Various limitations imposed on vessels since the Yongzheng reign (1723-1735) decimated naval hardware during the Qing. By the time of Daoguang, the only naval vessels available at Dapeng Barracks and its Hung Heung Lo Maritime Checkpoint were small junks with limited capacity and firepower. Commissioner Bai Ling, who successfully oversaw the eradication of piracy in Guangdong, observed that rice boats could only be deployed for inner ocean (內洋) patrols around outlying islands and were not for ocean-going (外洋) voyages. To quell piracy, Bai Ling wished to build big ocean-going junks to strengthen the firepower of the government fleet. He soon had to give up the idea on learning that China no longer had a supply of logs suitable to serve as masts.[62] Purchasing timber from South-East Asia would take two years for delivery. What Bai Ling found particularly troubling was that in the event of the masts being damaged in inclement weather the junks would be immobilised for the two years it would take to procure replacement masts. The disappointed Bai Ling had no choice but to build only smaller rice boats and even smaller laozeng boats which were designed for river voyages. They were only effective in harassing small fishing boats.
Plate 5: A local artist’s oil painting of a rice boat patrolling the inner ocean. Note canon at the prow.
Plate 6: A laozeng boat flying the Shunde County insignia.
A look at the naval weaponry inventory further underlines this point. Smaller boats such as laozeng boats were equipped with such medieval weapons as metal blades of various shapes and descriptions. The only heavy weapons on board were not cannons, but fire flares which were used to ignite the canvas sails of an enemy junk. Among the more modern heavy equipment supplied to Dapeng Barracks were cannons made of cast iron. But they could not withstand the high temperatures resultant from rapid firing and were prone to explode into pieces.[63] Soldiers had to allow time to let the metal cool off before the next firing. To maintain the stability of the relatively small vessel, each rice boat could only be installed with one or two cannons, and since these weapons could only be fired intermittently, the ability of such a naval force to suppress a well-armed pirate or to fight a regular foreign navy was highly questionable.
