History of the development of Chinese boats

Rafts and canoes Our country not only has a vast land area, but also has many rivers and vast sea areas. Therefore, the Chinese nation not only has a glorious history of land evolution, but also There is also a magnificent history of water development. And a history of water development must also be a history of boat development. The history of the development of Chinese boats and ships stretches for thousands of years, starting from ancient times. In the early days of primitive society, the ancestors still made a living by fishing, hunting and gathering, and their activities were limited to areas close to water. But without certain tools, they could not catch fish in deep water or hunt wild animals on the other side of the river. Not only that, they could not even save their lives in the event of a flood. The harsh environment and survival instinct forced humans to think. People began to look for a tool that could float on the water in order to hunt more food and overcome the dangers of floods. But what can float on water without sinking? The long-term struggle with nature has continuously added to people's wisdom, and the repeated occurrence of natural phenomena has also given people a certain amount of inspiration. "The ancients looked at the fallen leaves because they looked like boats" ("Shiben") "The ancients saw the floating wood and knew it was a boat" ("Huainanzi·Shuo Shan Xun"), the ancients finally realized that some objects have floating properties, and naturally Floating objects became the earliest inducement for people to create boat tools. After long-term practice, the ancients created the earliest water vehicle - the raft, which is a flat object made of tree trunks or bamboo tied side by side. Primitive people realized in practice that although a single bamboo tree has buoyancy, it is round, easy to roll when floating in water, has a small area, and has limited carrying capacity. If several bamboo roots are tied together, they can float smoothly in the water and The carrying capacity is increased, and it can carry both cargo and people. Rafts were also called "桴", "歭", or "箅" in ancient times. After weaving wood into a raft, there was also "cutting wood into a boat" ("Book of Changes·Xici"). "刳" means to cut or hollow out, and "zhou" refers to the canoe, the direct ancestor of ancient ships. It is a small boat dug from a single tree trunk. The making process is as follows: first select a thick and straight tree trunk, apply wet mud to the parts that are not to be dug out, and then grill the uncoated parts with fire. After the canoe is in the shape of coke, it is then chopped and chiseled with tools such as stone axes, so that the loose coke layer is quickly "cut". Repeat this many times, and the canoe is finally "cut" into a grooved boat. With a canoe, people cannot drive freely in the water, and they must have tools to propel the canoe. "Shaken wood is used as a ji" ("Book of Changes·Xici"), which refers to the ancient method of making oars. "Shaken" means to cut. "楫 means swiftness, and it means turning the water to make the boat faster and faster" ("Shi Ming·Shi Chuan"). Wood was whittled into oars to propel the boat. Before the advent of rudders, paddles also had the function of controlling direction. The combination of canoe and paddle allows people to move more freely on the water. "The benefit of the canoe is to help those who are in trouble, and the benefit of the canoe is to benefit the world." (Volume 4 of "Zhouyi Commentary") The specific era when the canoe appeared cannot be determined. However, in 1977 at the Hemudu Neolithic site in Yuyao, Zhejiang, a wooden oar made of "chopped" wood was unearthed. (25) This shows that my country had begun to use canoes at least about 7,000 years ago. It shows that the history of the invention and use of boats in our country is thousands of years earlier than the era of carriages and horses. No actual canoes of the Neolithic Age have been unearthed yet, but canoes that were later than those of primitive society have been discovered after liberation. According to incomplete statistics, there have been more than 20 canoes. These ancient canoes have become an important basis for studying the shape of early canoes. Judging from the canoes of later generations, there are roughly three types of canoes in ancient my country: one with a square head and tail, no warping, and close to a flat bottom; one with a square head and pointed tail, with a warped head; (Figure 14) One type has a pointed head and tail, with both ends raised. Judging from the changes in the shape of the hull, the first type should be an earlier one. With the accumulation of driving experience, people realized that the pointed shape of the boat head was more labor-saving and faster than the square shape, so the second shape appeared. Then a third type emerged. The advantage of a canoe lies in the word "lone". The body of the canoe is integrated, tight and seamless, not easy to leak, not loose, and the production process is simple. Therefore, it has a long history of use. To this day, in the minority areas of southwest my country, Canoes were also used as a means of crossing rivers. The emergence of rafts and canoes was the first step for mankind to develop water transportation. With them, the scope of human activities has expanded from land to water. From then on, humans can cross rivers, making geographical barriers lose their original power. 2. The birth of wooden boats. Rafts and canoes are not yet ideal water vehicles. The freeboard of the raft (26) is very low, and the raft is submerged in the water when the load is large. The size of a canoe is limited by wood, and it is also difficult to improve the boat's speed by improving its shape. After humans entered the slave society, productivity has developed greatly. Not only have water transportation activities become more frequent, but also the load capacity has increased day by day. The "shortcomings" of rafts and canoes have been more obviously exposed. Based on the canoe, people created a new type of boat - a wooden boat. The advent of wooden boats can be traced back to the distant Shang Dynasty in our country. The characters for boat in the oracle bone inscriptions of the Shang Dynasty are written as: ■, ■, and ■, all of which are pictographic characters. To a certain extent, they reflect the structure of the ships of the Shang Dynasty: it is no longer a boat made of a single log, but is assembled from several wooden boards. plank boat. This shows that at least three thousand years ago in the Shang Dynasty, my country had completed the transformation from canoes to wooden boats, and the wooden boats at this time had mature shapes.

Of course, this change did not happen overnight, but was the result of long-term practice, continuous improvement, and gradual innovation by the slaves. The prototype wooden boat was very simple. It was nothing more than adding wooden boards to the canoe to expand the loading capacity of the canoe. This improved canoe has been found in archaeological data. In 1975, a Han Dynasty wooden boat was unearthed in Wujin, Jiangsu Province. (27) The hull was made of three pieces of wood, and it had broken away from the shape of the original canoe. Later, people simply abandoned canoes and built boats directly with wooden planks. The early plank boats were the simplest "three-plank boats" consisting of a bottom plate and two string boards. To this day, traces of this primitive wooden boat can still be seen in some places in Guangxi, my country, where there are many narrow rivers and shoals and winding waterways. The whole ship is composed of only three boards. The two ends of the bottom board are baked by fire and tilted upward. The side plates on both sides are merged into the bottom board and then connected with iron nails. The seams between the boards are plugged with planed bamboo fibers and finally painted. Iron nails and paint did not exist in the Shang Dynasty, so it must have been connected by mortise and tenon joints, or tied with vines, animal skin strips, etc. when making this kind of three-plank boat. The seams between the boards are plugged with fibrous materials such as straw, flax, and bamboo. In addition, judging from the structure of the oracle bone inscription "■", one or two crossbars are added to the bow and stern of the ship to make the hull more firmly connected. This kind of three-plank boat is the ancestor of all kinds of sampan boats in later generations. From 1974 to 1978, a large ship burial pit was discovered on the south side of Tomb No. 1 of Zhongshan State during the Warring States Period in Pingshan, Hebei Province. Three large ships, two small boats and several wooden oars were unearthed. (28) These five boats are the earliest wooden wooden boats seen in our country. From canoes to wooden boats is a major leap in the history of ancient Chinese shipbuilding. At this point, humans are no longer limited by the shape and volume of wood provided by nature, but can process materials according to human wishes. On this basis, various giant ships, large ships, and arks were also produced one after another, which brought many glorious and spectacular scenes to ancient water transportation, maritime transportation, and water battles. The appearance of boats was originally to meet the needs of human beings for carrying goods, transportation and production. However, during the Xia, Shang and Zhou dynasties of the slave society, boats, like horse-drawn carriages, also became tools of war. The water battle clearly recorded in historical records occurred in 549 BC. "Zuo Zhuan" records: "In the summer of the 24th year of Lu Xianggong (549 BC), Chu Zi served as a boat division to defeat Wu." Du's note: "A boat division, a navy army." It can be seen that large-scale boat battles in the Spring and Autumn Period have already onto the stage of war. At that time, the Chu State located in the middle reaches of the Yangtze River, the Wu State in the Taihu Lake Basin, the Yue State in the Qiantang River Basin, and the Qi State in the Jishui River Basin all attached great importance to the development of warships and the construction of naval divisions. Therefore, these four countries had the strongest naval power, and ship warfare also Often happens between these four countries. Battleships were developed from civilian ships, but because battleships must be equipped with offensive weapons and defend against enemy ship attacks, their structure and performance are much superior to civilian ships. Therefore, it can be said that battleships were the highest expression of the level of shipbuilding technology at that time. Judging from documentary records, the navies of various countries at that time had many types of warships, including "stern ships", "three-winged ships", "sudden ships", "building ships", "ge ships", "bridge ships" and so on. 艅艎 is also called Yuhuang. The bow of the boat is decorated with a "bird's head" and is specially designed for the king to ride on, so it is also called the "king boat". In wartime, it serves as a command flagship. Tri-wing refers to the large wing, middle wing and small wing, which is the collective name for three light battleships of the same type. A small warship that clashes with enemy lines. A warship with a spear on board. These warships were organized in imitation of the army's vehicle combat style: the stern was equivalent to the army's command vehicle (command vehicle), the large-wing ship was like a heavy vehicle (leather vehicle), the mid-wing ship was like a sinking vehicle, and the small-wing ship was like a light vehicle. The surging boat is equivalent to the army's assault vehicle, the building boat is equivalent to the army's carriage, and the bridge boat is equivalent to the army's light cavalry. (29) These warships of different types and purposes formed a powerful fleet, just like the current mixed fleet composed of various warships. From simple rafting across the river to large-scale water battles; from simple three-plank boats to the construction of various types of warships, it shows that the shipbuilding technology at that time has made great progress. Some vassal states also established ship palaces, which were specialized shipbuilding workshops. (30) No actual warships from the Pre-Qin period have been found so far. However, from the "land and water attack" decorations on the bronzes of the Warring States Period (Figure 15) (31) we can get a glimpse of the general structure of the warships at that time: the hull was narrow and long, and the ship was divided into two layers, with three or four rowers wearing daggers on the lower layer. The oarsman, with his body arched forward, is working hard to row the oar. In order to reduce casualties and ensure that the warship can attack and defend freely, the rowers are hidden in the cabin. On the upper level stood four or five warriors playing drums, shooting arrows, and wielding swords, fighting with each other. Judging from the fact that each battleship only has seven or nine people, this kind of double-decker battleship is a kind of light ship, suitable for close combat, and is probably one of the triplanes recorded in the literature.

Ancient China

The peak of shipbuilding in Qin and Han Dynasties The history of the development of Chinese boats and ships, spanning thousands of years, can be divided into three main development periods - Qin and Han, Song, Yuan and Ming. The Qin and Han Dynasties were the first peak period in the history of shipbuilding in my country. There were many types of ships, large scales, and basically complete sailing power and mooring facilities. In 221 BC, Qin Shihuang destroyed the six Kanto Kingdoms by force and unified China. In the shipbuilding industry, he inherited and developed the advanced shipbuilding technology of some of the six countries, and built many light boats and giant boats, which made ship navigation at that time Able to reach rivers and seas. No actual ships from the Qin Dynasty have yet been discovered, but a large-scale Qin and Han shipbuilding workshop was discovered in Guangzhou. (32) There are three shipbuilding platforms arranged in parallel in the center of the shipyard, and the length of the slides is more than 88 meters.

Among them, No. 1 and No. 2 slipways are both horizontal slipways composed of sleepers, skateboards and wooden piers. The No. 2 slipway is 5.6-8.4 meters wide. Based on this length and width, the slipway can build a large wooden ship with a width of 6-8 meters, a length of 20-30 meters and a load capacity of 50-60 tons. If the No. 1 and No. 2 slipways are built together, a ship with a larger carrying capacity can be built. According to expert research, this shipbuilding yard was built when the Qin Dynasty unified Lingnan and continued to be used in the Han Dynasty. It reflects the production capacity and technical level of the shipbuilding industry in the Qin and Han Dynasties from one side. The Han Dynasty inherited the Qin system, and the shipbuilding industry experienced unprecedented vigorous development. Ships are also divided into many types in terms of manufacturing form due to different uses: The boat is an inland river transport ship. "Zhengzi Tong": "The shape is flat, so it is called Bianzi." "Tongya" interprets it as a shallow boat. A boat is a narrow and long boat. "Shiming·Shichuan": "A boat with less than 200 dendrobiums is called a boat. Its shape and diameter are straight, and it can be carried by one or two people." ■ It is a short and wide transport ship. "Shiming·Shichuan": "Three hundred dendrobiums are called Dendrobium. ■, mink; Diao, short. The name of Jiangnan is short and wide, and it is not dangerous." It can be seen that ■ is mainly popular in the Jiangnan area. ■ It is a large sailing ship. In "Shuowen Zhoubu" and "Guangyun", they are both called the big ships in the sea in the Han Dynasty. A 舲 is a kind of river boat. "Guangyun" says: "Bao" is a boat with a cabin and a window. Fang is also called "square" or double-gang boat. Guo Pu of Jin Dynasty said: "A boat is a combination of two boats", that is, two boats are joined together into one. "Historical Records·Biography of Zhang Yi" records: "The boats carried soldiers, and each boat carried fifty people and three months of food. They were launched into the water and floated." A fighting ship is a warship with defensive devices. "Shi Ming Shi Chuan": "The upper and lower heavy beds (planks) are called sills (same ship). Plates are placed on all sides to guard against arrows, and the inside is like a prison sill." First board the vanguard speedboat used to transport soldiers for landing attacks. That is to say, "When the army marches in front, it is said to board first, and board it to face the enemy's formation" ("Shi Ming·Shi Chuan"). Scout A small boat used to observe enemy positions. "There are huts below five hundred dendrobiums, which are called scouts, to monitor the enemy's advance and retreat" ("Shi Ming·Shi Chuan"). Red horse boat is a light and fast boat. A small, agile, offensive warship. "The outside is narrow and long, which is called Mengchong. It is used to conflict with enemy ships" ("Shiming·Shichuan"). The outside is covered with rawhide, with oar holes on both sides, and "crossbow window spear holes" on the left and right sides. It is difficult for enemy ships to approach, but it is not afraid of arrows and stones, making it easy to attack the enemy quickly. The building ship is the most famous type of ship in the Han Dynasty, and it is also the type of ship that best reflects the level of shipbuilding technology in the Han Dynasty. A building ship, as the name suggests, is to build a building on the ship. Generally, several floors of buildings are built on the deck according to the size of the ship, up to three floors. Each floor has a special name: "The house on the boat is called Lu, which is also called Xiangshe. The upper room is called Feilu, so it is called Feiye. The upper room is also called the bird room. In the middle, you can look out like a bird. "It's shocking." ("Shi Ming·Shi Chuan") A wooden ship model was unearthed from the Eastern Han Dynasty Tomb in Guangzhou. Its cabin was double-layered, (33) it can be called a "Feilu" building ship. There are many types of floor boats and they have a wide range of uses. In military terms, it was the main battleship used by the navy, so the commander of the navy in the Han Dynasty was also known as the "Lou Chuan General". The above-mentioned types of boats in the Han Dynasty are all recorded in literature, but no physical remains have been found so far. However, boat models of the Han Dynasty have been found from time to time in Jiangling, Changsha, Guangzhou and other places, which provides precious information for people to understand the structure of the boats of the Han Dynasty. For example, a wooden ship model was unearthed from a Western Han Dynasty tomb in the western suburbs of Guangzhou in 1956. (34) This ship model must be a model of a barge used for inland river navigation. (Figure 16) In 1955, a ceramic ship model was also unearthed from the Eastern Han Tomb in Guangzhou. (35) It is estimated that this type of ship is about 20 meters long and is a medium-sized inland river passenger and cargo ship. With the development of shipbuilding technology, not only the types of boats are increasing day by day, but also various boating facilities are becoming more and more perfect. Human beings build boats not only to float on the water and drift along the current, but also to sail in the water according to people's wishes. However, whether you are sailing against the current or docking the boat, you need a propulsion tool to control the boat. The propulsion tools of Han ships include: Piao, a punting tool. Use poles to prop up the bottom of the river to move the boat forward. Because the pole appeared at the same time as the raft, it is said to be the earliest and simplest propulsion tool in the era. In order to facilitate the use of poles to punt a boat, generally the ship's sides or stern are equipped with corridors for pole poles. This is a unique feature of my country's ship structure. In later generations, according to the shape and use of the pole drill, the pole was divided into the pole pole, the single drill pole, the fork pole, the hook pole and the radial board pole. Paddle A wooden tool used to propel a boat by human power. Its appearance period is almost the same as or slightly later than Peng. The person holds the handle of the oar and uses the oar board to paddle backwards, using the reaction force of the water to push the boat forward. In the Han Dynasty, oars were also called Ji, Zha, and Chu. "Shi Ming·Shi Chuan": "It is called a 棹 when the water is moved aside. 棹, 濯, means washing in the water, and it is also said to make the boat move in. It is also called a 札, which is similar in shape to a 札. It is also called a 楫, 楫杰 Also, moving water makes the boat faster. "At first, they were mostly short oars. As the hull increased and the freeboard increased, long oars appeared. The more oars there are, the faster the boat travels. Judging from the unearthed Han ship models, there were wooden boats rowed with five or ten oars, and some with up to sixteen oars. The oar, also known as "樐" and "橹" in ancient times, is a human propulsion tool with high efficiency and the ability to control the course. "Shi Ming·Shi Chuan": "It is called a scull next to it, and it is also called a scull, which means using physical strength to move the boat." It was developed and evolved on the basis of the rudder oar. Its characteristic is "shaking". The operating mode of the rudder paddle changed from "rowing" to fish-tail rocking, which formed a qualitative change from oar to oar. As long as a small force is applied to the oar hand, a large thrust can be generated, so the efficiency is much higher than that of an oar.

The oar is China's unique invention of human propulsion tools and one of the contributions of our country's working people to the world's shipbuilding industry. Sail is also called canopy. A wind-driving device hung on the mast. Use the pressure of the wind on the sail surface to push the boat forward. The appearance of sails dates back to the Shang Dynasty. By the Han Dynasty, sails had been widely used. Mast is also called mast, rafter and mast. If there is a sail, there must be a mast. A mast is a thick wooden pole that is erected on a ship to hold the sail in the wind. This name already existed in the Han Dynasty. "Shiming·Shichuan": "The front upright pillar is called mast. Mast means Wei. Wei means high appearance." During navigation, it is crucial to avoid shoals, go around rocks, and accurately grasp and control the navigation direction. big event. The pole or oar on the boat is not only the driving force for sailing, but also serves as a directional tool. By the Han Dynasty, the hull of the ship gradually increased, and the division of labor between propulsion tools and directional tools became increasingly clear, and a rudder oar specialized in direction appeared. The wooden ship model unearthed from the Western Han Dynasty tomb in Changsha, Hunan in 1951 and the wooden ship model unearthed from the Western Han Dynasty tomb in Jiangling, Hubei in 1974,(36) both had a long wooden paddle on the side of the tail. Obviously, it was not used for paddling. used to control direction. On the basis of the rudder paddle, the rudder, a tool for controlling the course through its own rotation, was produced. The pottery ship model unearthed from the Eastern Han Tomb in Guangzhou has a rudder at the stern. This is the earliest image of an ancient rudder seen so far. Rudders are not only found in unearthed cultural relics, but are also recorded in literature. "Shi Ming Shi Chuan": "The tail is called 柁 (that is, the rudder). 柁, 拕, is also seen behind the 拕 dragging it, and it is used to straighten the ship so that it will flow with the current and not make it violent." In order to enable the ship to berth at In the water, people also invented berthing tools-moor and anchor. Generally speaking, there is the anchor first and then the anchor. Nian, also written as Ding, means "tying rocks as Ding" ("Three Kingdoms·Wu Shu·Dong Xi Zhuan"), which means to tie rocks with ropes, sink them to the bottom of the water or throw them on the shore, and use their weight to stabilize the hull of the ship. Therefore, stopping a ship is also called "Xia Ding", and starting a ship is called "Qi Ding". The Eastern Han Dynasty pottery ship model unearthed in Guangzhou has an object tied to its head, which is in the shape of a "ten" when viewed from the front and a "■" shape when viewed from the side. It has the characteristics of a multi-toothed anchor from later generations. That’s why experts call it a “stone anchor.” This is the earliest anchor ever seen. 4. The slow development of shipbuilding technology. From the Three Kingdoms, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties to the Sui, Tang and Five Dynasties, during these long seven hundred years, although the development of my country's shipbuilding industry has entered a low ebb period, it has not stagnated, but has been slowly advancing. Development is accumulating material and technological power for the arrival of the second peak in my country's shipbuilding history. Two aspects of shipbuilding during this period are worth mentioning. 1. The emergence of sand ships Sand ships are one of the four major navigation ship types in ancient my country (the other three are Fu ship, Guang ship and bird ship). As mentioned before, there are many types of ancient Chinese ships, but if we only look at the hull structure, they can be roughly classified into two categories: square-headed flat-bottomed ships and pointed-bottomed ships. Sand boats are representatives of the former type of ship. It is a type of ship developed on the basis of ancient flat-bottomed boats. According to expert research, the sand ship was first built on Chongming Island in the Tang Dynasty and was "named after the Chongming Sand". (37) Its ship shape characteristics are: flat bottom, square bow and square tail, with a square stern at the tail, long body, wide and flat body. Precisely because the sand ship has the characteristics of being wide, large, flat and shallow, it has the following advantages: First, the ship shape is wide and the rolling angle is small. Both ends and ends increase the resistance against pitching. The hull is flat and shallow, which lowers the center of gravity; there are few upper cabins, which reduces the wind area, making it less likely to capsize. In addition, safety equipment such as water boards, water logs, and safety baskets are installed on both sides of the ship's side, so the stability of the sand ship ranks first among all ship types. In strong winds of level 7, other types of ships have to take shelter from the wind. Only sand ships can fight against the strong winds and waves and still sail unimpeded. Therefore, some people in later generations praised: "Of all the ships, this (sand ship) is the most stable" (Ming Dynasty's "Bing Lu"). Secondly, because it has a flat bottom and a shallow draft, it is not easy to run aground. It is especially suitable for driving on shoals. "If you rely on the sand to anchor, the boat will be less stranded because of the flat bottom." ("Rizhilu Collection and Explanation" of the Qing Dynasty). Therefore, sand boats are widely used in shallow sea waters along the coast of my country, especially in Jiangsu and Zhejiang. Thirdly, the shallow draft makes up for the disadvantage of increased resistance caused by the square head, so the sand boat can sail faster and be light and flexible to drive. Fourth, the hull is wide and can be equipped with multiple sails to make full use of the wind. It has strong seaworthiness and can not only sail with the wind and against the wind, but also can sail against the wind and water. It is precisely because of these advantages that sand ships were widely used by officials and civilians soon after their creation. They were not only used as various passenger and cargo ships, but also as various types of military warships. , one of the main ship types among ocean-going ships. Sand boats were finalized in the Tang Dynasty. They were called "sand-proof flat-bottomed boats" in the Song Dynasty, "flat-bottomed boats" in the Yuan Dynasty, and were commonly known as "sand boats" in the early Jiajing years of the Ming Dynasty. The Yuan and Ming Dynasties were the heyday of its development. (Figure 17) 2. Set up watertight compartments to separate the cabin into several compartments with bulkheads and seal them. Such separated compartments are called watertight compartments. For a long time, people have believed that "the construction of watertight compartments in China began in the Song Dynasty." However, the unearthed Tang ships in Yangzhou (38) and Rugao (39) in Jiangsu corrected this statement. The hull of the Yangzhou Tang Ship was divided into five large cabins and several small cabins with wooden boards. The Rugao Tang ship is divided into nine cabins. The cabin and bottom of the ship were nailed together with iron nails, and the gaps were filled with lime and tung oil. Setting up watertight cabins has many advantages: First, in the event of an accident on the rocks, even if one or two cabins break and leak, other cabins will not be flooded. In this way, the ship still has buoyancy and will not sink, thereby improving the ship's anti-sinking performance and greatly increasing the safety and insurance factor of the ship's navigation. Second, the bulkheads are tightly nailed to the hull to support the hull laterally and enhance the hull's pressure resistance.

In addition, the ship is divided into compartments to facilitate the loading, unloading and storage of cargo. Precisely because of these advantages of watertight compartments, foreign ships of the same period were quickly buried at the bottom of the sea in accidents where their hulls ruptured when they hit rocks. Under the same circumstances, Chinese ships were able to continue sailing and return to port safely for repairs. Therefore, the emergence of watertight cabins is also a major contribution of China to world shipbuilding technology. It was not until the end of the 18th century that other countries in the world absorbed my country's advanced technology and began to install watertight cabins on ships.

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Continue to ask: This introduction introduces ancient times, but there is no modern Chinese one. Can you give some modern and modern ones? Points will be given later,,, and the answer is satisfactory.

Supplementary answer: The steamer "Huanghu" is the first steam engine paddle steamer designed and built by my country. It cost 8,000 taels of silver. 1865 my country's first steam engine steamship "Huanghu" was designed and built by Xu Shou and Hua Hengfang at the Ordnance Institute in Anqing in 2001. The steamer "Huanghu" is 17 meters long and has a speed of 6 knots and a dead weight of 25 tons. The engine room is located at the front and the steam engine is single. The cylinder is two feet long and one foot in diameter; the boiler is eleven feet long and about two feet and three inches in diameter; there are forty-nine furnace tubes, seven feet and two inches in length and one and a half inches in diameter; the rotating shaft is one foot, two feet and eight inches long. , one inch and eight in diameter.

Can’t really find it.

China always follows the trend of the world