Last modified: 2012-07-01 by eugene ipavec Keywords: china | ching dynasty | Links: FOTW homepage | search | disclaimer and copyright | write us | mirrors
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Note: You can click on the image of the flag for more information or a larger image. (only the Sea Goddess ensign is clickable)
Depicts a red penannt, red streamer and white ensign used as an accident sign in the center mast a red pennant, white streamer and white ensign used as a safety sign on the rear mast; five-striped ensign of Sea Goddess 天上聖母 at the fore.
Nozomi Kariyasu, 18 October 2006
The ship's bow is to the left; the correct masts' names on the depiction below are:
white ensign used as a safety sign on the foremast; five-striped ensign of Sea Goddess 天上聖母 at the mizzenmast.
A. Sedano, 24 Mar 2012
Having the feeling this is a mistake caused by the build of a junk, and being somewhat unsure of this image (To my slightly usual eyes there aren't enough directional clues, so the sails keep flipping direction.), I went looking for an image of an actual junk.
I found this photograph of a start of last century five-masted junk at digitallibrary.usc.edu. This has the sails flipping somewhat less for me, but more importantly: this junk has what looks like a tender in tow, hence, we can distinguish quite clearly between the fore and the aft of such a junk.
This allows us to see that in our image, the bow is to the right! The photograph has the bow slightly sharper, but I don't know whether our source had as well. The impression of the flags being fully visible gives the impression that we're seeing the "Flying Chinaman" here - an ancient junk cursed to forever sail the seas, that will always take it's course dead against the wind - but I guess that's done to make them as visible as possible.
Peter Hans van den Muijzenberg, 25 Mar 2012
