“It is in the river craft alone that any degree of excellence is to be observed. The large merchant-junks and men-of-war, are huge unwieldy masses of complicated machinery, ill made and ill put together. Although the trailing vessels, some of them from eight hundred to a thousand tons in burden, are out in very rough weather, and suffer great losses in the voyages which they make to Japan, Batavia, or Manilla, yet they appear not to have been improved in their construction for many centuries. There is little doubt but that the Chinese junks were originally made to resemble in shape some natural or useful objects. Some people think that they were formed to represent the moon in her first quarter. It is much more probable, however, that the native shoe was her original model, or that the shoe was made to imitate them, as they are very much alike in appearance. After the junks had continued for a great length of time of the same shape, the government ordered that they should be altered. If a merchant now wishes to indulge his fancy, he must do it at the expense of paying the same heavy duties for his junk entering the river, as are exacted from the large foreign vessels. This of course prohibits all improvement. We must hope that the feeling of jealousy is beginning lo weir off, if only in this one instance, as there was lying at Calcutta, when we were there, the first Chinese vessel built after the European fashion. It was called the Loong-froong, and was the first of its nation which has appeared in India of late years. Although built by the Chinese and called a man-of-war, it had still the appearance of a mass of tea-chests and tea-caddies, and would infallibly have gone to pieces upon receiving a single cannon-ball. It is said that a European merchantman went on shore and was wrecked, on some part of the coast of China, and that upon the emperor hearing of it, he ordered that another ship should be formed after the same model by his own workmen, assisted by those Fan-quis who were saved from the wreck. This specimen would not be owned by any of the ship-builders of England, but no doubt is still a great improvement upon the common junks of China.
The large merchant-junks have been frequently delineated. The most curious parts of their structure are their great height before and behind, the want of a prow or cut-water, which is universally deficient, and the division of the hold into numerous compartments, each independent of the other, and made water-tight, so that if one is leaky it may fill, without necessarily causing the ship to founder. It has been proposed to adopt this Jailer principle in our own navy. It would answer very well apparently, for men-of-war which carry no cargo, but would be inconvenient in merchantmen, as it would interfere with the stowage. Two or three large anchors are always seen over the bows of the junks, made of pieces of iron-wood cut as flukes, tipped with iron, and bound together and to the shank with strong cords. In addition to these, they have one or two iron grapnels, made light and placed conveniently for immediate use. All this ground tackle appears to be very necessary, as the vessels are made perfectly flat-bottom!, without any keel, and consequently cannot fail to make great lee-way in trying when close hauled to keep off a lee shore. The bulwarks arc very high, and passing up by the side of the poop and the stern, are closed by boards forming a taffril, but when they have run forward, they terminate abruptly at the front part of the forecastle, so that the bows appear open, representing the gaping mouth of an animal, the eyes of which are on either side. The rudder is sometimes made to work in a division of the stern, left open to receive it, and in shallow water is hoisted on board by means of ropes and pulleys. To move this floating storehouse through the water, three, and sometimes four masts are erected. They consist always of a single tree, and no attention being paid to what would please a sailor's eye, they rake in a very irregular manner. Generally, the mainmast is perpendicular, while the fore and mizen masts slant forwards and backwards as if to keep as far as possible from their superior. The rigging and sails are very nearly the same, in proportion, as those of the outside pilot boats, with the exception that the mizen-top-sail is generally made of blue nankeen. Except when in full sail, the mattings are rolled up in immensely thick coils, and are then laid fore and aft some little distance above the deck. When set, they appear particularly clumsy and inelegant, some of them being made of such strong matting, and ribbed and crossed so closely with thick bamboos, that they look as if they were cut out of a solid piece of wood. Their shape is more or less square, those which have more pretension to beauty having one end of the yard raised much higher than the other. It is not the mere form that gives the character to the object; ornament frequently hides the defects and brings out all the beauties. One-half of the loveliness of nature is lost to him who cannot appreciate the full power of colour. The knowledge of shape and structure is no doubt more useful, but it is the variety of shades and tints, which form by far the greater portion of the pleasure that we derive from the contemplation of the picturesque. Thus this huge junk, which of itself without any ornament would be eminently unsightly, becomes by the pains bestowed upon its embellishment by the Chinese, an object pleasant for the eye to rest on, and when at the same time we see it filled and surrounded with human beings full of life and activity, in strange and to us fantastic dresses, it becomes a subject of absorbing interest. The hull in the small Chinchew-junks is painted white and red, but in the larger ones a greater variety of colours is preferred; on different conspicuous parts, characters used in writing are painted in different hues, while the whole of the stern is covered with hideous, grinning countenances of men and imaginary animals. Flags of all shapes and sizes depend from the mast-heads, some fastened lo a flag-staff, while others hang from cross-pieces similar to weather-cocks. Besides the marks of distinction now mentioned, the generality of them have large letters painted upon the extended sail, similar to those of our own whalers and pilot-boats, and which denote the owner; while black patches are frequently to be observed at particular corners of the mat, distinguishing the port to which they usually trade. When these vessels proceed up the river, they always go with the tide and anchor when it is done. If the wind is light, the navigators find great difficulty in getting them across the stream at Whampoa to enter Junk river. As the current is very strong, without the most vigorous exertions they would run foul of the ships. All the boats are got out, and others go to assist in towing the moving mass along, when she forms the centre of a very animated scene. The men in six or seven boats ahead work at the oars, as if their lives depended upon their exertions, while others run backwards and forwards upon the decks, in apparent distraction. At each violent effort, every sailor screams out in a kind of concord, any thing but harmonious, the sound of which is re-echoed by the blue hills in the distance, against which the junk is relieved. Notwithstanding all their care, they get athwart-hause now and then, and find no small trouble in disengaging themselves again. No great blame can be attached to the Chinese on this account, as the Fanquis anchor their ships in the very middle of the channel through which they must pass, to get into the river which leads to their station near Canton. The men-of-war differ but little in their make from the large merchant-junks, and do not generally run so large. The greater part of the hull is painted of a black colour, with large white ports. They do not open, however, for the guns to be run out, but arc artificial, being merely painted while, with red and yellow characters in the centre of them. The few guns which belong to them are fastened upon swivels, and are worked upon the main deck. Made of bad metal, and small in calibre, they are decked out with flags and other ornaments, as if they were intended to be seen more than to be heard. The cannon are looked upon with a great deal of veneration by the soldiers, and in fact arc considered as supernatural agents. They, therefore, with the compass, are objects of devotion, and receive a considerable portion of attention and ceremonious respect. The weapons really used in combat are swords, and long bamboos with iron spikes at the ends. With these latter they poke their enemies at a distance, and soon find out the weak point, while they are protected by esconcing themselves behind large round shields, ornamented, like that of Achilles, with various devices. These consist of ogres and monsters, and the distorted features of fierce and savage demons. When not in use, they arc hung in a row on the outside of the vessel, for the purpose of striking terror into the vulgar gazer. These vessels are chiefly collected together at Chuen-pee, outside the Bocca Tigris ; but one or two arc seen going down the liver occasionally, when an edict is issued from the emperor to enforce any particular decree. All the junks which are employed on the ocean carry the mariner’ compass, although it does not appear to give the Chinese navigators confidence, as they never, if they can avoid it, steer boldly out to sea, but keep as much as possible within sight of the land.”
