Westward Ho

Huge Chinese fleets were travelling westward into the Indian Ocean on diplomatic and trading missions more than 60 years before the Portuguese explorer Vasco da Gama became the first European sailor to round Africa in 1498. Chinese records show that between 1405 and 1433 a navigator called Zheng He made seven voyages into the South China Sea and on to the coasts of India and East Africa. On his fourth expedition, Zheng took a fleet of 63 ships and 27,000 men, including 180 doctors as far as the Persian Gulf. His largest vessels, well over 1500 tonnes were more than 180 m long.