My Science School

            On 18th December 1412, the Yongle Emperor issued the order for the fourth voyage. Admiral Zheng He was commanded to lead the fleet. They travelled to Malacca, Java, Champa, Semudera, Aru, Cochin, Calicut, Lambri, Pahang, Kelantan, Jiayile, Ormuz, Bila, Maldives and Sunla.

            On 12th August 1415, Admiral Zheng He’s fleet returned to Nanjing. An estimated 18 states sent tributes and envoys to China, after Zheng He’s visits to their homelands. This was in order to present their tribute at the Ming Court.

            The fifth voyage was mainly to escort the 18 ambassadors back to their homelands, and to reward their kings. The Ming emperor had sent imperial letters and valuable gifts for the kings. Admiral Zheng He and a few selected officials led the ambassadors. They started from the Chinese coast in the autumn of 1417, and on 8th August 1419, the fleet returned to China.

            The order for the sixth voyage was delivered on 3rd March 1421. Admiral Zheng He was dispatched with imperial letters, silk brocade, silk floss, silk gauze and other gifts for the rulers of many countries. According to Ming China’s history, the treasure voyages were suspended temporarily on 14th May 1421. 

               On 11th July 1405, the treasure fleet departed for their first expedition. They voyaged under the leadership of Admiral Zheng He. The fleet sailed to Champa, Java, Malacca, Aru, Semudera, Lambri, Sumatra, Ceylon, Quilon and Calicut While returning, Zheng He and his associates confronted the pirate fleet of Chen Zuyi at Palembang on Sumatra. Chen Zuyi’s fleet had seized Palembang, but Zheng He and his crew defeated Chen Zuyi. They returned to Nanjing on 2nd October, 1407.

               Later, the imperial order for the second voyage was issued. On 30th October 1407, a grand director was dispatched with a squadron to Champa. Zheng He followed them with his fleet. They sailed to Champa, Siam, Java, Malacca, Semudera, Aru, Sumatra, Jiayile, Abobadan, Ganbali, Quilon, Cochin, and Calicut. The treasure fleet arrived back to Nanjing in the summer of 1409.

               Admiral Zheng set out on his third voyage in 1409 itself. His fleet made stops at Champa, Java, Malacca, Semudera, Ceylon, Quilon, Cochin and Calicut.

 

 

               Zheng He, a towering figure, commanded the Ming dynasty’s fleet of immense trading vessels on expeditions ranging as far away as Africa. He was a mariner, explorer, diplomat, and leader. He led trading expeditions to Southeast Asia, South Asia, Western Asia, and East Africa from 1405 to 1433. His larger ships stretched 120 metres or more in length. These could carry hundreds of sailors on four tiers of decks. However, the size of these ships is still disputed.

               Zheng’s voyages became well-known in China and abroad, since the publication of Liang Qichao’s ‘The Biography of Our Homeland’s Great Navigator, Zheng He’ in 1904. Later an upright stone bearing a commemorative inscription written by the navigator was unearthed from Sri Lanka, formerly known as Ceylon.

               Some historians say that during his seventh voyage, from 1431 to 1433, Zheng He died at sea, and was likely buried off the Indian coast. But, some of his descendants believe that he made it back to China, and died there. 

               In Chinese history, the treasure voyages were the seven Ming era maritime voyages of the treasure fleet, between 1405 and 1433.

               Yongle Emperor initiated the construction of the treasure fleet in 1403. This grand project resulted in seven far-reaching ocean voyages to the coastal territories, and islands in and around the South China Sea, the Indian Ocean, and beyond. Admiral Zheng led the expeditions for the Ming emperor.

               The treasure voyages were unmatched in world history. These missions were astonishing for the long distances covered. Six of the voyages occurred during the Yongle reign, and the seventh voyage occurred under the Xuande reign. The first three voyages reached up to Calicut in India. The fourth voyage went as far as Persian Gulf. Afterwards, the fleet made voyages farther away to Africa.

               Over the course of the maritime voyages of the early 15th century, Ming China became the dominant naval power by projecting its sea power further to the south and west. There are still reservations left open to debate about the size of the Ming ships, the magnitude of the fleet, the routes travelled, and the places explored.

               Early explorers and pioneers found evidence of possible Welsh influence among the native tribes of America, along the Tennessee and Missouri Rivers. In the 18th century, a unique local tribe called ‘Mandan’ was found. They were white men with forts, towns and permanent villages laid out in streets and squares. They claimed that they were of Welsh ancestry, and spoke a language remarkably similar to it.

               Some of the anecdotes in Madoc’s story such as the navigation by the Pole Star, and the hardship of the first settlers seem to be authentic. Unfortunately, there is no direct evidence to support his story.

               By the time Madoc’s story came to the limelight through literature, a great deal had been discovered about the origin of America.

               Several attempts to confirm Madoc’s historicity have been made. However, historians of early America, notably Samuel Eliot Morison, regard the story as a myth.

 

               Madoc ab Owain Gwynedd was a Welsh prince, who sailed to America in 1170, more than three hundred years before Christopher Columbus’s voyage in 1492.

               Madoc was the son of Owain Gwynedd, the King of Wales. The king died in 1170, and soon Wales degenerated into a state of civil war as his sons fought over the throne. At one point, Madoc couldn’t bear the pain of his family fighting, and he decided to start a voyage to the west. He set up a successful settlement at Mobile Bay in modern Alabama.

               The ‘Madoc story’ has always been the subject of much speculation in the context of possible pre-Columbian trans-oceanic contact. No conclusive archaeological proofs about Madoc could ever be found.

               However, speculation abounds, connecting him with certain sites, such as Devil’s Backbone, located on the Ohio River at Fourteen Mile Creek near Louisville, Kentucky. The township of Madoc, Ontario, and the nearby village of Madoc, are both named in the prince’s memory.

 

 

            Like the Polynesians, the Vikings too gave importance to their water crafts as they helped them in expanding their territory. Ships were an integral part of Viking culture. They facilitated everyday transportation across seas to establish colonies in coastal regions.

            The Viking ships had religious importance too. There were basically three types of Viking ships: long-ships, heavy freight carrying merchant ships and light freight carrying merchant ships. Prominent among these ships was the long-ship. They had a long, narrow hull and shallow draught to facilitate landings and troop deployments in shallow water.

            The Vikings were brilliant ship designers and builders, and are undoubtedly among the greatest voyagers of all time. 

               Leif Erikson, son of the Norse explorer Erik the Red, was the first European known to have discovered continental North America excluding Greenland, before Christopher Columbus. He established a Norse settlement at Vinland, tentatively identified with the L’Anse aux Meadows, on the northern tip of Newfoundland, in modern-day Canada.

               After spending a winter in Vinland, Leif sailed back to Greenland, and never returned to North American shores.

               The location of Vinland had been debated over the centuries, and various spots along the northern Atlantic Coast had been cited. In the early 1960s, excavations at L’Anse aux Meadows produced evidence of the base camp of the 11th-century Viking exploration.

               The voyage by Leif Erikson was marked as an exceptionally remarkable one. Unfortunately, the death of Leif Erikson had not been mentioned in the sagas of Greenland.

        The American mainland was later discovered by Christopher Columbus of Spain.

 

               Erik the Red is credited with the discovery of Greenland; he ushered in the country’s Viking era. According to sagas, Erik the Red migrated to Iceland in 960 AD. His father, Porvaldr Asvaldsson, was exiled from Norway for instigating crimes. Porvaldr took his entire family to Iceland, and settled there.

               From the top of the mountains of western Iceland, another island that lay to the west was clearly visible. It lay across 289.6 kilometres of water. When Eric was exiled for three years as a punishment, he sailed west to that scenic island, and spent three years there.

               After he returned to Iceland, Erik exaggerated the merits of the island he had explored. He deliberately named the island ‘Greenland’, to make it sound green and fertile.

               Erik the Red was a born leader. He went on another voyage to Greenland later, leading a fleet of 25 long-ships. On board were around 500 men and women, domestic animals, and all the other elements required to create a new existence in a new place. 

            The Vikings were Norse sea-farers, mainly speaking the Old Norse language. The Vikings were from three countries of Scandinavia: Denmark, Norway, and Sweden. They sailed across the North Sea, sometimes to the east coast of England, where they raided and looted.

            Sometimes, they took their ships to the north of Scotland, then round to the west coast of Scotland, and on to Ireland and the west coast of England. No coastal community was safe from their unpredictable raids and loots.

            The Vikings knew that there was an uninhabited island towards the setting sun in the North Atlantic. They explored the island and called it Iceland, because most of the island was covered in ice and snow. The recorded history of Iceland began with the settlement by Viking explorers in the late ninth century.

            A group of Norsemen, headed by Ingolfur Arnarson, who instigated a blood feud with the Norwegian king Herald I, sailed and migrated to Iceland. Ingolfur called the place where they landed ‘Reykjavik’, meaning smoky bay. The settlement was a huge success, and the population grew steadily. By the middle of the tenth century, it had reached several thousands.

 

               The Vikings were Scandinavian seafaring traders, warriors and pirates who raided and colonized wide areas of Europe. They travelled in long, open ships. The Viking ships, also known as ‘dragon-ships’ or ‘long-ships’, were designed to travel at a comparatively high speed.

               The largest Viking ship could carry about 100 sailors at a time. Their unique construction made them seaworthy. They were ‘clinker built’, which is a method of boat building, where the edges of hull planks overlap. They were usually finished with copper nails. These Scandinavian pirates were infamous for their raiding and invasion skills. They used to attack, raid, and loot coastal areas without any warning. The Vikings conquered most of the places they raided, and established their colonies in many of these lands.

               Though the Vikings travelled mostly for trading, their interest in raiding and looting made them the most-feared pirates of their time. They mainly targeted the British Isles, the Atlantic, and the North Sea shoreline of the Carolingian Empire, which included most of what is now France, Germany, and to the east of what became Russia. 

 

               The Polynesians used to make their voyages in canoes built with tools of stone, bone, and coral. These canoes were navigated by expert seafarers, who depended mainly on traditional techniques of way finding.

               The Polynesian canoes were dugout canoes, which are boats made out of hollowed tree trunks, or planks sewn together with cords of coconut fibres twisted into strands.

               An outrigger was attached to a single hull for greater stability during the voyage. Two hulls were lashed together with crossbeams, and a deck was also added between the hulls to create double canoes capable of withstanding long distance voyages.

               The canoes were paddled when there was no wind, and sailed only when there were enough breezes. Though these double-hulled canoes had less storage capacity, they were much faster.

               The Polynesians were skilful and daring navigators. They were the original inhabitants of a vast string of islands in the Pacific Ocean. Their voyages were made very early in the history of exploration. They established colonies on islands miles away from their native island groups.

               They were vigorous explorers, who made important migrations. They were said to have inhabited Easter Island around 440 AD. They arrived in the Hawaiian Islands around 400-500 AD. The Polynesians were also credited with the discovery of New Zealand, probably about 1150 AD.

               The Polynesians had excellent navigational systems; they had maps showing their neighbouring islands. Polynesian navigation used instruments which are distinct from the tools used by European navigators. However, they also relied on close observation of sea signs, and had a large body of knowledge from oral tradition. 

               Hanno was a Carthaginian explorer of the sixth or fifth century BC, who sailed beyond the Strait of Gibraltar, out of the Mediterranean, and down the mysterious Atlantic coast of Africa. Carthage was the capital city of the ancient Carthaginian civilization.

               According to literature, Hanno was the highest administrative officer in the Carthaginian government. Carthage dispatched Hanno as the head of a fleet of 60 ships to explore trading colonies along the north western coast of North Africa. He sailed through the straits of Gibraltar, established seven colonies along the African coast of what is now Morocco, and explored significantly farther along the Atlantic coast of the continent.

               Hanno also encountered various indigenous communities. The primary source for the account of Hanno’s expedition is a Greek translation, titled ‘Periplus’, of a tablet Hanno is reported to have hung up in the temple of Kronos on his return to Carthage. The title translated from the Greek is ‘The Voyage of Hanno, commander of the Carthaginians, round the parts of Libya beyond the Pillars of Heracles, which he deposited in the Temple of Kronos’.

 

               Around 330 BC, the Greek geographer named Pytheas set out on a voyage from the Greek colony of Massalia through the Mediterranean Sea, to explore Northern Europe. He was sent out by the merchants of his native city to find a route to the tin mines of Southern Britain.

               During the journey, he circumnavigated and visited a considerable part of Great Britain. It was said that he sailed around Iberia, then up the coast of Gaul to Brittany, and eventually, reached Belerium where he explored the famous tin mines.

               Pytheas was the first person to describe the midnight sun, and polar ice. He also introduced the idea of ‘Thule’ to the geographic imagination, and his account was the earliest that stated that the Moon is the cause of tides. On his return, Pytheas chronicled an account of his endeavour entitled ‘On the Ocean’.