Hong Kong Young Writers Anthologies Fiction Group 1 | Page 87

A Tale of the New Ming Treasure Voyages
St Stephen's College Preparatory School, Yu, Nicole - 8
After two months of sailing and trading goods, our crew, led by Admiral Zheng He, found ourselves in a
ferocious storm. Waves crashed against our fleet of ships and everyone was seasick for weeks. After the
storm and rough waters cleared, we didn’t know where the storm had blown us to. We completely lost our
navigation. We were heading south at first yet ended up going east. We had to use different instruments
and stars to guide us back on track.
I was travelling on the main ship, commanded by admiral Zheng He. It was four hundred feet long, and
was very large in comparison to the other ships. Sometimes I was terrified, sometimes excited and
sometimes even both at the same time when I was on board. As a young sailor, I learnt how to sail when
the storms came, and assist as a crew member. When the fleet was sailing on calm waters I would do chores.
There were several different types of jobs such as sweeping the decks and cooking. My job would
sometimes be filling gun powder in the cannons and carefully aiming them at our enemies. But the most
interesting job would be hoisting the sails, as you needed to control a lot of different ropes and tug on them
with all your strength simultaneously at the same time with the rest of the crew. We would hoist and lower
the sails a few times a day.
The different sights were incredible to see. Occasionally, I saw a pink dolphin and a massive whale shark.
When the fleet sailed to Arabia, the crew were amazed by what they saw. Magnificent towering cliffs and
thousands of birds that filled the sky making it dark during the day. Even though the cliffs loomed over the
fleet creating spooky shadows, it wasn’t half as scary as battling hostile armies and dangerous pirates of the
more usual treasure–stealing and ship-attacking sort.
While sailing to Arabia, I discovered that Mongols were following us. So we broke into battle, firing
muskets and cannons at each other. Zheng He’s fleet usually won and we captured the Mongols who were
later executed on return to the Ming Empire. We discovered that the Mongols had been trying to steal the
goods and treasures we carried.
When the fleet arrived in Arabia, the peaceful people there greeted us with a welcoming ceremony. This
was the only time we traded goods. They agreed to trade some of their jewels in exchange for tin, Indian
cotton cloth and corals. Other times, such as in India, we offered our goods for free. These were guns,
resins and rhinoceros’ horns, which were gratefully appreciated and the Indians gave us curry in exchange.
This was as far as we explored in the seven voyages. I was happy to collect all these goods from different
countries and to offer the wonderful goods from our dynasty to the world.