Food and Fresh Water on Zheng He’s Treasure Ships: Feeding 27,000 Men at Sea
In 1415, aboard a Ming dynasty vessel in the central Indian Ocean, a sailor named Afu lifted a damp burlap sack to reveal sprouting mung beans beneath, their tips just turning white. Imagine this: in a ship’s hold thick with salty sea air, the stench of rotting timber, sweat, and acrid charcoal smoke, that small…