River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1900-09-20
CHINESE BOAT BUILDERS.
Turn Out Ugly and UnwicIdy Craft
with FIimsy Material, But
Seaworthy.

The main features of Chinese ship
and boat building are the light. and
apparently frail, nature of the mate
rial with which vessels of every size
and shape are constructed; the clumsy
| form given TO his work by the celes-
tial artifieer, and the marvellous ease
and safety with which craft, both
large and small, ride out the toughest
weather on sea and river, says the
London Mail.
This last is no rash statement. the
writer well remembering witnessing,
when himself sailing the China sea in
the teeth of a typhoon, the total
wrecldng of more than one European
vessel, while the junks, and even small
native boats within sight, simply
reefed or struck their mast sails. and
triumphantly passed with the British
ship through the Ly-ee-moon pass,
into the sheltered harbor of Hong.
Kong.
The reason for all this is not far tc
seek. The beam of the junhs is usual.
ly broad; they sit upon the water
like a fiat Moorish arch. Their sterns
are round, and by consequence. resist,
i've of any tendency to take aback"
A peculiar and noticeable thins
about them is the Brobdingnagiar
"eye" which glares out from each
side of the Prov This is an ancient
superstition.
The ships bamboo planks, if such q
term be allowable, are in many parti
put together with vegetable rope
nails, | believe, being used only in the
hull proper. Right aft, large cabir
is appropriated to religious purposes
Here is enthroned the image of the
god of waters, before which the arc
matte joss stick is forever burning
The Chinese sailor is nothing if moi
a slave to his faith in omens, and all
and sundry the supernatural beliefs
of his countrymen.
He is, wnen he likes, fairly good
hand on board ship, but, being by ma.
ture and educative example a coward
he more often than not seeks to save
his skin at the expense of his duty.
There is very little difference in form
and fitment between the war junk and
the commercial variety.
The weapons are not of the same
description as are those in the few
European-built steam warships pos
sessed by the Chinese government. OF
long obsolete pattern, they are not
very formidable except to themselves.
China has not assimilated western
ideas with the eagcrness and rapidity
of the japanese, at any rate in the
matter of naval progress, whatever
she may have done of late, as we are
told, in the acquisition and mighty
laying-up of advanced types of land
armament.
Prmitiveness is still writ large upon
her marine. warlike and domestic. and
although the present widespread rev.
olutiou may tend TO bring about a Ger.
tain Gilbertian "topsy-turvydom," the
Chinaman may perhaps accomplish
that ''upside-down." which in his nor.
NAL position he has for centuries
failed TO appreciate and even attempt.
The Yangtse Kiang river boats; the
quaint ''sampan," seen by the new
| arrival rocking or the gentle swell in
Hong Kong bay; the barbaric gor.
gsousness of the mandarin's barge
each and all are dear to the native
soul, and will be improved away only
when improvement can no longer be
resisted. That John Chinaman can
learn much of his western brother in
this connection is, of course beyond
question or argumnt, but that the &C.
cident may not find some thing interest
ing and instructive in the methods OF
the orient, as exemplified by its oldest
and vastest community, only the most
bigoted devotees of European civiliza-
ton will venture to deny.