Junk (boat)

Junk, a Chinese style boat off Thursday Island.

Junk, a Chinese style boat off Thursday Island.

Image Courtesy of: John Oxley Library, State Library of Queensland

"When we think of the history of ship building in Australia, Chinese junks probably don’t spring to mind. Yet for a period from the 1870s to the early 1900s a fleet of junks operated in northern Queensland. At least some, if not all of the estimated ten to fifteen known junks, were made locally, in places such as Cooktown."

Stephen Gapps, Australian-Chinese junks and sampans, 27 Feb 2014.

Boats built in the Chinese style, probably built locally, operated in and around Thursday Island and the Torres Strait. They may have acted as pearlers, but more likely harvested trepang for the China market.

Image: John Oxley Library, State Library of Queensland

"To those curious in naval architecture and shipbuilding, a trip to St. Patrick's Point, Cooktown will afford a subject for contemplation, in the shape of a real Chinese Junk, built by Chinese shipwrights, on Chinese lines, fastened together in a most extraordinary, fashion with - on a rough guess - tons of iron nails, and caulked with some hundredweights of putty and a fair allowance of oakum. This Chinese order of constructing ships differs from ours in that the skin or outer sheathing of the vessel is first built - the planks being bent by fire instead of by Steam as with us. After which the ribs and knees are inserted and made taut. This marine curiosity, which will be launched in a few days, is intended for the beche-de-mer fishery, her owners having a station in the neighborhood of Cape Bedford - Cooktown Courier."

The Brisbane Courier, 13 August 1877, p.3.

See also: Gapps, S. (2017). Made in Australia: Chinese junks and sampans 1870-1910. Signals (Sydney), (118), 30–33.