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For centuries before the emergence of the present Communist People's Republic of China in 1949 the Chinese had no shipbuilding industry worth mentioning. What activity there was in this respect
was confined to the construction of junks for local trading but that this state of affairs no longer exists is amply proved by the stamp issued by Communist China in 1960 to commemorate the launching of the first Chinese-built oceangoing ship Leap Forward at Dairen on November 27, 1958.
This vessel of 22,100 tons deadweight is far in excess of the usual 10,000 ton ships produced in series by other Communist-bloc shipyards, proclaiming that modern China has arrived as a shipbuilding power of some consequence. The old days would seem to have gone for ever and it is small wonder that the Chinese commemorated the launching of the new ship with a commemorative stamp. The ship's name appropriately marks the progress of shipbuilding in China during recent years.

SG1965 Article written in 1963 by Ernest Argyle in Sea Breezes.