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.
NOTE 6. - The Chinese sea-going vessels of those days were apparently larger
than was at all common in European navigation. Marco here speaks of 200 (or
in Ramusio up to 300) mariners, a large crew indeed for a merchant vessel,
but not so great as is implied in Odoric's statement, that the ship in
which he went from India to China had 700 souls on board.
