The author seems very full of himself and acts as though he knows more than historians who have studied these topics for many years. The book sounded interesting when it first came out, but on reading it's full of dubious claims. It brings to light the artefacts and inscribed standing stones left behind by the Emperor's fleet, the evidence of sunken junks along its route and the ornate votive offerings left by the Chinese sailors wherever they landed, in thanks to Shao Lin, goddess of the sea.' - BOOK JACKET. His narrative brings together ancient maps, precise navigational knowledge, astronomy and the surviving accounts by Chinese explorers and the later European navigators. In this historical detective story, he shares the account of his discoveries and the incontrovertible evidence to support them. Gavin Menzies has spent 15 years tracing the astonishing voyages of the Chinese fleet. They has also discovered Antarctica, reached Australia 350 years before Cook and solved the problem of longitude 300 years before the Europeans. Lost was the knowledge that Chinese ships had reached America 70 years before Columbus and circumnavigated the globe a century before Magellan.

The great ships rotted at their moorings and the records of their journeys were destroyed. When they returned Zhu Di had fallen from power and China was beginning its long, self-imposed isolation from the world it had so recently embraced. Their journey would last over two years and circle the entire globe. Their mission was 'to proceed all the way to the end of the earth to collect tribute from the barbarians beyond the seas' and unite the whole world in Confucian harmony. The ships, 500 foot long junks made from the finest teak and mahogany, were led by Emperor Zhu Di's loyal eunuch admirals.

'On 8 February 1421 the largest fleet the world had ever seen sailed from its base in China.

Gavin menzies theory