Hong Kong Young Writers Anthologies Fiction Group 3 | Page 293

A Sailor
Ying Wa College, Au, Kit Sang Keith - 13
“Come here, my dear grandson, do you want grandpa to tell you a story – a story about me when I was
young? ….Yes? …..Good.” An old man was sitting on his bamboo chair, with his grandson sitting on his
thigh. The grandson was gazing at him, dying to learn about his story. He took a deep breath, cruised to the
past and searched for one of his unforgettable adventures. It didn’t take him long to find one, as he could
never forget those days when he was a member of one of the greatest fleets in the history of the Ming
Dynasty.
“Well…I remember those days when I was still young, I longed to be a sailor. Being on a journey
sounded amazing to me. I loved to be a captain when my friends and I played. I grew up and I never forgot
my dream even though I knew that the Emperor at that time didn’t allow any ship to sail. My dream came
true when I was 20. One day, I saw a poster on the street and a lot of people were listening to an
announcement made by an officer. I went out and listened to what he said. He said that the Emperor was
recruiting strong and brave men to work in the fleet for upcoming voyages! I was very happy that I
immediately grabbed a poster from the officer and filed in my application. I still remember how excited I
was then and I still kept the poster that he gave me!.... Here you go, be careful not to break it!.... I prepared
for the voyage every day and waited for the day to get onboard.”
“I remember the day when everyone went on board. All of us were very excited about the journey and as
happy as birds which had just learned how to fly. Our families were sad but also proud of their sons or
husbands for the honour to be one in this grand journey. Well, perhaps even soldiers setting off wouldn’t get
such a lot of people to send them off! On the first few days of the journey, every one of us were energetic
and we all thought that we were arriving at the destiny soon. But soon, people started to become loath to
sail because of sea sick and the boring work like maintaining the ship. One day, the captain of the fleet,
grand director Cheung invented a game which was about sailing. The game was great fun and a lot of us
were very keen on it. We regained our passion and interest in sailing. A few days later, we eventually
arrived.
“Things aren’t easy for the first time. When we first arrived in Java, we were attacked by the locals there.
As I remember, there was a war and one of the rulers captured some of our crew.
Our captain went to ask for their release in the name of the Ming Emperor. It worked and the ruler was
afraid and returned our crew mates. It was not a good experience for most of us but we still carried on our
journey. We sailed to a lot of islands around Java. We didn’t gain much from those places. After being
attacked by the natives in Java, we started to pay more attention on safety and tried to avoid fights with the
locals. The days were peaceful until we received an appeal from some of the overseas Chinese, who said that
a pirate, Chen Zuyi had been robbing them for a long time. Our captain decided to fight against the pirates.
Most of us were afraid and didn’t really want to fight. But after receiving the message from the Emperor,
that we would get rewarded if we fought against the pirates, most of us fought very bravely. We soon
defeated the pirates and brought Chen back to the Emperor for execution. It is so lucky that the fight didn’t
last long and none of us got hurt. We defeated the pirates in just a few days and I still can’t believe that I did
that. The pirates were very scary at first but we soon discovered that they fought with no plans and some of
them were even arguing or were forced to fight. So we fought strategically and burnt their boats when they
were not paying attention. We all got awarded a lot after the fight. I am still keeping some of the cloths that
the Emperor gave me today!”
“The first voyage ended after we defeated the pirates. Everyone went back home for a rest and some of us
decided to retire from sailing and didn’t join the second voyage. The second voyage started soon but I didn’t
go sailing. Instead I stayed at home and took a rest. I joined the third voyage which was around four years
later. We were all excited to go on a journey again. We prepared a lot better based on our past experience
and the crew members were all well-trained. Although we were a lot more prepared compared to our first
and second journey, we still met a lot of problems during this voyage. Honestly I was quite flattered when I
realized that after the first two voyages in which we represented the Emperor to visit a lot of countries, we
got respected and treated well wherever we went. I remember when we arrived at Malacca, the captain
followed the order of the Ming Emperor and helped crowning the leader of Malacca king. Although Siam
ruled Malacca, the king of Siam didn’t attack us because they were afraid that the Ming Emperor would
fight back. As a gift, Malacca gave us six pieces of huge agarwood; I had never seen such huge agarwood in
my life! We were happy and brought them back to the Emperor after the journey. The Emperor felt exalted
when he saw them.”