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 forward, whereby it often shall stave in some part of the
ship). In such case the water that enters the leak flows to the bilge,
which is always kept clear; and the mariners having ascertained where the
damage is, empty the cargo from that compartment into those adjoining, for
the planking is so well fitted that the water cannot pass from one
compartment to another. They then stop the leak and replace the
lading.[NOTE 3]]
The fastenings are all of good iron nails and the sides are double, one
plank laid over the other, and caulked outside and in. The planks are not
pitched, for those people do not have any pitch, but they daub the sides
with another matter, deemed by them far better than pitch; it is this. You
see they take some lime and some chopped hemp, and these they knead
together with a certain wood-oil; and when the three are thoroughly
amalgamated, they hold like any glue. And with this mixture they do paint
their ships.[NOTE 4]
Each of their great ships requires at least 200 mariners [some of them
300]. They are indeed of great size, for one ship shall carry 5000 or 6000
baskets of pepper [and they used formerly to be larger than they are now].
And aboard these ships, you must know, when there is no wind they use
sweeps, and these sweeps are so big that to pull them requires four
mariners to each.[NOTE 5] Every great ship has certain large barks or
tenders attached to it; these are large enough to carry 1000 baskets of
pepper, and carry 50 or 60 mariners apiece [some of them 80 or 100], and
they are likewise moved by oars; they assist the great ship by towing her,
at such times as her sweeps are in use [or even when she is under sail, if
the wind be somewhat on the beam; not if the wind be astern, for then the
sails of the big ship would take the wind out of those of the tenders, and
she would run them down]. Each ship has two [or three] of these barks, but
one is 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.[NOTE 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 eastward. 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 the 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; Deguignes, 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 Tong-shu, I do not know if identical with the wood-oil trees
of Arakan and Pegu (Dipterocarpus laevis).
["What goes under the name of 'wood-oil' to-day in China is the poisonous
oil obtained from the nuts of Elaeococca verrucosa. It is much used for
painting and caulking ships." (Bretschneider, Hist. of Bot. Disc. I. p.
4.) - H.C.]
NOTE 5. - The junks that visit Singapore still use these sweeps. (J. Ind.
Arch. II. 607.) Ibn Batuta puts a much larger number of men to each. It
will be seen from his account below that great ropes were attached to the
oars to pull by, the bulk of timber being too large to grasp; as in the
old French galleys wooden manettes or grips, were attached to the oar
for the same purpose.
