special treat for Capital District Ripley fans. That night, after the Palace Theater showed its customary double feature on Friday night, The Long Night with For the Love of Rusty, Robert Ripley took the stage. He showed various pictures and film clips of his travels and the oddities he encountered in his journeys, answered some questions, and entertained the Palace audience.

That evening, Ripley spent the night at the Ten Eyck Hotel, then traveled to Saratoga Springs for a day at the flat track. History does not record whether Ripley won or lost at the track, or whether he drank from the mineral waters of the Big Red Spring.

By Sunday, though, the Mon Lei set sail for another port of call, and Ripley left the Capital Region. This would be the last time the oddities enthusiast would ever visit Albany; less than two years later, Ripley passed away.

Believe it… or Not!!!