In the The Chinese Repository, August 1836, is an article published titled Military Skill and Power of the Chinese. The author was a correspondent, his name not mentioned. One of the topics was the Chinese navy and her strength, or better her missing strength.
P. 172: “If, however, this be predicated of the land force, what words can convey an adequate idea of the monstrous burlesque which the imperial navy presents to our astonished gaze ? Powerless beyond the power of description or ridicule to pourtray, yet set forth with all the braggadocio und pretence for which the Chinese are so famous, the marine of this vast empire presents a state of things unparalleled among even the most savage states or islands that we know of: and who query much if a couple of New Zealand war canoes would not be an overmatch tor all the force that could be brought against them. It has been seen that a whole imperial licet has, more than once, “knocked head” to a single unarmed merchantman, manned by Lascars; and the miserable equivocations to which admirals and governors of large provinces have had recourse, to get rid of so formidable a visitor, are as well known as the valor with which they have fired at the ship, when sailing away four or five miles from them or the civility with which the intruder has, against the emperor’s most positive and repeated orders, been treated while remaining in the port or hay, where her avocations or pleasure may have led her. It will be seen, that the fact of the absolute weakness of the marine is now well known to the emperor ; and all his governors of sea-board provinces have avowed the impossibility of preventing the visit of a “barbarian” or “demon” ship. It is not many years since the inhabitants of the Koa- coast were ordered to withdraw, a day’s journey inland, as the only means of preventing the irruptions of a ladrone fleet ; and we have seen that, twenty five years back, a pirate kept this and the next province in check; stopped the trade, and ravaged all parts of the coast and country, near the river side, with the most daring audacity, and in perfect security ; till, after a long course of horrors and violence, he and his chief companions were bought out, by a free pardon and high governmental appointments, the retention of all their treasures and forgiveness of all their followers.
p. 173: “The Chinese war ships (junks) are large unwieldy looking masses of timber, with mat sails, wooden anchors, rattan cables, a considerable sheer, flat upright stems, no stern posts, enormously high sterns ornamented with gold and paintings, considerably weakened too by a large hole in which the monstrous rudder can be hoisted up and housed in bad weather; immense quarter galleries, and look-out houses on the deck ; generally drawing but little water, flat floored, painted red and black, with large goggle eyes in the bows; and, as Knickerbocker describes the Goede Vrouw, looming particularly large in a calm; such is the appearance of a celestial “first rate”:-few are over 250 to 350 tons, and the generality are armed with hut two or four guns, which, as we have before observed, are on solid beds, and must therefore be useless, save in the smoothest water. We have occasionally, however, seen six guns in a large war junk, on special service; and two which were stationed in front of the Praya Grande, or Macao, during the business of the late lord Napier, had each eight, of various sizes ; two of which, taking the whole width of the deck, were old brass field pieces, which, had they been fired, must either have sunk the junk, or gone, with the recoil, over the gangway in their rear. The crew is composed of forty to sixty men, according it would seem, as they are designed to act against their own people or foreigners. Lances, pikes, and a few swords, but plenty of good stones, make up the armament. The smaller craft are not so shapeless as the others, being built partly on the model of some foreign boats, as the Chinese acknowledge, the same as used in the hong merchants’ and the smuggling boats; these are neat in their appearance.
p. 174: pull from ten to sixty oars, and go very fast; they are armed with one or two small swivels, two, three, or four pounders, and the usual and favorite weapons of the Chinese, lances and stones; over the sides of the boats, as they pull, are hang shields of rattans painted into a caricature of a tiger's face, with which to protect themselves in case of attack. We have also, in some of these seen, occasionally, some, thing approaching to boarding nettings; but their speed is what is chiefly relied on. To convey to the mind of a stranger the ridiculous excess of the inutility of the naval establishment of China, would, we are well aware, be impossible 4 could it even be rendered, it would not be more credible ; helplessness and cowardice are the chief, we may say the only points; but carried to such an extreme as would appear impossible to all who have not visited the country. Nor again, judging from what we know of the campaigns of late years, are the Chinese armies much more to be dreaded than their fleets.”
Source
The Chinese Repository, vol V, May 1836-April 1837. Canton, 1837. Digitized by Google.
P. 172: “If, however, this be predicated of the land force, what words can convey an adequate idea of the monstrous burlesque which the imperial navy presents to our astonished gaze ? Powerless beyond the power of description or ridicule to pourtray, yet set forth with all the braggadocio und pretence for which the Chinese are so famous, the marine of this vast empire presents a state of things unparalleled among even the most savage states or islands that we know of: and who query much if a couple of New Zealand war canoes would not be an overmatch tor all the force that could be brought against them. It has been seen that a whole imperial licet has, more than once, “knocked head” to a single unarmed merchantman, manned by Lascars; and the miserable equivocations to which admirals and governors of large provinces have had recourse, to get rid of so formidable a visitor, are as well known as the valor with which they have fired at the ship, when sailing away four or five miles from them or the civility with which the intruder has, against the emperor’s most positive and repeated orders, been treated while remaining in the port or hay, where her avocations or pleasure may have led her. It will be seen, that the fact of the absolute weakness of the marine is now well known to the emperor ; and all his governors of sea-board provinces have avowed the impossibility of preventing the visit of a “barbarian” or “demon” ship. It is not many years since the inhabitants of the Koa- coast were ordered to withdraw, a day’s journey inland, as the only means of preventing the irruptions of a ladrone fleet ; and we have seen that, twenty five years back, a pirate kept this and the next province in check; stopped the trade, and ravaged all parts of the coast and country, near the river side, with the most daring audacity, and in perfect security ; till, after a long course of horrors and violence, he and his chief companions were bought out, by a free pardon and high governmental appointments, the retention of all their treasures and forgiveness of all their followers.
p. 173: “The Chinese war ships (junks) are large unwieldy looking masses of timber, with mat sails, wooden anchors, rattan cables, a considerable sheer, flat upright stems, no stern posts, enormously high sterns ornamented with gold and paintings, considerably weakened too by a large hole in which the monstrous rudder can be hoisted up and housed in bad weather; immense quarter galleries, and look-out houses on the deck ; generally drawing but little water, flat floored, painted red and black, with large goggle eyes in the bows; and, as Knickerbocker describes the Goede Vrouw, looming particularly large in a calm; such is the appearance of a celestial “first rate”:-few are over 250 to 350 tons, and the generality are armed with hut two or four guns, which, as we have before observed, are on solid beds, and must therefore be useless, save in the smoothest water. We have occasionally, however, seen six guns in a large war junk, on special service; and two which were stationed in front of the Praya Grande, or Macao, during the business of the late lord Napier, had each eight, of various sizes ; two of which, taking the whole width of the deck, were old brass field pieces, which, had they been fired, must either have sunk the junk, or gone, with the recoil, over the gangway in their rear. The crew is composed of forty to sixty men, according it would seem, as they are designed to act against their own people or foreigners. Lances, pikes, and a few swords, but plenty of good stones, make up the armament. The smaller craft are not so shapeless as the others, being built partly on the model of some foreign boats, as the Chinese acknowledge, the same as used in the hong merchants’ and the smuggling boats; these are neat in their appearance.
p. 174: pull from ten to sixty oars, and go very fast; they are armed with one or two small swivels, two, three, or four pounders, and the usual and favorite weapons of the Chinese, lances and stones; over the sides of the boats, as they pull, are hang shields of rattans painted into a caricature of a tiger's face, with which to protect themselves in case of attack. We have also, in some of these seen, occasionally, some, thing approaching to boarding nettings; but their speed is what is chiefly relied on. To convey to the mind of a stranger the ridiculous excess of the inutility of the naval establishment of China, would, we are well aware, be impossible 4 could it even be rendered, it would not be more credible ; helplessness and cowardice are the chief, we may say the only points; but carried to such an extreme as would appear impossible to all who have not visited the country. Nor again, judging from what we know of the campaigns of late years, are the Chinese armies much more to be dreaded than their fleets.”
Source
The Chinese Repository, vol V, May 1836-April 1837. Canton, 1837. Digitized by Google.
