The 53ft, three-masted junk was built over six years by 30 traditional Chinese shipwrights in Fujian, southeast China using axes, chisels and models of the early Qing Dynasty (1644-1912). "We built it from the descriptions in an official Qing manuscript, right down to the handmade nails. It was a small warship, probably used for coastal voyages, and it would have carried 30 soldiers and a crew.