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A 'Treasure ship' is the name for a type of large wooden vessel commanded by the Chinese admiral Zheng He on nine voyages in the early fifteenth century. Scholars dispute about the factual accuracy and correct interpretation of accounts of the treasure ships.^[1]''Asia's Undersea Archeology'', Richard Gould, NOVA, PBS Television article
The purported dimensions of these ships (137 m (450 ft) long and 55 m (180 ft) wide^[2]) are at least twice as long as the largest European ships of the fifteenth century and 40 per cent longer and 65 per cent wider than the largest wooden ships known to have been built at any time anywhere else^[3].

Contents

Accounts of treasure ships

Criticism

Fate of the treasure ships

Popular culture

References

External links

Further reading

Accounts of treasure ships

Accounts of the ships derive from historical Chinese records and accounts from European travelers who visited China around this time. However, there is debate amongst scholars about how these records should be interpreted. Some accounts suggest that treasure ships may have first appeared as early as the Song dynasty (宋朝) (960-1279).
If the accounts can be taken as factual, Zheng He's treasure ships were mammoth ships with nine masts, four decks, and were capable of accommodating more than 500 passengers, as well as a massive amount of cargo. Marco Polo and Ibn Battuta both described multi-masted ships carrying 500 to 1000 passengers in their translated accounts.^[4]. Zheng He's fleet included 300 ships, including 62 treasure ships, with some which were said to have been 137 m (450 ft) long and 55 m (180 ft) wide.^[2][6][7] On the ships, there were over 28,000 people, including navigators, explorers, sailors, doctors, workers, and soldiers.
Chinese records assert that Zheng He's fleet sailed as far as East Africa. However, the amateur historian Gavin Menzies has controversially argued that the fleet went on to reach the New World, landing on islands off the Florida coast more than half a century before Christopher Columbus.

Criticism

Scholars suggest that the actual ships may have been smaller and the actual length of the biggest treasure ships may have been between 59 m and 84 m.^[8], since in later historical periods ships approaching the extreme sizes claimed for the treasure ships (such as HMS ''Orlando'') were unwieldy and visibly undulated with the waves, even with steel braces. It is suggested that the problem of "hogging", the tendency of very large wooden ships to sag (like a pig's body) because of buoyancy in the middle, would have been impossible to solve, given the great size of the ships and the technology available at the time.
A very suspicious feature of the suggested dimensions is the low length-to-beam ratio of about 2.5 to 1. This low ratio would impair both speed and maneuverability, which are important qualities for an oceangoing ship. All of the historically-confirmed large wooden ships have ratios far in excess of 3:1.
Furthermore the claimed dimensions are inconsistent with the reported displacement figures of 1500 tons, implying unrealistically thin hulls or barge-like "ships".^[9]

Fate of the treasure ships

Zheng He returned from his voyages to find a change of dynasty. The new culture turned inwards.
After Zheng He's voyages, the treasure ships were decommissioned, and sat in harbours until they rotted away. Some suggest that Confucian scholars ordered that many of the treasure ships be burned. Chinese craftsmen subsequently lost the technology of building such large vessels.

Popular culture

The story of the treasure ships has captured popular imagination, both in China and in the West. In fact, a 71.1 meter replica of a treasure ship is being built in Nanjing and is planned to be completed in time for the 2008 Olympic Games.^[10]
WizKids' Pirates of the Spanish Main constructible strategy game contains three Treasure Ship game pieces: the Baochuan, a convention-exclusive game piece available in 2005 as a tie-in to the Pirates of the South China Seas expansion; and the "Guichuan", a promotional game piece available in late 2005 as an incentive to buy the Pirates of Davy Jones' Curse expansion. The third is the "Zeus", again an incentive to buy the Pirates at Ocean's Edge expansion.

References

1. ''Ancient Chinese Explorers'', Evan Hadingham, Sultan's Lost Treasures, NOVA, PBS Television
2. ''Science and Civilization in China'', Joseph Needham, Volume 4, Section 3, p.480
3. Gould, Richard, Archaeology and the Social History of Ships Cambridge University Press 2000 ISBN 0-521-56789-0
4. ''Science and Civilization in China'', Joseph Needham, Volume 4, Section 3, pp.460-470
5. ''Science and Civilization in China'', Joseph Needham, Volume 4, Section 3, p.480
6. [http://www.chinapage.com/zhenghe.html ''The Great Chinese Mariner Zheng He [Cheng Ho]''], China the Beautiful webpage with Zheng He links.
7. ''Zheng He: China and the oceans in the early Ming dynasty 1404–1433'', Edward L. Dreyer, Longman, ISBN 0321084438, reviewed in ''China at sea'', Jonathan Mirsky, The Times Literary Supplement, Times Online, January 24, 2007
8. ''The Colossal Ships of Zheng He: Image or Reality?'', Sally K. Church, p.155-176 of ''Zheng He; Images & Perceptions'', South China and Maritime Asia , Volume 15, Hrsg: Ptak, Roderich /Höllmann Thomas, O. Harrasowitz Verlag, Wiesbaden, 2005
9. Displacement increases approximately as the cube of scale.
10. ''China To Revive Zheng He's Legend'', China Daily, September 4, 2006

External links

★ [http://www.chinapage.com/zhenghe.html Chinese Mariner Zheng He [Cheng Ho]]

★ The Admiral of the Western Seas - Cheng Ho (Zheng He)

Further reading

★ Traditions and Encounters - A Global Perspective on the Past by Bentley and Ziegler.