Hong Kong Young Writers Anthologies Fiction Group 3 | Page 139

New Tales of the Ming Treasure Voyages
Korean International School, Kang, Tae Stewart - 13
In the 15th century, voyages were carried out by the Ming Treasure fleet carrying gold, silk, and treasure.
They gave these treasures as gifts to the poor, or people who needed them. They were very kind. They
became friends with many countries via the gifting, and were recognised by most. During these voyages,
many pirate attacks took place. As the Ming ships were full of gold, they were very heavy and didn't travel
very fast at all.
It was my first time on a voyage, I was a rookie. My name is Zhang Wei. I stepped onto the huge boat
carrying lots of valuable treasure. I was very nervous at the start, since I had never been on one of these
treasure voyages before, but at the same time I was so, so excited. The captain of the ship named Zheng He
[or as we had to call him, Mr He] welcomed me aboard and told me where we were heading and how far it
would be. All of the workers had boarded and the anchor was hoisted above the railing - we were off!
Sailing was a very new thing to me and I felt like I loved it! The wind blowing through my hair, the sound
of the ocean as the ship gushed through the waves; it was all very pleasant.
Mr He came up to me and told me my duties on the boat that day. I was commanded to look out for any
other ships, mainly pirate ships. After he had instructed me, he disappeared behind the door to his cabin. At
this point I was very worried. I had no idea how to distinguish pirate boats from sailing boats, or cargo
boats. I was going to enter Mr He’s office and ask him, but I felt it was unnecessary, because I knew we
would not come across pirates.
We had headed south for quite a while now. I checked with the captain for the time and he said it had been
6 hours since boarding. I stepped out of the cabin and leaned over the railing with spits of water splashing in
my face. It was the most relaxing thing I had done in a long time. After an hour more of “looking out for
pirates” Mr He told me to go to bed. I ran down to my [more like our] cabin and sat in my hammock day
dreaming. About five minutes later I dozed off.
Since we had boarded at 7PM and eaten dinner beforehand, when we woke up at 6AM, the crew were all
very hungry. Our breakfast was on the deck waiting for us. The food was bone soup and tea as a drink.
When I arrived and took a glance at the food, I gagged. Everyone had already dug in to their portion, with
me standing there blankly, disgusted. After I had seen everybody somewhat enjoy the food, I started eating
because I would die without food, right? It wasn’t as bad as I had anticipated.. Nevermind, it was disgusting.
I was on my last spoon of the soup when then I heard the bells ring loudly. I knew what this meant - the
pirates, they were onto us.
I jumped up and pushed my body against the railing looking east for the boat. There it was, a pirate boat,
cannons dotted about on the side of the ship, men frolicking on the ship as if they were excited to eat us.
My heart sank and I froze, light headed. It seemed my whole life had flashed before my eyes! Zheng slapped
me on the shoulder and shouted, “you have duties to do!” I nodded. He had told me at the start of the
voyage what I was to do in an emergency “pirate” situation like this one.
I rushed down to the cabins where two cannons stood with buckets of cannonballs right beside them. I was
told to wait until the ship was completely in line with ours, then fire. I looked up through the tiny hole
above the cannon and saw our soldiers finally armed with swords, ready to attack at any moment. The
pirates were closing in on our ship. I was scared to death, but I still held my ground. This was it, the pirate
crew threw ropes and flew over to our ship. All I could hear was the slashing of swords and the screaming of
the crew. I then remembered I had not fired the cannon. It was time. I picked up a cannonball weighing as
much as I did, and stuffed it into the chute of the cannon, grabbed a torch and lit the fuse. BOOM! The
cannon fired. After a few seconds it reached the other ship and soon water was seeping in through the
gigantic hole that the cannon ball had just made. I felt truly accomplished.
I heard loud footsteps heading down the cabin hatch. It was the pirates! My heart was pounding and as an
instinct I put my hands up. They were shouting at me in a foreign language that I didn’t understand, but
then suddenly, they rushed back up the hatch and onto the deck. Again, I was frozen in shock, still with my
hands up. The slashing of swords had stopped and I looked back through the cannon hole and saw that the
pirates had given up and fled on their ship.