History of Ships
Boats of China
Jean Vaucher (April 2019)
Index

Junks


The junk is the traditional sailing ship of China. It is an efficient design that is fast, easy to handle and able to sail upwind. Its most distinguishing feature are sails divided into a number of horizontal panels by bamboo slats (battens). These give the sail better aerodynamics and allow reducing the sail area for different wind conditions. Chinese ships also developped many other features before the west, for example: the stern mounted rudder, multiple masts, water-tight hull sections and the magnetic compass.

China's Columbus: Zheng He

China is not known as a seafaring nation and, for many centuries, it promoted a policy of isolation to the extent that China relied on the Portuguese then Dutch for trade with Japan. But during the 15th century (1405-1433), massive fleets under Admiral Cheng Ho (or Zheng He) went on voyages to India, Arabia and Africa.


From Univ. California

The first trip (1405-1407) involved 63 ships and 39,000 men. Below, you can see a typical junk, a comparison of Cheng Ho's 400 ft flagship to Columbus' Santa Maria, and a modern sloop fitted with a updated junk rig.


Modern Junk Rig
Note: Click on images to ZOOM; arrows to change; ESC to return !

Other craft

On inland waterways and canals, boat were (and are still) often propelled by a single scull (Yuloh) over the stern. Feudal navies of Japan used galleys with multiple Yulohs, propelled by sculling rather than the rowing on european galleys. Such a galley is shown in the TV version of the Clavell book Shogun.

Japanese Seki Bune (ca. 1600)
[ Ref: Fighting Ships of the far East: Japan and Korea AD 612-1639 ]

Around 1900, the fashion for Europeans in Shanghai was to go for weekend outings in houseboats on the canals that criss-crosed the surrounding countryside.

Prehistoric Times

In the Stone Age, the south China coast - now known as Fujian province, was populated by the Baiyue [Wikipedia] people who gained gained their livelihood mostly from fishing and hunting, along with rice farming.

At some point, they were displaced by a Han Chinese migration from the north. Some moved further south into Vietnam but the ones with more advanced sailing and fishing skills moved off shore to Taiwan. Later, they added sails and outriggers to their dug-outs. This allowed them to cross into Luzon Philippines. Now known as the Polynesians, they were able to settle the Philippines, Borneo, Indonesia and most of Melanesia, replacing the original aboriginal occupants except on Papua-New Guinea and Australia. [ See the section on section on Polynesia ]