The Savannah morning news., 1902-05-04
CHINESE sHIPBUILDERs.
ImmemOriaIIy They Have Used
Many Modern Ideas.
From Casters Magazine.


From Casters Magazine.
There are those who claim every new
! invention as only a resurrection of
something Chinese, and 1t is a fact that
! many so-called modern ideas are found
utilized in the vessels of the Chinese
and have been in vogue with them
from time immemorial. They discover
ed the mariners compass, also the
4 principle of the balanced rudder. On
the West river may be seen the proto-
/ type Of the turret ship, bearing an ex-
/ traordinary resemblance to the North
I OF England monstrosities; and if the
/ gallant captain, who, a year or two
ago, discovered and published the fact
/ that sails perforated with holes were
more effective than whole canvas, were
/ to visit the Yangtse he would see more
Of that kind of sail than any other;
/ some, indeed, are so ragged that there
is more space than cloth. This is only
4 IN keeping with most things in the
/ Middle Kingdom. Its cities, nagodas.
ramparts, and walls are all permeated
| with the breath of things which have
had their day"
An Eastern Noah.
The delta of the Pearl river is prob
ably the greatest shipbuilding district
In China. and it is there that the con-
trast between the old and the new is
most marked. In Hong Kong may be
seen on the stock junks, extraordinari-
~ SNAPPED cargo boats, beautifully mod
eled wooden steamers, steel stern
wheelers, steam yachts, gunboats. and
the most up-to-date small cargo and
passenger vessels. The Chinese them
selves, without foreign assistance. are
capable or building, and do build, cap
ltal small wooden steamers up to 400
tons, and this, too, in Canton, where it
IS not easy to purloin drawings and
ldeas from European shops, because
there are none there. Not only the
large centers of population, but many
OF the villages on the rivers have i'm
portant shipbuilding industries. Macoa
turns out on enormous number of junks
ana SampanS every year; Whampoa
was large shipbuilding place in Can't.
COOK time, and, according to students
OF chinese lore, before the flood. 1t
is curious that a tradition exists that
once ages ago there lived a good patri-
arch of his village who dreamed sew
eraI times that there would be a great
lnundation; he warned his neighbors.
put they only scoffed; he gathered his
FAMILY round him, and such of his
friends who believed and they took
thelr goods and chattels with proyis-
IONS, hive stock, etc, up the highest
mountain in the vicinity. The flood
came on the appointed day and deyas-
tated the country. But the good man
ana those with him were saved" and
ever since on the anniversary of the
event, all those who can do so celebra tie
II by ascending the highest hill in the
nelghborhood and there indulge in kite
Ilylny and other innocent amusements
III winch the Chinese delight.
Handling Boats.
one of the reasons why the southern
district is peculiarly the home of ma
1--WE shlpbulldlng is that timber is al
ways obtainable; China itself is an AL
most treeless country, but the mag
innocent woods of the Philippines, the
straits, and Borneo all find a centraI
market here. and the Chinese. natI1r-
al mechanics as they are, have in sue
cesslVe generations of carpenters pro-
duced workmen who can handle these
tlmbers better than anyone in the
world. Clumsy as junks are in
| appearance, it is wonderful how easily
they are handled; the lateen rig is
| hight and easily controlled, and il is
admirable to see the sailorlike wav in
Whlch tack is made, the man at the
| Wheel being generally a woman with
| a baby strapped on to her back. and
with small boy to help run the tiller
| over. The enormous rudders, when
unbalanced, the perforated with dia-
| mond shaped apertures, which reduce
| the effort of putting "hard-over" to a
minimum, While not much affecting the
etlcleLcy in steering. Another feature
| OF the fudder is the provision made for
| lifting and lowering, so that when a
| vessel is beached or sailing on light
! draught the rudder can be adjusted to
| suit the circumstances. The windla IS
go is as simple as any device can be;
sailors grasp the upright handle, plant
| one naked foot on the lower one. then
| turn, using both arms and legs: four
men on a mindlass will rapidly move
heavy weights. but the expenditure Of
muscular energy is, of course, great
! Cannon on deck are very necessary in
these days of piracy in Chinese wa
tiers, and, unlike those found on the
| city walls, are generally in working
order. The high poop reminds one of
| the Spanish galleons of the Middle
Ages; it is the home of pigs and fowl.
as well as of a colony of women and
children.
The BulI<heads.
The water tight bulkhead has always
been a feature in Chinese naval archi-
| lecture. 1t is no uncommon thing to
see q junk come into harbor with one
end completely gone, mast and every
| thing; there is generally one bulkhead
forward and one aft, but sometimes the
cargo space is subdivided also. During
the typhoon season these vessels come
to grief in great numbers as, in spite
of their strong construction and skill
full handling, they are, on account of
| their shape, much at the mercy of the
elements. One feature common to all
junks is the eye in the bows. mo got
| eve, no can see; no can see, no can
savvy." Hundreds of miles from land
they may be met with, and with the
assistance of the eye and the compass,
| whose needle points south, and the
stars and the sun, they mostly reach
their destination; and if they fail, it is
due to Bad Joss" The methods Chi
nese use in building their craft, are
pure rule-of-thumb, or more correctly
old experience. One building yard is
renowned for snake boats, another for
lorchas, and so on. The keel is laid,
frames are set up "allee same before -
and the owners only anxiety is to see
that he gets the scantlings agreed
upon, the model being left to the
| builder.