Warring Societies of Pre-colonial Southeast Asiathe lower Mekong for the transportation of goods in the South China
Sea.^37
The introduction of western shipbuilding technology, although men-
tioned early in western sources, first appeared in the Nguyen Veritable
Records in 1798 when the Nguyen prince asked several timber-cutting
divisions to prepare planks for constructing “vessels in western style”
(Tay Duong dang chu).^38 This supports Barrow’s account of 1797–98 that
the Nguyen were able to construct “at least 300 large gunboats or row-
gallies, five luggers and a frigate on the model of a European vessel”.^39
Their techniques earned not only regional recognition, as mentioned
above, but also western praise. In his account of his early nineteenth-
century journey to Vietnam, Lieutenant John White of the US Navy
described almost every aspect of the local society, including its ability to
adapt maritime technologies. As he observed, “Cochin China is perhaps,
of all the powers in Asia, the best adapted to maritime adventure; from
her local situation in respect to other powers from her facilities towards
the production of powerful navy to protect her commerce from the ex-
cellence of her harbours, and from the aquatic nature of her population
on the sea-board...”^40 Other accounts also revealed that Nguyen Phuc
Anh purchased a western ship and disassembled it into pieces in order to
acquire the construction techniques that had been used in building it.^41
Nevertheless, Nguyen Phuc Anh did not systematically produce
western-style ships. He made this choice because such ships were unable
to operate flexibly in narrow rivers and along the shallow coasts. Instead,
his design for local vessels focused upon the intensive use of cannon,
the fortification of the decks, and multi-purpose structures to enable
various military tasks. A good example was his initiative to change the
structure of the Long-Rudder vessel (Truong da chu). Solid decks were
constructed as fighting platforms and bamboo wattles were installed
to protect the rowing-crews underneath. This technical innovation, as
stated by the Nguyen chronicle, made “maritime transportation more
- Li, “Ship and Ship Building in Vietnam, 18–19th century”, 84.
- DNTL, vol. 2, quyen 10, 164.
- John Barrow, A Voyage to Cochinchina in the years 1792 and 1793, 274.
- White, A Voyage to Cochinchina, 265.
- See for example Barrow, A Voyage to Cochinchina, 277.