Max Baucus: “600 years ago this month, a great fleet of more than 300 ships lifted anchor at Nanjing, China, on the first of 7…”

“600 years ago this month, a great fleet of more than 300 ships lifted anchor at Nanjing, China, on the first of 7 voyages of trade and discovery. The Chinese fleet counted the largest wooden ships ever built, some with nine masts, massive keels of teak, and decks 400 feet long--you can imagine, longer than a football field. The Ming Emperor gave his nearly 7-foot tall admiral orders to sail on July 11, 1405, nearly a century before Christopher Columbus and Vasco da Gama left Europe. And all of those European explorers' ships could have fit on a single deck of one of the Chinese treasure ships. The 36-foot rudder of one of the ships stood almost as tall as Columbus' flagship, the Nina, was long. The Ming fleet carried a crew of nearly 28,000, with a medical officer for every 150 souls on board. The fleets carried more than a million tons of silk, porcelain, copper coins, and spices to trade for the riches of the world, on to what the Chinese called the Western Ocean--what we call the Indian Ocean. They reached Sumatra, Ceylon, and India. They went to the Arabian peninsula and Africa's Swahili coast. They made a side trip to Mecca. At each port, ships with colorful prows delivered platoons of Chinese merchants, ready to do business. In Siam--now Thailand--they acquired sandalwood, peacocks, and cardamom. In Indonesia, they acquired tin. In Oman, they traded porcelain for frankincense, myrrh, and aloe. The Sultan of Aden gave them zebras, lions, and ostriches.…”