In the 16th century, a Chinese ship with a cargo of porcelain and Chinese merchandise was a racked near the island of Guraidhoo in South Male' Atoll. The story is best told by Pyrard, who visited the island in 1605. I was at that island one day, and saw the mast and rudder of the ship that was lost there. I was told it was the richest ship conceivable. It had onboard some 500 persons, men, women, and children, for the Indians take the greater part of their household to sea with them. These 500 persons were night all drowned, and there remained by a hundred saved. This ship came from Sunda (Indonesia), laden with all kind of spices and other merchandise of China and Sunda. Judging merely from the mast of this vessel, I thought it the largest I had ever seen, for the mast was taller and thicker than those of the Portuguese carracks; and the king of the Maldives built a shed of the length of the mast to keep it as a curiosity. I saw also another mast and a top much larger than those of portugal. Thus was I led to believe that in the Indies they build vessels larger and of better material than in Portugal or anywhere else in the world. The greatest ships come from the coast of Arabia, Persia, and Mogor, and some have as many as 2,000 persons on board. Old folks on Guraidhoo still talk about a wooden ship believed to be wrecked on Medhu Faru near Guraidhoo centuries ago; however no visible remains are to be seen.
|
|
_________________________________________________________ |
