kbs2244 wrote:From today’s news.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/f ... 675866.stm“An Arab dhow in the Gaspar Strait, near Belitung Island, off the south-east coast of Sumatra.”
That is a long way from the Red Sea, the Persian Gulf, or even the west coast of India.
It would seem the "Maritime Silk Road" did not have many trading posts along it.
One trader going from end to end.
kbs224 -
The operative word here is passagemaking, rather than the epithet of harbor hopping.
This differentiates open-water sailors from coastal sailors.
Throw in another element.......
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news ... k-art.html
So we have open-water travel between Indonesia and Australia,
And I'd bet my mother's best china that it wasn't
For just a few hundred years before the almighty Brits
Laid claim to Aussieland.
One of the points I am making here is both
The Dhow and the Prau are marvellously seaworthy boats, not only
In coastal water, which has its own set of dangers,
But in open water passagemaking.
And, of course, they can carry a considerable number of passengers
In addition to cargo.
It would be interesting if the researchers analyzed
A fragment of that paint to establish
The age of the painting.
hoka hey
john
"Man is a marvellous curiosity. When he is at his very, very best he is sort of a low-grade nickel-plated angel; at his worst he is unspeakable, unimaginable; and first and last and all the time he is a sarcasm."
Mark Twain