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.2 |
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Citation Information
f7.
•
BOOK III.
CHAPTER I.
OF THE MERCHANT SHIPS OF MANZI THAT SAIL UPON THE INDIAN SEAS.
i
HAVING finished our discourse concerning those countries
wherewith our Book hath been occupied thus far, we are
now about to enter on the subject of INDIA, and to tell
you of all the wonders thereof.
And first let us speak of the ships in which merchants
go to and fro amongst the Isles of India.
These ships, you must know, are of fir timber.1 They
have but one deck, though each of them contains some
5o or 6o cabins, wherein the merchants abide greatly at
their ease, every man having one to himself. The ship
bath but one rudder, but it hath four masts ; and some-
times they have two additional masts, which they ship
and unship at pleasure.'
[Moreover the larger of their vessels have some
thirteen compartments or severances in the interior, made
with planking strongly framed, in case mayhap the ship
should spring a leak, either by running on a rock or by ,
the blow of a hungry whale (as shall betide ofttimes, for
when the ship in her course by night sends a ripple back
alongside of the whale, the creature seeing the foam
fancies there is something to eat afloat, and makes a rush
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