Re: IIWU battle royale -preliminary material

>On Fri, Jun 6, 1997 2:04 PM EDT, Toby wrote:
>>And possibly the Shou.   Did I leave anybody out?<
>It looks like the scro might've swung the Wa-an (remember 200ton dreadnaught
>Tsunamis and the secret Rudders of Propulsion for the kamikazis) their way,
>or at least on the sidelines, by implicating the elves in trading contraband
>to highly insular Wa, with some help from Shou's Royal Vagabonds perhaps.
> Who knows?  If Wa is not on good terms with the elves at this time, the Shou
>are likely to buddy up against the pigsnouts, unless maybe if it's the year
>of the Pig.
>  Sources, sources, sources?  WCC, Westermeyer's site, Kara-tur boxed set.
>  Also, have been reading *When China Ruled the Seas* and it offers a good
>look at how much goes into outfitting a fleet to go to Madagascar.  They (the
>Chinese) got some big, nine masted vessels in there, bigger than anything
>Marco Polo's Europe put out, as well.


Chinese seafaring was fairly advanced,  but there is little indication it
exceeded European discovery era vessels in capability.  In fact,  the
evidence seems to put them in as a close second.  Be very careful with the
nine masted vessels,  the sources are given to exaggeration.  Wooden
vessels have a set max length,  it is impossible to exceed it.

This doesn't change the impressive achievement of the Madagascar fleet.
the best work on Chinese Seafaring is Needham's _Science and Civilization
in China: Volume IV Pt 3:Civil Engineering and Nautics_ (London,  Cambridge
Univ. Press 1971).  Needham's work is well documented and first rate on the
technology,  but be careful concerning his societal analysis.  He was an
official card carrying communist and great ally of Communist China (during
the Korean War he was one of a handful of British and American scientists
who accussed the US of using biological weapons. This meant he had access
to evidence other scholars were refused access to,  but it also colored
some of his analysis.

That said it is still first rate work,  and if someone were interested in
doing a really indepth piece on the Shou Spelljamming fleet this would be
the place to start.

"We look on the same stars,  the sky is common,  the same world surrounds
us.  What difference does it make by what pains each seeks the truth?  We
can not attain to so great a secret by one road..."
Symmachus,  "Memorial on the Occasion of the Removal of the Altar of
Victory from the Senate House" (392 AD)

westermeyer.3@???.edu
Paul William Westermeyer