page_title: Sailing ship
section_title: South China Sea
hierarchical_section_title: Sailing ship / History / Before 1700 / South China Sea
caption_attribution_description: Chinese Junk Keying. 1848 engraving.
context_page_description: A sailing ship is a sea-going vessel that uses sails mounted on masts to harness the power of wind and propel the vessel. There is a variety of sail plans that propel sailing ships, employing square-rigged or fore-and-aft sails. Some ships carry square sails on each mast—the brig and full-rigged ship, said to be "ship-rigged" when there are three or more masts. Others carry only fore-and-aft sails on each mast—schooners. Still others employ a combination of square and fore-and aft sails, including the barque, barquentine, and brigantine. Sailing ships developed differently in Asia, which produced the junk and dhow—vessels that incorporated innovations absent in European ships of the time. Technically in the Age of Sail a ship was a specific type of vessel, with a bowsprit and three masts, each of which consists of a lower, top, and topgallant mast.
  Sailing ships with predominantly square rigs became prevalent during the Age of Discovery, when they crossed oceans between continents and around the world. Most sailing ships were merchantmen, but the Age of Sail also saw the development of large fleets of well-armed warships.
context_section_description: The first sea-going sailing ships in Asia were developed by the Austronesian peoples from what is now Southern China and Taiwan. Their invention of catamarans, outriggers, and crab claw sails enabled the Austronesian Expansion at around 3000 to 1500 BCE. From Taiwan, they rapidly colonized the islands of Maritime Southeast Asia, then sailed further onwards to Micronesia, Island Melanesia, Polynesia, and Madagascar. Austronesian rigs were distinctive in that they had spars supporting both the upper and lower edges of the sails (and sometimes in between), in contrast to western rigs which only had a spar on the upper edge.
  Early Austronesian sailors also influenced the development of sailing technologies in Sri Lanka and Southern India through the Austronesian maritime trade network of the Indian Ocean, the precursor to the spice trade route and the maritime silk road.Austronesians established the first maritime trade network with ocean-going merchant ships which plied the early trade routes from Southeast Asia from at least 1500 BCE. They reached as far northeast as Japan and as far west as eastern Africa. They colonized Madagascar and their trade routes were the precursors to the spice trade route and the maritime silk road. They mainly facilitated trade of goods from China and Japan to South India, Sri Lanka, the Persian Gulf, and the Red Sea.] An important invention in this region was the fore-and-aft rig, which made sailing against the wind possible. Such sails may have originated at least several hundred years BCE. Balance lugsails and tanja sails also originated from this region. Vessels with such sails explored and traded along the western coast of Africa. This type of sail propagated to the west and influenced Arab lateen designs.
  Large Austronesian trading ships with as many as four sails were recorded by Han Dynasty (206 BCE – 220 CE) scholars as the kunlun bo (崑崙舶, lit. "ship of the Kunlun people"). They were booked by Chinese Buddhist pilgrims for passage to Southern India and Sri Lanka. Bas reliefs of Sailendran and Srivijayan large merchant ships with various configurations of tanja sails and outriggers are also found in the Borobudur temple, dating back to the 8th century CE.
  By the 10th century CE, the Song Dynasty started building the first Chinese junks, which were adopted from the design of the Javanese djongs. The junk rig in particular, became associated with Chinese coast-hugging trading ships. Junks in China were constructed from teak with pegs and nails; they featured watertight compartments and acquired center-mounted tillers and rudders. These ships became the basis for the development of Chinese warships during the Mongol Yuan Dynasty, and were used in the unsuccessful Mongol invasions of Japan and Java.
  The Ming dynasty (1368–1644) saw the use of junks as long-distance trading vessels. Chinese Admiral Zheng He reportedly sailed to India, Arabia, and southern Africa on a trade and diplomatic mission. Literary lore suggests that his largest vessel, the "Treasure Ship", measured 400 feet (120 m) in length and 150 feet (46 m) in width, whereas modern research suggests that it was unlikely to have exceeded 200 feet (61 m) in length.
caption: Chinese junk with a center-mounted rudder post
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