Gordon Miller Sailing into History
An Ocean of Commerce
The desire to acquire life’s luxuries has driven Kings and fortune seekers to risk lives and ships on the world’s seas for centuries. The first voyagers into the Pacific Ocean were searching for silk, nankeen and porcelain in China, and cinnamon, nutmeg and cloves in Indonesia. These treasures alone fuelled the China gallon trade for 250 years, and are still items of trade, but the in the centuries that followed, sailing ships carried furs, lumber, coal, fertilizer, wheat, rice, ore, whale oil to all the world ports.