Michael Rogers: For your eyes only.
Any other Swallow Boaters reading this do so at their own risk. (Personally, I wouldn't bother...but it's been a slow day..)
On the subject of Junk rig in Yorkshire
Im sorry to contradict an eminent authority on the topic but the true facts (as is so often the case) are quite the reverse of your previously stated position. It’s true that a fleet of ships commanded by Ying Tong visited the Yorkshire coast at that time but he was not Emperor, merely a noble of the court given the unpleasant job of monitoring the worlds fisheries after being caught embezzling Imperial funds or “fishing in MY pond” as the real emperor, I-Po, termed it. This was, in effect, a life-time of banishment carried out at Ying Tong’s own expense. Being a pointless task (stocks were thought inexhaustible at the time) it was considered a very shaming occupation for a member of the nobility used to high office, particularly as it concerned fish. (Fish, it will be remembered, are considered Yang or “cold” in Confucian systems and so not fit food for a vigorous warrior knight.) Such was the cruel subtlety of I-Po’s punishment. Ying, in consequence, was of an irascible temperament and when asked what he thought of the pride of Yorkshires fishing fleet, drawn up on the shingle south of Filey Brig for his inspection is reported to have replied “Pah! Road of owd Cobbers! Which way to Rundon?” Yorkshire beach boats have been referred to as “Cobles” ever since.
There are two other lasting legacies from this visit.
When members of Ying’s retinue were asked by puzzled Yorkshiremen why such a high caste noble was counting fishing boats, the reply of “Ying Tong, diddle I-Po!” oft repeated with irreverent relish by laughing Chinese seamen was misunderstood and assumed to be a taunt of some kind. Strangers have been treated with suspicion in these parts ever since.
Lastly the vexed question of the origins of Junk rig. It has been suggested by those ignorant of the true facts that the lugsail was a simplification, adopted from the fully battened sails seen on Ying Tong’s ships. In fact, all the references from this period, including some beautifully illustrated scrolls, point to Chinese ocean going ships being rigged with large Lateen sails, identical to the Arab Dhows which undoubtedly traded with the Chinese empire at this period. Ying Tong may have been forced to use shorter spars when repairing damage caused in a gale when many of his ships grounded at Wainfleet. The Chinese were apparently very impressed by the weatherliness of a local fishing craft that clawed its way off the lee shore that was their undoing, and by the seamanship of the skipper in using his wife’s pink corsets as an extra mizzen tops’l which made all the difference. (This also may account for the rumours of men from the North using whale bone battens in their sails.)
All the above I have on the very greatest authority. From the very lips of the man in the raincoat and cloth cap who sits in the corner of the public bar of the Crown and Anchor at Staithes. Cant say fairer than that, Eh?
(“I told you I was ill!” Spike Milligan’s epitaph. )
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CR1k2oGm7yw