Junk (ship)

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A Song dynasty junk from a 13th-century painting. This picture shows the typical rectangular sails, the stern-mounted rudder, and large rectangular-shaped construction from bow to stern of the Chinese junk.
A modern junk in Hong Kong in 2006
Junk near Hong Kong, circa 1880.

A junk is an ancient Chinese sailing ship design that is still in use today. Junks were used as seagoing vessels as early as the 2nd century AD and developed rapidly during the Song Dynasty (960–1279).[1][2] They evolved in the later dynasties, and were used throughout Asia for extensive ocean voyages. They were found, and in lesser numbers are still found, throughout South-East Asia and India, but primarily in China. Found more broadly today is a growing number of modern recreational junk-rigged sailboats.



The term ultimately stems from the Chinese chuán (, "boat; ship"), also based on and pronounced as [dzuːŋ] (Pe̍h-ōe-jī: chûn) in the Min Nan variant of Chinese, or zhōu (), the old word for a sailing vessel.[citation needed] It entered the English language in the 17th century through the Portuguese junco from the Malay jong or Javanese djong.[4][5] The modern Standard Chinese word for an ocean-going wooden cargo vessel is cáo ().[6] That said, there are divergent views on this, Pierre-Yves Manguin, amongst others, pointing a probable Old Javanese origin.[7]


Ming dynasty war junk from Zheng Ruozeng's Chouhai tubian (1562)

Junks were efficient and sturdy ships that sailed long distances as early as the 2nd century AD, although whether this is indeed a date by which the hull form which we know as the junk's had found its final form is extremely dubious. Most scholars consider it was the early Song Dynasty (c.10th century CE) before the fully developed hull forms and rigs were in regular use in offshore trade. The fully developed junk design exhibited innovative, though subsequently very little further developed sail plans and hull designs. There is no evidence that these were adopted in Western shipbuilding by direct emulation. In this case, as in so many others, parallel invention, often in response to quite different hydrodynamic, aerodynamic or technical stimuli, is the historically better evidenced explanation.


Sail plan[edit]


The structure and flexibility of junk sails make the junk fast and easily controlled. The sails of a junk can be moved inward toward the long axis of the ship. In theory this closeness of what is called sheeting allowed the junk to sail into the wind. In practice, evidenced both by traditional sailing routes and seasons and textual evidence [9] junks neither could nor sail well into the wind. That is because a rig is dependent on its aerodynamic shape, the shape of the hull which it drives, and the balance between the centre of effort (the centre of drive) of the sail plan and the centre of resistance against be pushed sideways of the hull. In the typical junk these were both ill-adapted to windward work because, put simply, junks were neither intended to nor designed to work to windward.

The sails include several horizontal members, called "battens", which in principle could provide shape and strength but in practice, because of the available materials and technology, did neither. Junk sails are controlled at their trailing edge by lines much in the same way as the mainsail on a typical sailboat, but in the junk sail each batten has a line attached to its trailing edge where on a typical sailboat a single line (the sheet) is attached only to the boom. The sails can also be easily reefed to accommodate various wind strengths, but there was traditionally no available adjustment for sail shape for the reasons given to do with traditional materials. The battens also make the sails more resistant than other sails to large tears, as a tear is typically limited to a single "panel" between battens. In South China the sails have a curved roach especially towards the head, similar to a typical balanced lug sail. The main drawback to the junk sail is its high weight caused by the 6 to 15 heavy full length battens. With high weight aloft and no deep keel, junks were known to capsize when lightly laden due to their high centre of gravity. The top batten is heavier and similar to a gaff. In principle junk sails have much in common with the most aerodynamically efficient sails used today in windsurfers or catamarans. In practice , because of the comparatively low tech materials, they had no better performance characteristic than any other contemporary sail plan, whether western, Arab, Polynesian or other.

The standing rigging is mainly absent.

The sail-plan is also spread out between multiple masts, allowing for a comparative powerful sail area, with a low centre of effort which reduces the heeling moment. However, a thoughtful analysis of these multiple masts indicates that only two or so were actually the main 'driving' sails. The others were used to try to balance the junk - that is, to get it to more or less steer itself along the chosen course. This was necessary because the Chinese stern hung rudder, in origin a modified centreline steering oar, whilst extremely efficient, was comparatively mechanically weak. The large forces that a sailing vessel can place upon its rudder were known to rip rudders from their relatively weakly constructed mountings (many trading junks carried a spare rudder), so using the sail plan to get the junk to steer itself, reducing the loads on the rudder, was an ingenious development.



Hull design[edit]

Classic junks were built of softwoods (although after the 17th century of teak in Guangdong) with the outside shape built first. Then multiple internal compartment/bulkheads accessed by separate hatches and ladders, reminiscent of the interior structure of bamboo, were built in. Traditionally, the hull has a horseshoe-shaped stern supporting a high poop deck. The bottom is flat in a river junk with no keel (similar to a sampan), so that the boat relies on a daggerboard,[10] leeboard or very large rudder to prevent the boat from slipping sideways in the water.[11] Ocean-going junks have a curved hull in section with a large amount of tumblehome in the topsides. The planking is edge nailed on a diagonal. Iron nails or spikes have been recovered from a Canton dig dated to circa 221 BC. For caulking the Chinese used a mix of ground lime with Tung oil together with chopped hemp from old fishing nets which set hard in 18 hours, but usefully remained flexible. Junks have narrow waterlines which accounts for their potential speed in moderate conditions, although such voyage data as we have indicates that average speeds on voyage for junks were little different from average voyage speeds of almost all traditional sail, i.e. around 4-6 knots. The largest junks, the treasure ships commanded by Zheng He, were built for world exploration in the 15th century, and according to some interpretations may have been over 120 metres (390 ft) in length, or larger. This conjecture was based on the size of a rudder post that was found and misinterpreted, using formulae applicable to modern engine powered ships. More careful analysis shows that the rudder post that was found is actually smaller than the rudder post shown for a 70' long Pechili Trader in Worcester's "Junks and Sampans of the Yangtze".


Junks employed stern-mounted rudders centuries before their adoption in the West for the simple reason that Western hull forms, with their pointed sterns, obviated a centreline steering system until technical developments in Scandinavia created the first, iron mounted, pintle and gudgeon 'barn door' western examples in the early 12th century CE. A second reason for this slow development was that the side rudders in use were, contrary to a lot of very ill-informed opinion, extremely efficient.[12] Thus the junk rudder's origin, form and construction was completely different in that it was the development of a centrally mounted stern steering oar, examples of which can also be seen in Middle Kingdom (c.2050-1800 BCE) Egyptian river vessels. It was an innovation which permitted the steering of large ships and due to its design allowed height adjustment according to the depth of the water and to avoid serious damage should the junk ground. A sizable junk can have a rudder that needed up to twenty members of the crew to control in strong weather. In addition to using the sail plan to balance the junk and take the strain off the hard to operate and mechanically weakly attached rudder, some junks were also equipped with leeboards or dagger boards. The world's oldest known depiction of a stern-mounted rudder can be seen on a pottery model of a junk dating from before the 1st century AD,[13] though some scholars think this may be a steering oar - a possible interpretation given that the model is of a river boat that was probably towed or poled.



Separate compartments[edit]

Another characteristic of junks, interior compartments or bulkheads, strengthened the ship and slowed flooding in case of holing. Ships built in this manner were written of in Zhu Yu's book Pingzhou Table Talks, published by 1119 during the Song Dynasty.[14] Again, this type of construction for Chinese ship hulls was attested to by the Moroccan Muslim Berber traveler Ibn Batutta (1304-1377 AD), who described it in great detail (refer to Technology of the Song Dynasty).[15] Although some historians have questioned whether the compartments were watertight, most believe that watertight compartments did exist in Chinese junks because although most of the time there were small paassage ways (known as limber holes) between compartments, these could be blocked with stoppers and such stoppers have been identified in wrecks. All wrecks discovered so far have limber holes; these are different from the free flooding holes that are located only in the foremost and aftermost compartments, but are at the base of the transverse bulkheads allowing water in each compartment to drain to the lowest compartment, thus facilitating pumping. It is believed from evidence in wrecks that the limber holes could be stopped either to allow the carriage of liquid cargoes or to isolate a compartment that had sprung a leak.

Junks in Guangzhou by Lai Afong.



— Benjamin Franklin, 1787[16]






More to the point [17] wet wells were apparent in Roman small craft of the 5th century CE.

Leeboards and centerboards[edit]

Leeboards and centerboards, used to stabilize the junk and to improve its capability to sail upwind, are documented from a 759 AD book by Li Chuan. The innovation was adopted by Portuguese and Dutch ships around 1570.[citation needed] Junks often employ a daggerboard that is forward on the hull which allows the center section of the hull to be free of the daggerboard trunk allowing larger cargo compartments. Because the daggerboard is located so far forward, the junk must use a balanced rudder to counteract the imbalance of lateral resistance.




2nd century junks (Han Dynasty)[edit]



— Wan Chen, [19]



10–13th century junks (Song Dynasty)[edit]


14th century junks (Yuan Dynasty)[edit]

A 15th-century Ming Dynasty junk, Fengzhou





15–17th century junks (Ming Dynasty)[edit]

Expedition of Zheng He[edit]




  • Water tankers, with 1 month's supply of fresh water.

Some recent research suggests that the actual length of the biggest treasure ships may have been between 390–408 feet (119–124 m) long and 160–166 feet (49–51 m) wide,[20] while others estimate them to be 200–250 feet (61–76 m) in length.[21]

Recapture of Taiwan[edit]


Accounts of medieval travellers[edit]




— Niccolò da Conti, [22]



— Text from the Fra Mauro map, 09-P25, [23]



— Text from Fra Mauro map, 10-A13, [24]

Asian trade[edit]




19th century junks (Qing Dynasty)[edit]

Junks in Tsingtau harbour (1898)



20th century junks[edit]

Chinese sailing junks on Lake Dian (滇池), Kunming (昆明), Yunnan (云南), circa 1940s









Traditional Malaysian Junk BILBO (1997)




See also[edit]


  1. ^ Crossley, Pamela Kyle, Daniel R. Headrick, Steven W. Hirsch, Lyman L. Johnson, and David Northrup. "Song Dynasty." The Earth and Its Peoples. By Richard W. Bulliet. 4th ed. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 2008. 279–80. Print.
  2. ^ Mudie, Rosemary; Mudie, Colin (1975), The history of the sailing ship, Arco Publishing Co., p. 152 
  3. ^ Julia Jones The Salt-stained book, Golden Duck, 2011, p127
  4. ^ Collins Compact Dictionary. HarperCollins. 2002. p. 483. ISBN 0-00-710984-9. 
  5. ^ Junk, Online Etymology Dictionary .
  6. ^ http://www.zdic.net/zd/zi/ZdicE8Zdic89Zdic9A.htm
  7. ^ Trading Ships of the South China Sea. Shipbuilding Techniques and Their Role in the History of the Development of Asian Trade Networks, Journal of the Economic and Social History of the Orient, Vol. 36, No. 3 (1993), pp.253-280. 
  8. ^ Mast and Sail in Europe and Asia. p. 397. 
  9. ^ Tonio Andrade, The Company's Chinese Pirates: How the Dutch East India Company Tried to Lead a Coalition of Pirates to War against China, 1621–1662, "Journal of World History", vol.15, No.4, December 2004. 
  10. ^ http://www.friend.ly.net/users/dadadata/junk/platt/platt_chinese_sail.html "The masts, hull and standing rigging" section, paragraph 2, retrieved 13 Aug 09.
  11. ^ http://www.thomashoppe.net/Revival_of_the_Chinese_Junk "Materials and dimensions" section, paragraph 5, retrieved 13 Aug 09.
  12. ^ Lawrence W. Mott, "The Development of the Rudder: A Technological Tale", College Station: Texas A&M University Press, 1997. 
  14. ^ Needham, Volume 4, Part 3, 463.
  15. ^ Needham, Volume 4, Part 3, 469.
  17. ^ The Oxford Handbook of Maritime Archaeology, p.185. 
  18. ^ Stephen Davies, On courses and course keeping in Ming Dynasty seafaring: probabilities and improbabilities, "Mapping Ming China’s Maritime World", Hong Kong: Hong Kong Maritime Museum, 2015. 
  19. ^ "Strange Things of the South", Wan Chen, from Robert Temple
  20. ^ When China Ruled the Seas, Louise Levathes, p.80
  22. ^ Niccolò da Conti, "Le Voyage aux Indes"
  25. ^ Robinson, Annie Maritime Maryport Dalesman 1978 p.31 ISBN 0852064802
  27. ^ Charles W. Cushman Photograph Collection>> Results >> Details
  30. ^ http://www.mifasol.org/BILBO/Bilbo-Bibliography, BILBO Bibliography
  31. ^ http://forum.woodenboat.com/showthread.php?3071-Cengal,Malayan Chengal timber


External links[edit]