A junk is a type of Chinese sailing ship distinguished by a central stern-mounted rudder, a flat bottom without a keel, watertight internal bulkheads and fully battened sails supported by rigid battens rather than a Western-style rig. The design began in China as a river craft with square sails and, by the Song dynasty of the tenth through thirteenth centuries, adopted ocean-going features drawn from Southeast Asian shipbuilding to become a seaworthy oceanic vessel. Junks dominated Chinese and wider Asian maritime trade for centuries and carried Admiral Zheng He's treasure fleet expeditions of 1405 to 1433, among the largest wooden ships built anywhere before the modern era. The type was built in sizes ranging from small coastal fishing and river boats to large ocean-going cargo ships, and it remained in wide commercial use into the nineteenth century.
Facts
YearMarks the start of the Song dynasty (c. 960 to 1279), when the junk adopted ocean-going technology; the type existed earlier as a fluvial vessel. SignificanceJunks carried Chinese maritime trade for over a thousand years and, in their largest form, are believed to have carried Admiral Zheng He's early 15th century treasure fleet expeditions across the Indian Ocean, though no contemporary record of the ships' true size survives. 1 Open Questions
Manufacturer or BuilderNo single manufacturer: built across many regional Chinese shipyards over more than a millennium, always with iron nails and clamps rather than the lashed-lug construction used on Southeast Asian ships. 1 A traditional vessel type built by many regional Chinese shipyards, not a single maker. FAQs
How big were Zheng He's treasure ships?
Estimates range from about 61 metres to over 120 metres, because the famous figures come from a 1597 novel, not contemporary records.
Nobody knows for certain. The largest junks ever built were possibly those of Admiral Zheng He for his Indian Ocean expeditions of 1405 to 1433, but this is disputed because no contemporary records of the sizes of his ships are known. The commonly quoted dimensions, a nine-masted treasure ship about 127 metres (417 feet) long, come from a romanticized novel published in 1597, nearly two centuries after the voyages. Louise Levathes suggests the biggest treasure ships may have been between 390 and 408 feet (119 to 124 metres) long, while other scholars have argued on engineering grounds for much smaller ships, such as Xin Yuan'ou in 2002, who put them at 61 to 76 metres (200 to 250 feet) in length.
Connections
Sources
1. Wikipedia: Junk (ship)
WikipediaEtymology and history of the term section
in contrast to Chinese ships which are always built with iron nails and clamps.
Introduction section
by the Song dynasty (c. 960 to 1279), they adopted ocean-going technologies acquired from Southeast Asian k'un-lun po trade ships.
Ming dynasty, Expedition of Zheng He section
The largest junks ever built were possibly those of Admiral Zheng He, for his expeditions in the Indian Ocean (1405 to 1433), although this is disputed as no contemporary records of the sizes of Zheng He's ships are known.
In Group: Chinese and East Asian Junks and Sampans, Lead sentence
A junk (Chinese: 船; pinyin: chuán) is a type of Chinese sailing ship characterized by a central rudder, an overhanging flat transom, watertight bulkheads, and a flat-bottomed design.
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