Hong Kong Young Writers Anthologies Fiction 4-7 2019 | Page 247

New Tales of the Ming Treasure Voayages
Yew Chung International School, Xiax, Shenghuan - 16
Zheng He and the other ship’s crews were ready to go on the sea navigation. They used new technologies
to build the ship that made the ship much bigger, which had 186 meters long and 60 meters wide. This
ship could carry thousands of sailors and a lot of gold, silks and other precious items to give away as a gift.
Zheng He was the leader of the sea navigation, before the navigation, he asked crews to load on the gifts
and the foods needed for the trip. Zheng He told the ship crews about how to operate the ship. He also
told them when the crews saw the pirates, they should firstly think about escaping the pirates, if the pirate
went closer, they needed to keep the pirates away from boarding the ship. When these were ready, the
ship’s crews were boarded on the ship and the ship went away from the port.
The crews checked the compass on the boat, they found that the wind was blowing to the direction of
Manchu. They put the sail and the ship started to go to the direction on Manchu. Soon they were far from
the shore, and they couldn’t see the land anymore. At the start of the trip, the waves on the sea wasn’t
very big, the crews felt safe. Zheng He summoned all the crews on the trip to talk about what to do next.
Zheng He had a meeting to talk about what to do when experiencing big waves.
One of the ship crew asked Zheng He: “Did you have any solutions when there are big waves? If we
don’t come up with some ideas to solve this problem, the ship might overturn and sink, there is no much
possibility to survive if that happens.”
Zheng He replied: “Our ship is very big, so it can deal with waves on the sea. If the wave is not
extremely big, but there is still a risk that the ship might overturn when experiencing extreme waves.”
Then, Zheng He announced to all the ship crews: “Our ship was big enough that we don’t need to be
afraid of big waves in the sea, but still in mind, it will be still a problem if we are experiencing extreme
waves.”
On the next day, Zheng He and the other ship crews woke up, it was the second day of their trip.
After their breakfast, they planned what to do next. Later, one of the ship crew found out that the wind
was blowing in wrong direction. He told other ship crews: “The wind is blowing in wrong direction, put
the sail down.” “Ok”, the ship crews obeyed and put off the sails from the ship. Later, when they found
out the wind was blowing in right direction again, they then put on the sails.
Then, the crews saw there was another ship in front of them. The other ship was far from them, but
they were getting closer and closer. Zheng He saw this. “Hurry up, put down the sails as we will collide
with them!” Zheng He told the ship crews. “We put down all the sails, the ship will slow down
soon.” The ship went nearer and nearer to the front ship, as the ship will soon collide with the front
ship, their ship slowed down and the front ship went further and further. They missed a collide.
The next day, at the morning, one of the ship crew woke up and went to the deck of the ship. He
looked around at the deck, he found out there was another ship far from them. He looked more carefully,
he then found out there were many cannons placed on each side. The ship crew soon realized that this ship
may be a pirate ship. He hurried went down and found Zheng He, he said hurriedly: “I saw a ship full of
cannons, aren’t they are pirate?”
“Let’s go up and see, which direction?
They went up to the deck of the ship.
“This direction, that ship, and it is getting closer to us, they may want to get treasures from us.” The
ship crew said.
Zheng He went to the dormitory where ship crews were sleeping.
“Get up, we may meet pirates, get the weapons and go to the deck!” Zheng He shouted to the ship
crews, “for sailors, put the sail on to see whether we can escape from them.”
The ship crews get on the deck, they got all the weapons and looked at that ship. The sailors put on
the sail, the ship speeded up. The crews looked at the ship full of cannons, he saw that ship was getting
closer and closer to them.
“The ship is getting closer!” He told Zheng He.
“Crews, ready for the battle!” Zheng He shouted out to every crews.
As the pirate ship got closer towards them, the pirate shouted at them: “You are dead now, when I
order fire the cannon, your ship will sink. If you don’t want to die, you better give us all the treasures or
precious things to us so you don’t get killed.”