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Thelorcha is a type of sailing vessel having ajunk rig with a Cantonese or other Chinese-stylebatten sails on a Portuguese or other European-stylehull. The hull structure made the lorcha faster and able to carry more cargo than the normaljunk. The advantage of the junk rig was in its ease of handling and resulting reduced crewing requirement, together with its relatively low cost of construction. Owing to its simplicity, it was also easier to repair. Lorchas were made locally ofcamphor orteak and generally were of 30 to 150 tonsburthen.
This type of vessel was developed around 1550 inMacau, then aPortuguese colony inChina.[1] This hybrid type of vessel sailed faster than traditional eastern ships. British merchants began to use lorchas in Chinese waters after theFirst Opium War.
TheArrow, the ship whose seizure was thecasus belli for theSecond Opium War, was a lorcha.
TheVũng Tàu shipwreck is a lorcha that sunk near theCôn Đảo Islands and has been dated to about 1690.[2]
A type of lorcha sailinglighter was used formerly inBangkok to carryrice out to ocean ships over the bar of theChao Phraya River.[3]
The bookThe Sable Lorcha (1913) was written byHorace Hazeltine.[4] It was adapted to film in 1915.
