Rudder Until Europeans adopted the rudder from the Chinese, Western ships had to make do with steering oars. This meant that long voyages of discovery by Europeans were impossible. The famous voyages of Christopher Columbus, Vasco da Gama, and others of their time were only made possible by the adoption of Chinese nautical technology. The oldest Western evidence for rudders is found in church carvings of about the year 1180. This is within a few years of the first European evidence for the ship's compass. Rudders and compasses thus seem to have reached Europe at about the same time, which is hardly surprising, since they were so closely associated. The rudder enables one to steer a ship properly, and the compass helped one to decide where to steer it. The world's oldest representation of a rudder may be seen in Plate 136. This is a pottery model of a Chinese ship excavated from a tomb dated to the first century AD. The model is about one foot ten inches long, and its rope slinging tackle has long since rotted away. But a slung axial rudder may clearly be seen. (A slung rudder is one which can be raised and lowered by rope tackle or chains; when entering shallows, it is often desirable to pull the rudder up so that it will not be snapped off.) Chinese seagoing rudders grew to many times the size of a man. Huge ships with enormous rudders were used on the Chinese voyages of discovery which preceded the European ones. The Chinese sailed round the Cape of Good Hope in the opposite direction to that taken by the Europeans and at an earlier time. They were also first to discover Australia, landing at the site now called Port Darwin. Chinese trade with the Philippines and Indonesia was common; and trade with the eastern coast of Africa was so extensive that pieces of broken Chinese porcelain are to be found scattered all up and down the beaches of Tanzania and Mozambique, dating back for centuries. The Chinese also made voyages to the American continents, though it is questionable whether they were return voyages. Many Asian influences have been identified in ancient America by Needham and others. But the Chinese who arrived were quite possibly stranded, unable to return home, owing to the greater difficulty of sailing westwards across the Pacific. Another traditional Chinese invention was the 'fenestrated rudder', which is simply a rudder with holes made in it. The Chinese soon discovered that while easing the task of turning the rudder through the water, the holes did not appreciably diminish its steering function. However, it was not until 1901 that fenestrated rudders were introduced to the West. Until that time, a coal-fired torpedo boat traveling at 30 knots was unable to turn its rudder at speed. Fenestration made this possible.
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