China and the West

Benjamin Franklin was amazed by Chinese technology in navigation. He was very impressed by the well practice of the Chinese, to divide the hold of a great ship into a number of separate chambers by partitions tightly caulked. He applied the technology of the division of ships into watertight sections to a proposal to institute passenger service between France and the United States.
"As the vessels are not to be laden with goods, their holds may without inconvenience be divided into separate apartments after the Chinese manner, and each of those apartments caulked tight so as to keep out water. In which case if a leak should happen in one apartment, that only would be affected by it, and the others would be free ; so that the ship would not be so subject as others to founder and sink at sea. This being known would be a great encouragement to passengers".
Franklin began to study the Chinese way of rowing a boat. For him, the Chinese method differed from that customary in the West. "In the Chinese way, the oars being worked two-a-stern as we scull, or on the sides with the same kind of motion, being hung parallel to the keel on a rail and always acting in the water, not perpendicular to the sides as ours are, not lifted out at every stroke, which is a loss of time, and the boat in the interval loses motion. They see our manner, and we theirs, but neither are disposed to learn of or copy the other".