Geoscience Reference
In-Depth Information
what he likes and does not hide what annoys him, chews out incompetent record
keepers and lax officials, and is merrily contemptuous of those who have tried to
write about the sea and got everything wrong for want of direct experience. Zhang
doesn'trevealwhetherhehimselfeverembarkedonanythingmorenauticallychal-
lenging than his father's houseboat, but he does say that he spent a lot of time talk-
ingtosailorsinHaichengtolearnasclosetofirst-handashecouldaboutseafaring.
He is also refreshingly open-minded about foreigners. When someone demanded
toknowwhyhewasglorifyingsuchunpleasant folkasJapanese andDutchmen by
writing about them, he responded that this wasn't at all what he was doing. He was
writing about those who obstructed commercial vessels and who happened to be
Japanese or Dutch. Circulation, not ethnicity, was the important thing. He would
have agreed with de Groot about the importance of the free sea, if he had known
about him.
Zhang Xie reserves his highest praise for the crew member known as the Fire
Chief: the man we call the pilot. Fire Chief seems an odd title. Joseph Needham
guessedthatithadtodowiththepractice ofpermitting onlytheleadshipofacon-
voy, where the pilot would be, to carry fire. I suspect not. Chinese cargo junks did
not regularly sail in convoy; moreover, a ship's master would be foolish to go to
sea without a pilot even if he was sailing in convoy, since his vessel might well get
separated from the others.
A better guess came to me when reading a passage in the memoirs of William
Dampier. The English freebooter (the gentleman's word for a pirate), who will
make a second appearance in the epilogue of this topic, got a chance to board a
Chinese junk and described what he saw in strikingly positive terms. 'She was
built with a square flat Head as well as Stern,' Dampier writes, 'only the Head or
fore Part was not so broad as the Stern. On her deck she had little thacht Houses
like Hovels, covered with Palmeto Leaves, and raised about 3 Foot high, for the
Seamen to creep into.' Below decks, Dampier was even more impressed with the
construction and organisation ofalways scarce shipboard space. 'The Hold was di-
vided in many small Partitions, all of them made so tight, that if a Leak should
Spring up in any one of them, it could go no farther, and so could do but little
Damage, but only to the Goods in the bottom of that Room where the Leak springs
up.' This was also where the merchants accompanying their goods found shel-
ter. 'Each of these Rooms belong to one or two Merchants, or more; and every
Man freights his Goods in his own Room; and probably Lodges there, if he be on
Board himself.' Up on deck, Dampier praises the mast and rigging. The main mast
Search WWH ::
Custom Search