从1405年到1421年,一个明朝的宦官郑和率领巨大的船队七下西洋,最远到达东非。甚至西方有些捕风捉影的人认为,美洲也是郑和首先发现的。其所用之船,大者为九桅平底帆船,长444英尺,宽186英尺;小者五桅,亦长180英尺,宽68英尺。第一次远洋大船62只,小船255只,船员将近两万八千人; From 1405 to 1421, Zheng Ming, a Ming eunuch, led a huge fleet of sailors to the west and farthest east of East Africa. Even some of the most influential people in the West think that the Americas were the first to be discovered by Zheng He. The vessels used were large, nine-masted sails, 444 feet long and 186 feet wide, and the smaller five-mast, 180 feet long and 68 feet wide. The first large-scale ocean-going ship 62, 255 boats, crew of nearly 28,000 people;