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contains some information, but not about the size of the As noted above, scholars have made various calculations
ships. It gives details about the numbers of ships that were in attempts to figure out the size of the ships from the scanty
built, and where and when they were constructed, repaired and scattered information that is available. Professor Xin
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or modified. It also mentions that some ships were built Yuan’ou, a shipbuilding engineer at Shanghai Jiaotong
from scratch, while others were converted (gaizao 改造) from University, whose paper ‘A Technical Analysis of the Size of
grain transport ships. Under Yongle’s reign the overseas Zheng He’s Ships’ (Guanyu Zheng He baochuan chidu de jishu
grain transport ships that the preceding Yuan dynasty had fenxi 關於鄭和寶船尺度的技術分析) first excited my interest
relied upon for south-to-north grain transport were largely in this topic, was the one who estimated that each of the
phased out; the construction of the new capital in Beijing 20,000 ton ships (his estimate for the 450ft size) would have
had necessitated refurbishment of the canal system to allow required 8,000 men to man it. If the figure of 27,000 people
grain to be transported on inland waterways instead of by in each fleet is correct, and if 8,000 men were required for
sea. Interestingly this meant that some of the existing grain each ship, there would have been fewer than four ships in
transport ships no longer used for that purpose were the entire fleet, not the 62, 100 or 250 that have been
converted into treasure ships for Zheng He’s voyages. mentioned in the sources. For this reason, the figure of
Instances of these conversions are recorded in the Shilu. 8,000 men as a complement must be incorrect. This is one
The three first-hand travel accounts, those of Ma Huan argument for saying that the ships cannot have been the
馬歡, Fei Xin 費信 and Gong Zhen, unfortunately say very 20,000 ton size.
little about the ships. They comment that the vessels were Starting out from the smallest possible complement, the
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enormous, but do not specify the size. There are hints about estimate by Gong Zhen of 200–300 people per ship would
the size, however, such as when it is mentioned that in some work out to 112 ships (27,000 people divided by 250, the
ports the large ships of the fleet had to moor offshore while average of his 200–300 figure). This figure for the number of
people and goods were transported into port on smaller ships is at least within the range mentioned in the sources.
ships. Again, all we can tell from these accounts is that the The number of vessels given in two almost identical
ships were very large. inscriptions contemporary with the voyages is 100 – these
One piece of rather more meaty information is provided are the Liujiagang and Changle inscriptions, both dated
by Gong Zhen, who says that 200–300 men were required to 1431, discovered in Taicang (near present-day Shanghai) and
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operate the sails, anchors and rudders of the ships. From Fujian (near Fuzhou), respectively. This number sounds
these figures we can perhaps obtain a rough idea of their size. suspiciously like an estimate that has been rounded off. It
With such a small complement, however, these would not be works out to 270 men per ship, which falls within the range
44-zhang ships. According to one expert, a 44-zhang ship estimated by Gong Zhen. Professor Xin also tries dividing
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would have needed 8,000 men to man it. The USS Minnesota 27,000 by 62 to determine the average number of men per
was manned by 838 men and 42 officers, but as a steel ship it ship on the first voyage, obtaining 436 men per ship.
would have needed far fewer men than a wooden ship. In an However, this calculation does not take into account the
anonymous itinerary for the seventh expedition, found in existence of smaller ships as well. A similar operation
Zhu Yunming’s 祝允明 (1461–1527) miscellany Qianwen ji carried out for the 48 ships mentioned by Fei Xin for the
前聞記 (Record of Things Heard) (c. 1500), the number of people third voyage yields 563 men per ship. From these efforts, Xin
sailing on the voyage is given as 27,550, broken down into the concludes that Lo Jung-pang was correct and the ships were
following categories of passengers and crew on board: probably about 500 tons in capacity and 800 tons in
Officers; troops serving under the banners; group-leaders displacement. He estimates that they were about 250ft in
(huozhang, literally ‘fire-leaders’); helmsmen; anchormen; length, and this is the size I have settled on as most likely to
interpreters; business-factors; accountants; doctors; iron- be correct.
anchor mechanics; caulkers; scaffold-builders; other craftsmen; In China today there is sometimes fierce disagreement
sailors; and boatmen. 23 among scholars on this subject. Those who argue that the
Another source of information about the size occurs on one Ming history must be right and believe that Zheng He’s ships
of the stone stelae that were set up in China and in other were 44 zhang long form one camp, and those who say they
places that Zheng He visited. Words inscribed on stone are were 2,000 liao in size form another. These two groups take
often thought to be more trustworthy than written records. their positions very seriously and have sometimes almost
One of them was at the Jinghaisi 靜海寺 (Calm Sea come to blows. I witnessed a heated debate at the 600th
Monastery)in Nanjing, where Zheng He went to pray for anniversary conference in July 2005, in which an elderly
smooth sailing before he set out on his voyages (Pl. 22.4). It scholar with strong views nearly fainted. Since then, Chinese
mentions the size of the ships (Pl. 22.5). The inscription says: maritime historians have become less strident on the matter
‘in the third year of Yongle (1405), the ships were 2,000 liao 料 and have agreed to disagree, but there are still strong
. . . and in the seventh year (1409) they were 1,500 liao’. The feelings on the issue.
appearance of yet another unit for the size of the ships, the liao, In recent years, some members of the small ship camp
creates new problems. It seems to have been a unit of capacity, have formed a group called the Beijing Association for the
used for calculating the amount of grain and other goods to be Study of Zheng He and Maritime Culture (Beijing Zheng He
transported. The scholar Lo Jung-pang reckons that it was yu Haiyang wenhua yanjiu hui 北京鄭和與海洋文化研究會),
500 pounds, in which case the 2,000-liao ships would have which is currently building a replica of a 2000-liao treasure
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been 500 tons and the 1500-liao ships 375 tons. However, this ship at the Treasure Shipyard in Nanjing. The overall
is just an estimate and should not be taken as the final word. specifications of this ship are as follows:

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