[Snafu]

For anyone interested I figured I'd post some pics of various Chinese warships through the ages.

These are from the book "Fighting ships of the fear east part 1" by Stephen Turnbull. Small book (less than 50 pages) but interesting pics.


Early Han Dynasty warship, battle canoes, and fire-boats.




A Southern Tang dynasty Lou chuan ("tower ship") fights off a Sung war junk.



A Sung dynasty paddleboat warship.



Jin and Sung dynasty warships.



A Yuan dynasty sea-going war junk fighting off Vietnamese war canoes.



A Ming dynasty detachable mine-layer

[Gubook Janggoon]

Great stuff! Does he include pics of non Chinese ships?

[Snafu]

Gubuk Janggoon, on Feb 14 2005, 06:22 AM, said:

Great stuff!  Does he include pics of non Chinese ships?

There's a little bit about Cham and Khmer war canoes, but mostly it focuses on China.

[Borjigin Ayurbarwada]

Nice pictures.


"A larger paddle-wheel Sung warship breaks the Mongol blockade at Xiangyang, 1272
"

That boat's label is Jin not Yuan, I think its implying the Jin-Song wars.

[General_Zhaoyun]

They looked like Song dynasty navy..

[Gubook Janggoon]

The second pic looks like one of the ships is using greek fire...

[Snafu]

warhead, on Feb 14 2005, 06:52 AM, said:

Nice pictures.
"A larger paddle-wheel Sung warship breaks the Mongol blockade at Xiangyang, 1272
"

That boat's label is Jin not Yuan, I think its implying the Jin-Song wars.

Whoops. My mistake. I think those are Jin and Sung dynasty ships fighting it out.

[snowybeagle]

Great pictures. I wished someone draw a full length comic story with them.

[General_Zhaoyun]

These warships are armed with rockets and missiles..as well as hand-grenades.

[Yun]

Quote

The second pic looks like one of the ships is using greek fire...

That's exactly what it is - it had spread to China by the Five Dynasties.

Quote

These warships are armed with rockets and missiles..as well as hand-grenades.

Actually, their main armament was traction (human-powered) trebuchets launching explosive, incendiary or gas-emitting projectiles.

[Mei Houwang]

VERY nice pics. Is there an internet site on this that has more?

[HaSY]

did stone cannons and heavy crossbows were used in naval warfare?if yes,when is it started?

[jeewiz]

Just thinking about the whole rome vs han thing, I think those cultures from the mediterrainian would atleast have better boats becuase that was there life and the sea would be in there blood. Is this true, did China have anything comparable to the biremes and triremes. I remember reading a book called "When China Ruled The Seas" and I think boats like triremes and biremes only came about in China after the western counterparts in the med. (The book was refering to the later dynasties: yuan, ming when saying China ruled the seas)

[Yun]

Naval warfare in China took place in a very different context from the Mediterranean. Almost all Chinese naval battles took place on relatively calmer but more confined rivers or lakes, and thus while the Mediterranean was dominated by fast galleys, Chinese warships developed into waterborne fortresses that opted for size, firepower and protection over speed, stability or maneuverability. Instead of ramming or boarding, which was the favoured method for sinking/capturing galleys, the Chinese warship was most vulnerable to fire. So I don't think there's much point in comparing Chinese tower-ships to Mediterranean biremes and triremes - no galley was ever armed with traction trebuchets launching incendiary projectiles. One similarity was the use of striking arms for holding enemy vessels in place so they could not escape - the Romans also used this against Carthaginian ships. But while the Romans did this to allow boarding, the Chinese mainly held enemy ships close alongside to bombard them and set them on fire.

[ih8eurocentrix]

then there is greek fire