Ship model of a Chinese junk (Changsha) - cargo junk, ‘wuzhang’
Description
Model of a cargo junk, a ‘wuzhang’. Capacity of approximately 16 tons. Such junks, built of both hard and soft wood, traded from Changsha to Wuhan with among other things rice and paper, while carrying foreign sundries back to Changsha.
Model built of planks with transverse bulkheads. Flat bottom, fore and aft slightly rising and ending in a swim head. Fore fairly stretched, upwards slightly broadening; aft with a tumbling-home curve, broadening at the top. Angular bilges; straight, heavily flaring lower board, above which a clinker-built tumbling-home upper board, a vertical heightened bulwark. Flat sheer. Cathead on the fore cuddy board, behind it an open well, with hole for mud anchor. Loose raised roof in between two long, low side coamings up to the stern. Narrow gangway. Open hold, covered by arched wooden cover running up to the after cuddy board. Behind the thwart an open well for the rudderpost. Balanced rudder with straight back, bent top. Single mast with standing lug, cotton cloth sail having one broad front strip and two narrower ones. Mud anchor.
