Chinese treasure ship
A Chinese treasure ship is a type of large wooden Chinese junk in the fleet of admiral Zheng He, who led seven voyages during the early 15th-century Ming dynasty. The treasure ships' cargo comprised valuable goods, including fine textiles, porcelain, and tea, to be traded abroad. The size of the treasure ships, the largest ships in Zheng He's fleet, has been a subject of much controversy, with some old Chinese records mentioning the size of 44 zhang or 44.4 zhang, which has been interpreted by some modern scholars as over in length. Meanwhile, others have stated that Zheng He's largest ship type was at least, which by any estimation still made it far and away, the world's largest group of wooden ships by similar individual size and total fleet size prior to the Industrial Revolution.
Accounts
Chinese
According to the ', the first voyage consisted of 63 treasure ships crewed by 27,870 men.The History of Ming credits the first voyage with 62 treasure ships crewed by 27,800 men. A Zheng He era inscription in the Jinghai Temple in Nanjing gave the size of Zheng He ships in 1405 as 2,000 liao, but did not give the number of ships.
Alongside the treasures were also another 255 ships according to the ', giving the combined fleet of the first voyage a total of 317 ships. However, the addition of 255 ships is a case of double accounting according to Edward L. Dreyer, who notes that the Taizong Shilu does not distinguish the order of 250 ships from the treasure ships. As such the first fleet would have been around 250 ships including the treasure ships.
The second voyage consisted of 249 ships. The Jinghai Temple inscription gave the ship dimensions in 1409 as 1500 liao.
According to the Xingcha Shenglan, the third voyage consisted of 48 treasure ships, not including other ships.
The Xingcha Shenglan states that the fourth voyage consisted of 63 treasure ships crewed by 27,670 men.
There are no sources for number of ships or men for the fifth and sixth voyages.
According to the Liujiagang and Changle Inscriptions, the seventh voyage had "more than a hundred large ships".
Yemen
The most contemporary non-Chinese record of the expeditions is an untitled and anonymous annalistic account of the then-ruling Rasūlid dynasty of Yemen, compiled in the years 1439–1440. It reports the arrival of Chinese ships in 1419, 1423, and 1432, which approximately correspond to Zheng He's fifth, sixth, and seventh voyages. The 1419 arrival is described thus:The later Yemeni historian, Ibn al-Daybaʿ, writes:
Mamluks
historian Ibn Taghribirdi writes:Niccolò de' Conti
, a contemporary of Zheng He, was also an eyewitness of Chinese ships in Southeast Asia, claiming to have seen five-masted junks of about 2000 tons* :- Other translations of the passage give the size as a 2000 butts, which would be around 1000 tons, a butt being half a ton. Christopher Wake noted that the transcription of the unit is actually vegetes, that is Venetian butt, and estimated a burthen of 1300 tons.
Song and Yuan junks
Marco Polo
Ibn Battuta
Description
Taizong Shilu
The most contemporary accounts of the treasure ships come from the Taizong Shilu, which contains 24 notices from 1403 to 1419 for the construction of ships at several locations.On 4 September 1403, 200 "seagoing transport ships" were ordered from the Capital Guards in Nanjing.
On 1 March 1404, 50 "seagoing ships" were ordered from the Capital Guards.
In 1407, 249 vessels were ordered "to be prepared for embassies to the several countries of the Western Ocean".
On 14 February 1408, 48 treasure ships were ordered from the Ministry of Works in Nanjing. This is the only contemporary account containing references to both treasure ships and a specific place of construction. Coincidentally, the only physical evidence of treasure ships comes from Nanjing.
On 2 October 1419, 41 treasure ships were ordered without disclosing the specific builders involved.
Longjiang Chuanchang Zhi
's Longjiang Chuanchang Zhi, also known as the Record of the Dragon River Shipyard, notes that the plans for the treasure ships had vanished from the ship yard in which they were built.Sanbao Taijian Xia Xiyang Ji Tongsu Yanyi
According to 's 1597 novel Sanbao Taijian Xia Xiyang Ji Tongsu Yanyi, the treasure fleet consisted of five distinct classes of ships:- Treasure ships nine-masted, 44.4 by 18 zhang, about long and wide.
- Equine ships, carrying horses and tribute goods and repair material for the fleet, eight-masted, 37 by 15 zhang, about long and wide.
- Supply ships, containing staple for the crew, seven-masted, 28 by 12 zhang, about long and wide.
- Transport ships, six-masted, 24 by 9.4 zhang, about long and wide.
- Warships, five-masted, 18 by 6.8 zhang, about long.
Dimensions
Contemporary descriptions
The contemporary inscription of Zheng He's ships in the Jinghai temple inscription in Nanjing gives sizes of 2,000 liao and 1,500 liao, which are far too low than would be implied by a ship of 444 chi given by the History of Ming. In addition, in the contemporary account of Zheng He's 7th voyage by Gong Zhen, says it took 200 to 300 men to handle one of Zheng He's ships. Ming minister Song Li indicated a ratio of 1 man per 2.5 tons of cargo, which would imply Zheng He's ships were 500 to 750 tons.The inscription on the tomb of Hong Bao, an official in Zheng He's fleet, mentions the construction of a 5,000 liao displacement ship.
5,000 liao ship
In June 2010, a new inscription was found in Hong Bao's tomb, confirming the existence of the Ming dynasty's 5,000 liao ship. According to a resident of Hangzhou in 1274, large merchant ships of 5,000 liao could accommodate between 500 and 600 passengers while ships of 1,000 to 2,000 liao could carry 200 to 300 passengers. Taking the liao to be burthen, that would be 1,250 tons burthen. Sleeswyk argued that the term liao refers to the displacement and not cargo weight, one liao would be equivalent to of displacement. According to Zheng Ming, the 5,000 liao ship would have a length of, a width of, with draught, and the displacement would reach more than 2,700 tons. The 5,000 liao ship may have been used as the flagship but the number of ships was relatively small. Wake argued that the 5,000 liao ships were not used until after the 3rd voyage, when the voyages were extended beyond India. Judging from the three images from the Ming era, the largest ships had 3–4 main masts and 2–3 auxiliary masts.44 zhang ship
History of Ming
According to the History of Ming, completed in 1739, the treasure ships were 44 zhang, 4 chi, i.e. 444 chi in length, and had a beam of 18 zhang. The dimensions of ships are no coincidence. The number "4" has numerological significance as a symbol of the 4 cardinal directions, 4 seasons, and 4 virtues. The number 4 was an auspicious association for treasure ships. These dimensions first appeared in a novel published in 1597, more than a century and a half after Zheng He's voyages. The 3 contemporary accounts of Zheng He's voyages do not have the ship dimensions.The zhang was fixed at in the 19th century, making the chi. However the common Ming value for chi was and the value fluctuated depending on region. The Ministry of Works used a chi of 12.1 inches while the Jiangsu builders used a chi of 13.3 inches. Some of the ships in the treasure fleet, but not the treasure ships, were built in Fujian, where the chi was. Assuming a range of for each chi, the dimensions of the treasure ships as recorded by the History of Ming would have been between 385 by 157.5 feet and 440 by 180 feet. Louise Levathes estimates that it had a maximum size of 110–124 m long and 49–51 m wide instead, taking 1 chi as.
According to British scientist, historian and sinologist Joseph Needham, the dimensions of the largest of these ships were by. American historian Edward L. Dreyer is in broad agreement with Needham's views.
Modern estimates
Modern scholars have argued on engineering grounds that it is highly unlikely that Zheng He's ship was in length. Guan Jincheng proposed a much more modest size of 20 zhang long by 2.4 zhang wide. Xin Yuan'ou, a shipbuilding engineer and professor of the history of science at Shanghai Jiao Tong University, argues that Zheng He's treasure ships could not have been 450 ft long, and suggests that they were probably closer to 200–250 ft in length. Hsu Yun-Ts'iao does not agree with Xin Yuan'ou: Estimating the size of a 2,000 liao ship with the Treatise of the Longjiang shipyard at Nanjing, the size is as follows: LOA, bottom's hull length, overhanging "tail" length, front depth, front width, mid-hull depth, mid-hull width, tail depth, tail width, and the length to width ratio is 7:1. Arabic Studies and Islamic Material Culture researcher Dionisius A. Agius estimated a size of and maximum weight of 700 tons for the escort ships based on his observation of Arabic and Asian shipwrights, while for the flag ship, Agius estimates at very most, based on the with information about the ship's weight in literature and possible dimensions of the 15th century technologies. Tang Zhiba, Xin Yuan'ou, and Zheng Ming have calculated the dimensions of the 2,000 liao ship, obtaining a length of, width of, and draught of. Zheng Ming believes that the "Heavenly Princess Classics" depict 2,000 liao ships.André Wegener Sleeswyk extrapolated the size of liao by deducing the data from mid-16th century Chinese river junks. He suggested that the 2,000 liao ships were bao chuan, while the 1,500 liao ships were ma chuan. In his calculations, the treasure ships would have had a length of, a width of, and a height of. The horse ships would have a length of, a width of, and a height of. Richard Barker estimated that the treasure ships would have a length of, a width of, and a draught of. He estimated it using an assumed displacement of 3100 tons.
Naval engineer and historian Xin Yuan'ou has argued that Zheng He's ships could not have been as large as recorded in the History of Ming for the following reasons:
- Ships of the dimensions given in the Ming shi would have been 15,000–20,000 tons according to his calculations, exceeding a natural limit to the size of a wooden ocean-going ship of about 7,000 tons displacement.
- With the benefit of modern technology it would be difficult to manufacture a wooden ship of 10,000 tons, let alone one that was 1.5 to 2 times that size. It was only when ships began to be built of iron in the 1860s that they could exceed 10,000 tons.
- Watertight compartments characteristic of traditional Chinese ships tended to make the vessels transversely strong but longitudinally weak.
- A ship of these dimensions would need masts that were tall. Several timbers would have to be joined vertically. As a single tree trunk would not be large enough in diameter to support such a mast, multiple timbers would need to be combined at the base as well. There is no evidence that China had the type of joining materials necessary to accomplish these tasks.
- A ship with 9 masts would be unable to resist the combined strength and force of such huge sails; she would not be able to cope with strong wind and would break.
- It took four centuries for Western ships to increase in size from 1,500 to 5,000 tons displacement. For Chinese ships to have reached three or four times this size in just two years was unlikely.
- The 200 to 300 sailors as mentioned by Gong Zhen could not have managed a 20,000 ton ship. According to Xin, a ship of such size would have had to have a complement of 8,000 men.
One suggestion for the 44 zhang size treasure ships, if they were built, was that they were used only for a display of imperial power by the emperor and imperial bureaucrats on the Yangtze River when on court business, including when reviewing Zheng He's actual expedition fleet. The Yangtze River, with its calmer waters, may have been navigable for such large but unseaworthy ships. Zheng He would not have had the privilege in rank to command the largest of these ships. Some of the largest ships of Zheng He's fleet were the 6 masted 2,000-liao ships. This would give burthen of 500 tons and a displacement tonnage of about 800 tons. Because they were built and based in Nanjing, and repeatedly sailed along the Yangtze river, their draught cannot exceed. It is also known that Zheng He's fleet visited Palembang in Sumatra, where they needed to cross the Musi river. It is unknown whether Zheng He's ships sailed as far as Palembang, or whether they waited on the shore in the Bangka Strait while the smaller ships sailed at Musi; but at least the draught of the ship that reached Palembang could not have been more than.