The Sea and Civilization: A Maritime History of the World (161 page)

14. A detail from the scroll commissioned by Takezaki Suenaga to commemorate the repulse of the Yuan (Mongol) Chinese invasion of Japan in 1281. At right, the three Oyano brothers are boarding a Chinese ship under a hail of arrows. To the left, Suenaga is cutting the throat of a Mongol warrior while another lies dead on deck. The Mongols cowering belowdecks are portrayed with distinctly simian faces. Although there is no mast adequate for a sail, it has probably been lowered for battle. Details characteristic of Chinese vessels of the time include the winch for an anchor forward and the heavy centerline rudder. Courtesy of the Imperial Museum, Tokyo.

15. An illustration from a 1341 manuscript of the Iranian national epic,
Shahnamah
(Book of Kings), written by Firdawsi at the start of the eleventh century. Here the legendary king Kay Khusraw is crossing the Sea of Zareh in pursuit of his maternal grandfather, Afrasiyab, who killed his father. The Sea of Zareh is actually a salt lake called the Goud-e Zereh near the border between Afghanistan and Iran and fed in part by the Helmand River, and crossing it would not have taken the seven months described by Firdawsi. Courtesy of the Freer Gallery of Art, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C.: Purchase, F1942.12.

16. A ship taking soundings, from the
Ordonances of Armoury, Jousting, Sword, and Axe Combat, and Chivalry
(fol. 138v), written in the mid-fifteenth century for Sir John Astley. The ship is a carrack, or galleon, the forerunner of the full-rigged ship with a combination of square sails on the fore and main masts, and a fore-and-aft lateen sail on the mizzen. The bow incorporates a heavy forecastle protected by shields, while two of the crew man the topcastle at the top of the mast. The text explains what course to steer after the water has reached a certain depth. Courtesy of the Pierpont Morgan Library/Art Resource, New York.

17. Jorge Aguiar’s portolan chart of the Mediterranean drafted in 1492, the year of Columbus’s epochal discovery, and the oldest extant chart of Portuguese origin. Drawn on a sheepskin, the neck of which is west, the chart shows Madeira, the Azores, the Canaries, and the Cape Verde Islands, and the coast of Africa from Cape Verde to Egypt and the Red Sea. Clearly seen on the Iberian Peninsula are Lisbon and Granada, newly taken from the Moors, while Genoa and Venice dominate the Italian Peninsula. The Rhine and Danube Rivers are treated as one, flowing between the North Sea and Black Sea, and while ports in the British Isles and around the Black Sea are well represented, the coasts of Denmark and the Baltic are blank. Courtesy of the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut.

18. Noah’s ark as seen by the Mughal illustrator Miskin, who painted this miniature in about 1590. As popular a figure in the Quran as he is in the Hebrew Bible, Noah (in Arabic, Nuh) kneels on the third deck facing aft, his head wreathed in a flaming halo, while the crew—dressed only in loincloths—sail the ship. Others try to maintain order among the castaway menagerie, which includes elephants, tigers, leopards, dromedaries, monkeys, pelicans, and doves, and other passengers, one of whom has fallen over. While the animals are shown in pairs, Miskin’s ark apparently carries no women. Courtesy of the Freer Gallery of Art, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C.: Purchase, F1948.8.

19. Johan Bruun’s
Kronborg Castle, View from the Øresund,
1739. The Øresund is the narrow strait between Denmark and what is now Sweden where all ships had to anchor to pay their toll for passage through the sound, under the supervision of the guardship of the Danish crown, shown at center. Courtesy of the Handels- og Søfartsmuseet på Kronborg, Helsingør, Denmark.

20. “John Bull Taking a Luncheon, or British Cooks Cramming Old Grumble-Gizzard with Bonne-Chére.” Drawn just after the battle of Aboukir, James Gillray’s cartoon shows Admiral Lord Nelson in the forefront of British admirals and naval heroes—including Warren, Howe, Bridport, Duncan, and St. Vincent—offering platters of ships to a gluttonous John Bull, who complains, “What! more Frigasees? why you sons o’ bitches you, where do ye think I shall find room to stow all you bring in?” Published October 24, 1798, by H. Humphrey. Courtesy of the National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, England.

21.
Giant Demon Attacks a Ship
from the seventeenth-century
Sripal Ras
(The Annals of Sripal), written by Yasovijayji and Vinayvijayj. The verse epic recounts the story of the lay Jain devotees Sripal Raja and his queen, Mayana, who together and singly endure many tests of faith. Seeking to make a name for himself, Sripal Raja traded on land and sea. This illustration shows his ship as an armed British trader, the most powerful and long-ranging vessels known to the merchant community of Gujarat of the 1770s when this was painted. Courtesy of the Freer Gallery of Art, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C.: Purchase, F1999.22.

22. Jean Dupas’s gold, silver, and palladium leaf and paint mural
History of Navigation
. Measuring more than six meters high by nearly nine meters long, the mural is an exotic interpretation of its subject designed for the first-class salon of the Compagnie Générale Transatlantique (French Line)’s ocean liner
Normandie
(1935–41). The ship itself exemplified the aesthetic celebrated in the Exposition Internationale des Arts Décoratifs et Industriels Modernes held in Paris in 1925. This was known as “ocean liner style” for decades before the demise of the ocean liner gave rise to the more generic term “art deco.” Courtesy of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York/Art Resource, New York.