IIIF Color HighRes
National Institute of Informatics - Digital Silk Road Project
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| IIIF Color HighRes |
| The Book of Ser Marco Polo : vol.1 |
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Citation Information
| CHAP. XVIII. CHINESE WAR VESSELS | 37 | |
| NorE 3.—Ramusio has " nine sails." Marsden thinks even this lower number an error of Ramusio's, as "it is well known that Chinese vessels do not carry any kind of topsail." This is, however, a mistake, for they do sometimes carry a small topsail of cotton cloth (and formerly, it would seem from Lecomte, even a topgallant sail at times), though only in quiet weather. And the evidence as to the number of sails carried by the great Chinese junks of the Middle Ages, which evidently made a great impression on Western foreigners, is irresistible. Friar Jordanus, who saw them in Malabar, says : " With a fair wind they carry ten sails ; " Ibn Batuta : " One of these great junks carries from three sails to twelve ; " Joseph, the Indian, speaking of those | ||
| Ancient Chinese War Vessel. | ||
| 10 that traded to India in the 15th century : " They were very great, and had sometimes .. t' twelve sails, with innumerable rowers." (Lecomte, I. 389 ; B'r. _ ordanus, Hak. Soc., p. 55 ; Ihnz Batuta, IV. 91 ; Ncvus Orbis, p. 148.) A fuller account of these vessels is given at the beginning of Bk. III. NOTE 4.—I.e. in this case Sumatra, as will appear hereafter. " It is quite possible for a fleet of fourteen junks which required to keep together to take three months at the present time to accomplish a similar voyage. A Chinese trader, who has come annually to Singapore in junks for many years, tells us that he has had as. long a passage as sixty days, although the average is eighteen or twenty days." (1.4 -an in f. hrr. A i clzip. II. 609.) | ||
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