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Flecker: Early Voyaging in the South China Sea NSC Working Paper No. 19Ship Construction TechniquesIt is fortunate for the maritime archaeologist that there are only four key types of non-European ships found in Asia. Construction techniques are unique to each region and/orperiod, and differ so much from each other that a ship’s origin can be determined froma glimpse of the hull or from fragmentary remains. The four types are described brieflybelow, as an introduction to an inventory of ship losses in China and Southeast Asia.Southeast Asian Lashed-Lug ShipsThe earliest shipwrecks found throughout Southeast Asia are of the so-called lashed-lugtradition. Lashed-lug ships are built by raising planks on each side of a keel piece thatshows clear signs of having evolved from a dug-out base (Fig. 10). The planks are edgejoinedwith wooden dowels. They are carved, rather than bent to shape, and incorporateprotruding cleats or lugs. Holes are carved out of the lugs so that they may be lashed toribs and/or thwart beams, thereby holding the planks together. Additional strength andwater-tightness is achieved by stitching the planks together. Holes are drilled near theedges of the planks for stitches of vegetal fibre. They are usually drilled in pairs and occurwithin the seam, not being visible from outside the hull. These early Southeast Asian craftwere steered by two quarter rudders, a system that survives to this day on many sailingvessels still plying the waters of Indonesia. They had up to four bipod or tripod masts anda bowsprit, with canted square-rig or lug sails.Fig. 10. The cross-section of a lashed-lug vesselCredit: Author.Arab or Indian ‘Dhows’Pretty well all that is known of ancient Arab or Indian hull construction comes to us fromthe archaeological excavation of the Belitung Shipwreck (Flecker 2001, 2001a, 2010) (Fig. 11).A canted stem-post connects to the keel at a horizontal mortise and tenon joint. Hull plankedges are faired to the correct angle and butted directly against the flat surface of the keeland stem-post, where they were stitched in place. The stern post is either vertical or has aslight cant. A strong keelson supplements the light keel in providing longitudinal stiffness28
Flecker: Early Voyaging in the South China Sea NSC Working Paper No. 19to the vessel. Sawn hull planks are stitched edge-to-edge with coconut fibre twine, or coir,passing right through the planks in a criss-cross manner. Wadding material is placedunder the stitching both inside and outside the hull. Frames are notched where they passover plank edge-joints to allow for the stitching and wadding, and two holes are providedbetween each notch for fastening light frames to the hull planks. Teak thwart beamsprotrude through the hull just below the gunnel, just as they do on still extant Omanifishing boats. So-called ceiling timbers, or cargo trays, may be placed longitudinallyacross the keelson, stringers, and frames as a supporting bed for ballast and cargo.Fig. 11. Stitching holes line the hull planking of the Belitung WreckCredit: Author.Due to the great degree of inter-influence across the Arabian Sea it is very difficultto determine any fundamental structural differences between ships built in the Middle-East or India from historical, iconographic or ethnographic sources. Such sources can,however, provide insights on deck structure and rig. It would seem that dhows wereessentially square rigged, with one or two vertical stayed masts (Vosmer 2010:132). Duringthe first millennium AD they were steered with quarter rudders, which gave way to anaxial rudder sometime during the early second millennium.Chinese JunksThe ancient coastal and riverine craft of China tended to be flat-bottomed. While thereare exceptions, sea-going junks seem to have adopted the Southeast Asian V-shaped hullin order to better navigate turbulent seas and shifting winds. The transom stem andstern were maintained, along with bulkheads that divided the ships into compartments29
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