First Person Voyage of Zheng He
We are finally headed home. It has been a long journey but we have accomplished a great deal. As you know, I was fortunate to be placed on Eunuch Zheng He’s flag ship, a treasure junk which is like a floating city with over 1,000 men. It is enormous and very luxurious, with grand accommodations for the imperial envoys. The body of the ship is brightly carved, with an animal head and glaring dragon eyes in the front and a dragon and phoenix pattern in the rear. The bottom holds of the ship were filled with expensive silks and porcelains that we used for trade with the other nations we visited, but I’ll tell you more about that later in my letter. With a ship so large, there was always a lot of work to be done, but we were given free time each day. I was fortunate to meet many different people who performed a wide variety of jobs aboard the ship and I learned a great deal.
One of my best friends is a man who helps to communicate between the different vessels in our fleet. This is quite a task because our fleet consists of over 300 ships. In addition to the four treasure ships, like the one I am on, there are ”horse ships” that carry horses and other tribute good, as well as building materials for repairs at sea; supply ships; water tankers; troop ships; and war ships. Communication at sea is accomplished through both sight and sound signals, and long range communication are accomplished with carrier pigeons. I found it fascinating how a fleet as big as ours could coordinate its movement and relay information back and forth so easily. My friend taught me many of the signals used and I think I may try to get work in this on the next voyage.
Sailing on the open sea can be quite dangerous as there are many times where the mist from the sea and the clouds from the sky seem to come together, making it very hard to see, but we always seemed to be able to make it through with few problems. We, of course, use a compass to plot our course (after all, it is an
One of my best friends is a man who helps to communicate between the different vessels in our fleet. This is quite a task because our fleet consists of over 300 ships. In addition to the four treasure ships, like the one I am on, there are ”horse ships” that carry horses and other tribute good, as well as building materials for repairs at sea; supply ships; water tankers; troop ships; and war ships. Communication at sea is accomplished through both sight and sound signals, and long range communication are accomplished with carrier pigeons. I found it fascinating how a fleet as big as ours could coordinate its movement and relay information back and forth so easily. My friend taught me many of the signals used and I think I may try to get work in this on the next voyage.
Sailing on the open sea can be quite dangerous as there are many times where the mist from the sea and the clouds from the sky seem to come together, making it very hard to see, but we always seemed to be able to make it through with few problems. We, of course, use a compass to plot our course (after all, it is an