Defences of Macau, The: Forts, Ships and Weapons over 450 years

8. The Defensive Role of the Navy

123 7 . T W E N T I E T H - C E N T U R Y D E F E N C E S CHAPTER 8 Early History The Portuguese were the great European navigators of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries but, in the East, they had been preceded by the Chinese. Admiral Zheng He had led a number of extensive expeditions that showed that they were capable of sailing the world. However his journeys ceased, probably because the cost was found to be too great. Also many people at the Court were uncomfortable with looking too far afield. Thus when the Portuguese arrived they had little competition except from the Arabs whose dhows were no match for the European ships. The Portuguese navigator explorers had been encouraged by Dom Henrique, Henry the Navigator, to explore the African coast and they gradually ventured further and further south. Whilst the initial motives included scientific enquiry, very soon trade became the main incentive. The process started in 1434 and finally in 1497 Vasco da Gama rounded the Cape of Good Hope. The initial bonanza was the cheaper access to spices that were the most expensive commodities at the time, particularly pepper. But the intrepid traders looked even further east and this led to the establishment of Macau. As noted in the earlier descriptions, one of the strengths of the Portuguese was its ships. In the main these were armed merchantmen and not exclusively fighting ships. References to them use a number of names to describe them. The first is the word “ship” itself. A “ship” is a large craft that in the age of sail usually had three or more masts, all square-rigged. Another term for an ocean-going ship is “carrack”. These were large enough to be stable in heavy seas, and roomy enough to carry provisions for long voyages. A “caravel” (or caravelle) is a similar but smaller vessel that had two or three masts. A “brig” or “brigantine” was a two-masted ship often used for cargo as well as being capable of mounting about ten guns. A “frigate” was originally a long, narrow vessel used on the Mediterranean, propelled by either oars or sail or both. Later, during the eighteenth and early nineteenth century the term was applied to a square-rigged naval vessel that was renowned for THE DEFENSIVE ROLE OF THE NAVY T H E D E F E N C E S O F M A C A U 124 its fast speed. The Dona Maria II (Figure 88), which blew up off Taipa in 1848, was a frigate. A “corvette” was another small warship, classed between a frigate and a sloop-ofwar . They were widely employed in escorting convoys and attacking merchant ships during the great naval wars of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. At the beginning of World War II the term “Corvette” was reintroduced to designate a small vessel of about 1,000 tons displacement, armed with depth charges and a single 4-inch (10.2 cm) gun. Whatever they were called, when the Portuguese ships appeared in the China seas in the sixteenth century they were more powerful than the Chinese junks. This was because after Zheng He’s journeys the Chinese had given up their great navies. Hence all that the Portuguese had to face were relatively small war junks and pirate boats. The war junks were not as weak as many suppose and certainly, as noted above, they were able to sink the early Portuguese ships. That appears to have been an isolated incident and either the Portuguese ships became stronger or the junks became weaker so that by the time Macau was established they ruled the seas. Figure 88. Frigate Dona Maria II. Reproduced courtesy of the Museu da Marinha. 125 8 . T H E D E F E N S I V E R O L E O F T H E N A V Y The ships, when anchored at Macau, provided excellent protection against any attack from the sea and there was no need to confront the Chinese by building forts. This situation lasted until the end of the sixteenth century when other European ships started to appear. When the Dutch started to be a threat after 1600 the Portuguese began to site batteries on shore, but they still largely relied on the protection of the ships, although...