China - a history of the laws, manners and customs of the people (1878) (14774272991)

Identifier: chinahistoryofla02grayuoft (find matches)
Title: China : a history of the laws, manners and customs of the people
Year: 1878 (1870s)
Authors: Gray, John Henry, 1828-1890 Gregor, William Gow
Subjects: China -- Social life and customs
Publisher: London : Macmillan
Contributing Library: Robarts - University of Toronto
Digitizing Sponsor: MSN



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he sails are madeof dyed cotton. Thus at Nankin, and other towns on thebanks of the Yang-tsze river, I noticed several shops filled withbark for dyeing sails. Being strengthened by long poles at shortintervals, the sails of Chinese vessels do not bend to the windlike the canvas sails with which all European ships are furnished.Vessels are generally rigged with ropes made either of rattan, orbamboo, or hemp, or the fibres of the cocoa-nut. The cables bywhich they are moored are of great thickness, and as a rule aremade of rattan. Near the anchorages, at almost all Clirneseports, there are very extensive rope-walks, where ropes, cables,and twine are made in the same way as in England. The guns of these junks are arranged on the upper deck only,and are placed so near each other that one is at a loss to conceivehow the sailors, who are very numerous, and amongst whomthere is apparently an utter absence of discipline, can work themall together. They appear to have little or no knowledge of
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xxix.) FI-HI, OR FAST CRABS. 249 training their guns, unci the carriages upon which the guns areplaced are as inferior as the guns themselves. Very indifferentaccommodation is provided for the seamen, and the accumula-tion of filth in almost every part of the sliip is sufticient to en-gender feveis or epidemics. IStandiug high out of the water,tliese vessels form excellent targets for the guns of the enemy.They are strongly built, and present a good front to vessels likethemselves. In contests with British ships of war they haveinvariably been found wanting—a fact of which the Chineseauthorities were more or less convinced at the close of what isgenerally termed the Opium War, At the commencement ofthe second war which Great Britain in alliance with Francewaged with China, a large fleet of these war-junks was destroyedin a creek leading to the important town of Fat-shan, by a boatexpedition under the command of Sir Henry Keppel. The ocean-going war-junks do not form the bulk of theI