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- Combat junks |hull, with the oar-ports below. Five feet from the edge of the deck (to port and starboard) there is set a deckhouse with ramparts, having ramparts above it as well. This doubles the space available for fighting. There is no cover or roof over the top are (real) fighting ships (in the ordinary sense).
- Covered swoopers |port and starboard, there are openings for crossbows and holes for spears. Enemy parties cannot board (these ships), nor can arrows or stones injure them. This arrangement is not adopted for large vessels because higher speed and mobility are preferable, in order to be able to swoop suddenly on the unprepared enemy. Thus these (covered swoopers) are not fighting ships (in the ordinary sense).Needham, Volume 4, Part 3, 686.
- Flying barques and fewer soldiers, but the latter are selected from the best and bravest. These ships rush back and forth (over the waves) as if flying, and can attack an enemy unawares. They are most useful for emergencies and urgent duty.
- Tower ships (樓船); these ships have three decks equipped with bulwarks for the fighting lines, and flags and pennants flying from the masts. There are ports and openings for crossbows and lances [and at the sides there is provided felt leather to protect against fire], while there are trebuchets for hurling stones, set up . (The whole broadside) gives the appearance of a city wall. In the Jin period the Prancing-Dragon Admiral, Wang Jun, invading Wu, built a great ship 200 paces (1000 ft.) in length, and on it set flying rafters and hanging galleries on which chariots and horses could go. But if [all of a sudden] a violent wind is encountered, (such ships are likely to) get out of human control, so they were judged inconvenient in practice [for warlike action]. But the fleet cannot fail to be furnished with such ships, in order that its overawing might may be perfected.Needham, Volume 4, Part 2, 685.
- Patrol boats is like flying. But they are for reconnaissance, they are not fighting ships.
- Sea hawks (Hai hu); these ships have low bows and high sterns, the forward parts . Below deck level, both to port and starboard, there are 'floating-boards' (fou ban) shaped like the wings of the ''hu'' bird. These help the (sea hawk) ships, so that even when wind and wave arise in fury, they are neither (driven) sideways, nor overturn. Covering over and protecting the upper parts on both sides of the ship are stretched raw ox-hides, as if on a city wall [''a'' footnote: protection against incendiary projectiles]. There are serrated pennants, and gongs and drums, just as on the fighting ships.Needham, Volume 4, Part 3, 686-687.
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