Manchua was a type of sailing vessel used from the eastern coast of Africa to theMalabar Coast, the Indian Ocean, and theEast Indies.
The manchua was a square-sailed, single-masted, oared vessel, used for cargo transport in the Indian Ocean.[1] It was used both by locals as well as by Portuguese traders. Typically a Malabar vessel, the term was also used for similar large cargo boats of Chinese origin.[2] Traveler Peter Mundy sketched a manchua in his journals and described them as "small vessells of recreation, used by the Portugalls here, as allsoe attGoa, pretty handsome things resembling littleFrigatts, Many curiously carved, guilded and painted, with little beake heads."[2]
Also spelled munchua, monchew, munchew, or manchooa,Manchua is called "the Portuguese form" inHobson-Jobson, which claims that "the originalMalayālam word ismanji, [manchi,Skt.maṇcha, 'a cot,' so called apparently from its raised platform for cargo]."[1] It may also have originated with "native generic names for sea-going boats fromGujarat toCochin," including "themachhwu, a fishing and also cargo-boat" and "themahungiri, a largemachhwu used for a trading boat," according toCarnac Temple.[2] He also notes that the Portuguese usedmanchua "to represent the Cantonese term,man-shun, a sea-going trading vessel" as well as for other simimar vessels fromMacau.[2]
First described in 1512, manchuas (and similar vessels described by the same term) were commonly recorded in the region through the 18th century.[1] Clement Downing noted that in the early 18th century, the "town ofBombay was unwalled, and noGrabs or Frigates to protect any thing but the Fishery; except a small Munchew, which had escaped whenAngria took theCompany’s Yacht."[3] Carpenter Richard Lazenby was abducted by piratesSeagar,England,Taylor, andLevasseur in 1720 and recorded the capture of one of these vessels in his journals: "They not liking to trust him being a stranger, resolved of seeking water at theLacker Diva Islands, which they put for directly where they arrived in three days after. The same day of their arrival they took a small Monchew with the Governor ofCarwar’s pass on board, who gave them an account that there was no anchor ground among the islands."[4] The remains of two manchuas which sank during an attack onMombasa in 1696-97 were tentatively identified by archaeological divers after a 2007 investigation.[5]
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