Facts on Hoang Sa boats

"Our ancestors transmitted orally to us how their boats crossed the East Sea to the Hoang Sa and Truong Sa archipelagoes. In my childhood in Ly Son, the type of boats going to and fro in the sea was not different from those in the past. They were neat, small, solid and very handy on waters with sand banks, coral shoals like Hoang Sa and Truong Sa... ". The old scholar Vo Hien Dat in Ly Son Island proudly recalled the time when various generations of his courageous ancestors advanced to the sea. In the sea-going season of 2011, the old Dat reached his 81; he was the head of the group studying and reconstructing the boat of the ancient Vietnam’s powerful armies, which had been used to conquer the sea. Being an elder rarely found among those who still had good command of Han script, the old Mr. Dat had access to a lot of ancient documents, bibliographies and conferring titles in Ly Son to thoroughly know about the boats of his ancestors.

There were afternoons when watching the sea in the port of Ly Son, Vo Hien Dat told me that the islanders were very poor in the first half of the 20th century. Seafarers used to go to sea on sailboats like generations of their ancestors, riding on the most dangerous waves. Merchants went on wooden barges. Fishermen went on small fishing boats. The two types of boats were slightly different from each other in size, but the same when crossing the sea thanks to the wind blowing the sails as well as the boats’ capabilities of sailing in shallow waters.

In reconstructing the ancient Hoang Sa boat, the old Dat carefully met with other elders in Ly Son to discuss the exact type of boat. In fact, he and his friends still remembered clearly that in the first half of the 20th century, fishermen in Ly Son and along Quang Ngai coast, generation after generation, did the seafaring on this type of boats.  They routinely called it fishing boat. This is the common name of the boats used by their ancestors in the far past to cross the sea to Hoang Sa. Besides, another basis for their reconstruction of this exact type of boats was the sample of the boat donated to the sacrifice-offering ceremony of Hoang Sa soldiers. Actually at the time of operations of the Hoang Sa detachment, this ceremony was conducted to relieve the mind of those who left to the sea for the motherland, and this sample of sailingboat in the ceremony has been handed down till today.

In particular, prestigious historians in the old days also clearly affirmed the type of boats once used by the Vietnamese to ride bravely on big waves to establish sovereignty over the sea for their country. In the detailed notes by scholar Le Quy Don, not only Hoang Sa, but also Bac Hai detachments which were put under the management of the former, conquered the ocean with this type of small boats. The area where the Bac Hai detachments operated was the Truong Sa archipelago and the islands further stretching southwards.
 

In 1786, in an directive to the Hoang Sa detachment for its continued activities, the Tay Son court clearly wrote: "Do order Hoi Duc Hau, commander of the Hoang Sa detachment, to always examine and supervise the detachment to use naval signs and ride four fishing boats to cross the sea straight to Hoang Sa…” And in “Phu bien tap luc” by Le Quy Don, notes were made to this exact type of boats when referring to the Hoang Sa detachment:  “Formerly, the Nguyens ordered a 70-strong Hoang Sa detachment made up of An Vinh villagers, which was sent on duty in the second month of every year, taking along enough food for six months on five fishing boats and reached the islands after a three days and nights voyage… The Nguyens also set up the Bac Hai detachment without a fixed number of sailors, selected from Tu Chinh village in Binh Thuan or from Canh Duong commune on a voluntary basis; those who volunteer to join the detachment will be exempted from poll tax, patrol and transportation fees and travel in small fishing boats to Bac Hai, Con Lon Island, and other islands in Ha Tien…” And that type of fishing boats was the boat that fishermen in Ly Son traditionally used to ride on big waves.

Especially, a number of foreign travellers and merchants, when coming to Dang Trong (southern Vietnam), also mentioned to this original type of Vietnamese fishermen’s boats,  although with their different ways of naming. Buddhist Shi Dashan, a Chinese, who sailed to Dang Trong in 1696 made notes in his book “Hai ngoai ky su” on a type of fast-going  “Dieu xa” in this kingdom. Whilst his large boat, starting from Guangdong, ran aground, he greatly admired “Dieu xa” boat with axe-like sail breaking the winds at the sea of Hoang Sa.  This was the boat sent by lord Nguyen Phuc Chu to welcome the Chinese monk at Cu Lao Cham (or Tien Bich Sa as it was called at that time). The history of Vietnam and international maritime documents also recorded that the Nguyen sent boats to rescue sunken foreign ships, including Dutch, British and French ones, on various occasions.

The speed secret

Monk Shi Dashan admired this small type of Vietnamese boats, which, in sailing in favourable wind, went at speed 10 times over large heavy wooden boats. This was the original secret of the fishing boats in the old days. The era of machines today has “sent” fishing boats once valiantly mastering the East Sea into history, but in Central Vietnam, especially Quang Ngai, there are people who used to build, or have thorough knowledge of, this original type of ocean-crossing boats of the Vietnamese.
Vo Hien Dat told that in 1945, the French dissolved boat-building workshops in Ly Son Island. At that time, he was only 15 and usually groped about the workshops there to see and learn the job. Also, there were a number of seafarers in his family, who did the fishing job on fishing boats until the 1970s, when such boats were motorized. Once, the fishing boat not only was a means of livelihood, but also a dear friend to  many families in Ly Son.

Recently, the old Dat has built a boat, a small copy of the Hoang Sa fishing boat, for the Museum of Quang Ngai. It is 12-18 m in length, 2.5-3m in width, and 1.8-2m in depth. The fishing boat especially features its structure of both wood and bamboo. Of which, the wood is used to make the frame and the upper parts whilst the bamboo is woven into sheet to cover the bottom to prevent water from leaking inside. And bamboo is the secret that makes the fishing boat of the Vietnamese lighter so as to  achieve a high speed.

According to the old man and the elders in Ly Son, thanks to the light boats, the Hoang Sa detachment easily landed on coral reefs and sandy islands gently stretching around Hoang Sa, where large vessels were unable to access. Especially, in case of engaging in naval battles, the fishing boats were quick in gathering speed to get close to the enemy to launch the attack./.