Completely unrelated to SWJ perhaps, but I will ask anyway because someone here may know the answer: does anyone know of any good accounts of life aboard Chinese or Arab trading ships pre-16th century or so? I ask because I have read a number of books and seen movies and so on about life on European sailing ships in the “age of exploration” and it was a hellishly tough life..the achievements of European sea-farers are amazing feats of human endurance and skill (Polynesians were responsible for some amazing feats too, sometimes given extra-credit for being “primitive”, but even their amazing voyages dont compare to the feats of European sailors). Arabs and Chinese were long distance sailors too, and on fairly large ships (in the case of Chinese junks of the Admiral He period, much bigger than European ships). We dont hear much about life on those ships (do the Chinese? I dont know. I know the Arabs dont know much more than I do about their sailors)

Was it equally tough? or was sailing the Indian ocean and the seas around China in dhows and junks somehow an easier job than the trans-Atlantic and trans-Pacific feats of European explorers (including the above-mentioned Captain Cook)? Of course, we know that lots of Asians were press-ganged into service on European ships and did all that European sailors did (though evidently their captains and leaders did not do what European captains and leaders did, for whatever reason), so its not a question about the physical (and mental) skills needed to do job X on board ship. Job X was done by all sorts of races. I am just curious about the details of job Y. what was life like on junks and dhows.
I am interested in details.