Editing Zheng He (section)

===Treasure Shipyard excavation===
From 2003 to 2004, the Treasure Shipyard was excavated in northwestern [[Nanjing]] (the former capital of the Ming Dynasty), near the [[Yangtze River]]. Despite the site being referred to as the "Longjiang Treasure Shipyard" (龍江寶船廠) in the official names, the site is distinct from the actual Longjiang Shipyard, which was located on a different site and produced different types of ships. The Treasure Shipyard, where Zheng He's fleet is believed to have been built in the Ming Dynasty, once consisted of thirteen basins (based on a 1944 map), most of which have now been covered by the construction of buildings in the 20th century. The basins are believed to have been connected to the Yangtze via a series of gates. Three long basins survive, each with wooden structures inside, interpreted to be frames onto which the ships to be built on. The largest basin extends for a length of {{convert|421|m|ft}}. While they were long enough to accommodate the largest claimed Zheng He treasure ship, they were not wide enough to fit even a ship half the claimed size. The basin was only {{convert|41|m|ft}} wide at most, with only a {{convert|10|m|ft}} width showing evidence of structures. They were also not deep enough, being only {{convert|4|m|ft}} deep. Other remains of ships in the site indicate that the ships were only slightly larger than the frames that supported them. Moreover, the basin structures were grouped into clusters with large gaps between them, if each cluster was interpreted as a ship framework, then the largest ship would not exceed {{convert|75|m|ft}} at most, probably less.<ref name="church2010">{{cite book|first1=Church|last1=Sally K.|editor1-first=Jun|editor1-last=Kimura|title =Shipwreck ASIA: Thematic Studies in East Asian Maritime Archaeology|chapter =Two Ming Dynasty Shipyards in Nanjing and their Infrastructure|publisher =Maritime Archaeology Program, Flinders University|location = Adelaide|year =2010|pages=32–49|isbn =9780646548265|chapter-url =http://www.shipwreckasia.org/wp-content/uploads/Chapter3.pdf}}</ref>

The 2003–2004 excavation also recovered two complete wooden rudderposts from the Treasure Shipyard, in addition to another recovered in 1957. They are made of [[teak]] and measure
around {{convert|10|to|11|m|ft}} in length. Zhou Shide (1962) claimed that the first rudderpost recovered was proof of the enormous dimensions of the ships based on his calculations on how big the rudderblade would be. However Church (2010) points out that Zhou was using calculations based on modern steel propeller-driven ships, not wooden ships; as well as the fact that Zhou's hypothetical rudder shape was based on the flat-bottomed ''shachuan'' (沙船) ship type, not the sea-going ''fuchuan'' (福船). The rudderposts cannot be used to infer the actual size of the rudder blades. Church notes that in traditional wooden Chinese ships, rudderposts were necessarily long in order for them to extend from the water level up unto the ship deck, where it was controlled by the tiller. Church compares it with modern wooden junks built in the traditional ''Lümeimao'' ("green eyebrow", 綠眉毛) style, which also have rudderposts that are {{convert|11|m|ft}} long, but are only {{convert|31|m|ft}} in overall length.<ref name="church2010"/>