《Gleason's Pictorial Drawing-room Companion, 第 12-13 卷》之MODERN CHINESE WAR JUNK

MODERN CHINESE WAR JUNK

The picture of a war junk of the first class on this page will surprise those who have not studied the progress which the Chinese have made within a very few years. Good judges will pronounce the hull of this vessel a really fine model; there is only just enough nationality about it to identify it. The sails and rigging are Chinese enough, but otherwise it is not a craft that a European would disdain to sail or fight. Recent accounts inform us that the Chinese have learned to fight as well as build their ships well, and have shown extraordinary valor in their naval engagements with John Bull. Twenty years ago their ships of war were short, misshapen masses of timber, quaint and ungainly in appearance, almost unmanageable, and the wonder to seamen of other nations how a craft of the character of the was able to junk o make headway, or combat the dangers and intricacies of the sea and coz coast. Since then the progress of naval architecture in China has advanced far beyond what the people of that country might have been given credit for; and, though still carrying out their eccentric tastes in the more prominent features of their vessels, the shipping of the present day is of excellent and seaworthy character. In the place of the deep-waisted craft of former times, with head and stem forming nearly a half-circle, they have now vessels in which this peculiarity is greatly modified and in some vessels entirely dispensed with. In the lorchas, snake-boats, smuggling craft, pirate junks, and other boats peculiar to the China Seas, the lines of the vessels are of the most beautiful character, and they exhibit the greatest speed in all their movements and performances. The armament of war-junk twenty years ago, consisted principally of matchlocks, mounted on the rails of the bulwarks; at the present time, the junks of the first class carry guns between decks, like our frigates, and of a calibre that has astonished the officers of the British ships now in their waters, many of the guns taken being larger in bore and weight of metal than any we manufacture in this country. Great improvements have also taken place in the material of their sails, and in the general handling of their vessels. But one great peculiarity in the regular legitimate Chinese junk, outliving all other improvements and advances, is the large eye in the headboards of the vessel, without which the Chinese firmly believe that no vessel can see how to sail.