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| IIIF Color HighRes |
| The Book of Ser Marco Polo : vol.2 |
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Citation Information
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CHAP. I. TIIE MERCHANT SHIPS OF MANZI
251
bigger than the others. "There are also some ten [small]
boats for the service of each great ship, to lay out the
anchors, catch fish, bring supplies aboard, and the like.
When the ship is under sail she carries these boats slung
to her sides. And the large tenders have their boats in
like manner.
When the ship has been a year in work and they wish
to repair her, they nail on a third plank over the first two,
and caulk and pay it well ; and when another repair is
wanted they nail on yet another plank, and so on year by
year as it is required. Howbeit, they do this only for a
certain number of years, and till there are six thicknesses
of planking. When a ship has come to have six planks
on her sides, one over the other, they take her no more
on the high seas, but make use of her for coasting as long
as she will last, and then they break her up.6
Now that I have told you about the ships which sail
upon the Ocean Sea and among the Isles of India, let us
proceed to speak of the various wonders of India ; but
first and foremost I must tell you about a number of
Islands that there are in that part of the Ocean Sea
where we now are, I mean the Islands lying to the east-
ward. So let us begin with an Island which is called
Chipangu.
•
NOTE 1.—Pine [Pinus sinensis] is [still] the staple timber for ship-building both at Canton and in Fo-kien. There is a very large export of it from Fu-chau, and even the chief fuel at that city is from a kind of fir. Several varieties of pine-wood are also brought down the rivers for sale at Canton. (N. and Q., China and Japan, I. 170 ; Fortune, I. 286 ; Doolittle.)
NOTE 2. —Note the one rudder again. (Supra, Bk. I. ch. xix. note 3.) One of the shifting masts was probably a bowsprit, which, according to Lecomte, the Chinese occasionally use, very slight, and planted on the larboard bow.
NoTE 3.—The system of water-tight compartments, for t4 description of which we have to thank Ramusio's text, in our own time introduced into European construction, is still maintained by the Chinese, not only in sea-going junks, but in the larger river craft. (See Mid. Kingd. II. 25 ; Blakiston, 88 ; De'uignes, I. 204-206.)
NOTE 4.—This still remains quite correct, hemp, old nets, and the fibre of a certain creeper being used for oakum. The wood-oil is derived from a tree called
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