Saturday, January 14, 2012

Models in the Madrid Naval Museum, Part II

Here's a look at Chinese ship and boat models in the Museo Naval de Madrid. As in the previous post, about Philippine vessels in the same museum, the captions are my none-too-adept translations of the Spanish exhibit cards, followed by my own comments in parentheses. Click any image to enlarge.
Champantain (19th C.), Chinese coast guard vessel, generally used to pursue opium smugglers (I've never come across this name for a vessel type. I wonder if there's a different term in English.)

(another shot of the champantain in the previous photo. She looks speedy, as a contraband patrol boat should.)

Junk Keying (19th C.), Two models of junks similar to the Keying, the first Chinese vessel to sail from Hong Kong to London (The trip was via Cape of Good Hope and USA, in 1846-48. See the Wikipedia article for more.)

(the stern of the junk on the right of the previous photo)

Chinese funerary offering (17th C.) (Just as Chinese grave goods often depicted the happy home and residents of deceased lands-people, so too did boat dwellers depict their homes in goods buried with loved ones) 

Sampantanka (19th C.), River vessel for passenger carriage and selling merchandise (i.e., a sampan. The model wasn't specifically identified as Chinese, but I'm pretty confident that it is)

Lorcha (19th C.), Chinese; used for cabotage and piracy. (Cabotage is coastal cargo carriage. This one is definitely a pirate. If you click to enlarge, you'll see cannon in the bow and stern, and the rowers are protected by round shields, as in the old, inaccurate illustrations of Viking ships.)
"House of Flowers" (18th C.), Chinese pleasure vessel (model appears to be made of ivory. The detail carving is lovely and intricate.)


(closeup of the vessel "House of Flowers," in previous photo)

3 comments:

  1. Any luck finding an English name? Or maybe Chinese name? My CHinese literacy is limited, but if I have a CHinese name I may be able to access those resources, maybe with the help of family members...

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  2. KuKulz: thanks for your offer, but I don't have any further info. on the names.

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    1. Too bad, I was really hoping to do more research on the champantain... lovely ship, too bad I can't find anything on it.

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