"Main God, you're asking how this ship was built? Then you have to look at the Yingzao Fashi... What's the Yingzao Fashi? It's the rules for building ships... With the Main God as my witness! This Two-Hundred-Liao Sand Ship has no Center Keel, only Side Keels pieced together on both sides. So the Side Keels on the two sides are used as the measuring sticks to build the parts in all the proper proportions, and then everything is joined together at the end... That is its Yingzao Fashi!..."
"You want specifics? Sure thing. I can recite this ship from stem to stern!... From head to tip, her deck is 6 zhang and 1 chi (about 20 meters), and from the bow to where the planking ends on the bottom, it's exactly 4 zhang (13.3 meters). The Side Keels are in the middle, about 5 zhang and 1 chi (17 meters)... And using 5 zhang as the ruler, the two masts on deck both carry full fore-and-aft sails. The mainmast is the same length as the ruler, about 5 zhang, while the foremast is eight-tenths of the ruler, about 4 zhang..."
"At the stern, the unplanked empty tip is 1 zhang, 1 chi, and 6 cun (3.9 meters). The bow is 7 chi and 5 cun wide (2.5 meters), and 4 chi and 1 cun deep. Amidships, she's 1 zhang, 2 chi, and 3 cun wide (4.1 meters), and 4 chi and 2 cun deep. The stern tip is 9 chi and 3 cun wide (3.1 meters), and 5 chi deep (1.67 meters)... The ship's width is between one and a half tenths and two and a half tenths of the ruler, and when empty her draft is extremely shallow!..."
The Sun was nearly gone, and the sand ship sang the