War in Ancient India c10.127

c10.127

The description of ships by John of Montecorvino may be taken to be illustrative of Indian ships. He says: "Their ships in these parts are mighty, frail and uncouth with no iron in them and no caulking. They are sewn like clothes with twine. And so if the twine breaks anywhere there is a breach indeed. Once every year therefore there is mending of this more or less if they go to sea. And they have a frail and flimsy rudder, like the top of a table, of a cubit in width, in the middle of the stern, and when they have to tack, it is done with a vast deal of trouble, and if it is blowing in any way hard, they cannot tack at all. They have but one sail and one mast and the sails are either of matting or miserable cloth. The ropes are of husk." 81 Indian ships appear to have been small in size. Barbosa observes that the Moors built keeled ships of a thousand and a thousand two hundred *bahares* burden, which would be about 224 tons. 82 Varthema's account of the ships built at Calicut shows that the ships were generally 200 tons. 83 According to Nicolo dei Conti, the carrying capacity of the ships was estimated at 2,000 butts or about 60,000 cubit feet.