China Shipbuilding Progress
5 min readOne of the world’s earliest regions to produce ships, China remained a shipmaking centre in the ancient time.
Early in the late Paleolithic age, Chinese forbears already used canoes. From the Kuahuqiao site of Zhejiang province dating back to 8,000 years ago, relics of a canoe considerably mature in workmanship were discovered; at the Hemudu site of the province,a wooden oar, also relatively mature in varied shapes, was unearthed dating back to the Neolithic age 7,000 years ago. Later woodenboat relics of Shang dynasty were found dating back to 3,500 years ago. The appearance of wooden boats was a pioneering manufacture to mark a new period of the country’s shipmaking technology. The inscriptions on bones or tortoise shells of Shang dynasty have record about wooden boats in various shapes including the “king’ sboat”, driven by wooden oarsand sails in the wind. Thefundamental period for China’s shipmaking was during Western Zhou dynasty, the Spring and Autumn period through Western Han dynasty, which contained features as follows:① Great variety. Then the Wu state had large or small winged, intruded, multiple-decked or bridged ships, whereas there were middle-winged and dagger-shaped ones Pottery boat unearthed from the Han tomb in Guangzhou in the Yue state.② Large-sized ships in suddenly increased number. As recorded in the historical prose of Eastern Han dynasty, Lost Records of the State of Yue, then the Yue’s enemy state Wu had large-winged ships measuring 20 meters in length and 3 meters in width with a capacity of over 90 passengers including 50 rowers. The dagger-shaped ships, which were then built for capital relocation of the Yue state in 468 B.C. from the present Shaoxing city ofZhejiang province to Yantai city of Shandong province, could already hold 200-300 passengers; and the number of such ships amounted to 300, exclusive of other ship varieties such as multiple-decked ships and warships.
According to the records in Treatise on Balanced Standard, part of the great work Records of the Grand Historian, for his expedition to the Yue state of southern China, the Emperor Wudi of Western Han dynasty built multiple-decked warships measuring 20-30 meters in height.③ A series of major shipmaking technology specific inventions were made.a. Invention of connected ships. The aforesaid connected ships of various shapes during Western Zhou dynasty had such advantages as heavy-load capacity and good stability with some disadvantages including inconvenient driving and shipping. So the connected ships did not continue to be important to the history of shipmaking. However, the twin-ships had larger areas, multiplied load, wider body, higher stability, safer steering, more convenient operation with two screw propellers and other desired features, for which they are widely applied to modern long voyage and oceanic exploration.b. Invention of steering gears. The invention was originated during early Western Han dynasty or earlier. The steering gear refers to the oar dragging at the rear of a ship. An oar propels a ship forward due to the counterforce arising from thrashing water. On the contrary, the steering gear does not thrash water, but controls the direction the water flow in the rear through formation of steering pressure. At a low steering pressure but a long distance from the ship’s centre of gravity, there may be a strong ship swaying force.
Consequently a heavily loaded huge ship can be easily steered in line with the lever principle. The invention to make use of the lever principle was introduced to Arab states around 10th century and to Europe between the end of the 12th century and the beginning of the 13th century, and provided a technical basis for the great geological discovery of Europe in the 15th century.c. invention of sculls. The sculls appeared at the end of Western Han dynasty as per the latest estimation, installed on the sides of a ship and swung manually to drive on the ship. The scull is more advanced than an oar that is used to push forward a ship by the counterforce while rowed backward. The process of the oar’s leaving from the water surface while rowed does idle work, strenuous with low efficiency.A scull underwater, on the contrary, can swing and push forward the ship, with higher efficiency and greater labour saving at a faster speed thanks to its clever use of the lever principle. Simple in structure and light in weight with high efficiency, the device is known as “one of the most prominent scientific inventions of China.”Sculls were not introduced to Europe from China until the 18th century.
Invention of watertight compartments. Watertight compartments refer to separately partitioned cabins with deck planks, to avoid submergence of the entire ship despite one or more cabins experiencing damage-caused water leakage. Thus the ship’s resistance to submergence and safety can be greatly heighted. Moreover, it helps increase the compression strength of the ship body breadthways and also facilitates unloading and management. This is a key invention of China in ship structure as well as a key measure in ship designing and manufacturing. Some scholars believe the invention appeared at the end of the early ancient time while other scholars argue that it did not come into being until Jin dynasty(3rd-4th centuries A.D.) when the earliest record of it could be referred to. The invention was not introduced to and applied in Europe until the end of 18th century, but it remains an indispensible process and unit for shipmaking around the world, even nowadays.
In the middle ancient time, China’s shipmaking industry enjoyed continuous development, in particular the invention of the wheel-oared ships in Tang dynasty,a pioneering invention in the history of shipmaking development in terms of a leap to half mechanized level of the manually impelled vehicle.A wheel-oared ship refers to a ship using wheel-shaped impelling oars in the place of the traditional wooden oars. Such a ship may have 2,4,20,24 wheels, with over 90 wheels for the largest. Chinese wheel-oared ships are recognized to be the origin of the modern ships of the world. Then Chinese inventions took the lead in designing of keels and smooth bottom structuring. China used hard sails to make use of wind from all directions and to coordinate smoothly with helms. The hard sails adopted a more advanced technology than the soft sails used elsewhere in the world.
Shipmaking technology mirrors a country’s level of science and technology in a particular period as well as the people’s knowledge and application of fluid mechanics, material mechanics, resistance, lever principle, etc. As of Ming dynasty in late ancient time, Zheng He’s Treasured Ship, then the largest wooden ship in China and around the world during the 15th century, measured approximately 148 meters in length and 60 meters in width, erected 9 masts and hung 12 pieces of sails.
