Naval History Forums

I think that the problem with the vikings is that the discovery was not carried on with long time settlements, so the fact that they came first was forgotten.

…We stopped in the port of Calicut, in which there were at the time thirteen Chinese vessels, and disembarked. China Sea traveling is done in Chinese ships only, so we shall describe their arrangements. The Chinese vessels are of three kinds; large ships called chunks (junks), middle sized ones called zaws (dhows) and the small ones kakams. The large ships have anything from twelve down to three sails, which are made of bamboo rods plaited into mats. They are never lowered, but turned according to the direction of the wind; at anchor they are left floating in the wind.

Three smaller ones, the "half", the "third" and the "quarter", accompany each large vessel. These vessels are built in the towns of Zaytun and Sin-Kalan. The vessel has four decks and contains rooms, cabins, and saloons for merchants; a cabin has chambers and a lavatory, and can be locked by its occupants.

This is the manner after which they are made; two (parallel) walls of very thick wooden (planking) are raised and across the space between them are placed very thick planks (the bulkheads) secured longitudinally and transversely by means of large nails, each three ells in length. When these walls have thus been built the lower deck is fitted in and the ship is launched before the upper works are finished." (Ibn Battuta).

water-tight compartments (also for keeping live fish and for bathing), and triple rudders. Large models in museums, and also sold as a kit by Trumpeter, give dimensions that are bizarre; at 1:1250, the model would come out to approximately 12 cm LOA, 12 cm keel to truck, and a beam of 4.9 cm! Therefore, has anybody seen plans or documents that would disagree with my estimate of this grapefruit-wedge-shaped ship.