Talk:Sampan

Three planks
Can someone quote a source for this claim?
 * Sampan literally means three planks in Mandarin, San (three) and pan (plank).

三板 is quite a jump from 舢舨. Kowloonese 19:58, Apr 20, 2005 (UTC)


 * 'Three planks' is supported by the OED and the AHD. The latter, however, points out that the Mandarin term is no longer sānbăn but shānbăn. Zompist 18:13, 21 August 2005 (UTC)


 * Would "three planks" a corruption or homonym, like "cloud swallow"? &mdash; Instantnood 18:19, 28 October 2005 (UTC)

In the tanka dialect (蜑家話) of Hong Kong the word 舢 is pronounced with a -m Ending not an -n ending so it is saam¹ I believe this is the etymological origin of this word not a corruption of 三板 but 舢舨 in the tanka dialect, the tanka dialect is Spoken by boat dwellers so it does make sense and 蜑家話 was the original dialect of Hong Kong until the late 1850s, at Which point britan had already colonised Hong Kong and probably found this word Hĭ uông lìng (talk) 13:05, 15 January 2023 (UTC)

Vietnam War
Could something be noted about U.S. Special Forces and Viet Cong usage of the sampan in combat, as well as other operations during the Conflict? 70.109.70.167 01:08, 16 March 2007 (UTC)

Only 14 ft?
The statement that sampans are between 3.5 to 4.5 meters seems a little off, on reflection. I know I've been on a sampan (as part of a Yangzi river tourist thing) that had to have been more than 20 feet long, and there were other vessels on the river that were about the length of that Japanese boat currently pictured in the article. (I'd estimate that one is around 8 to 10 meters long, based on the size of the people aboard.) Is there a source for the average length of a sampan? --grant (talk) 19:38, 18 July 2011 (UTC)


 * I was just about to make the same comment. Given that most of the boats identified as sampans in the article are well over 4.5 meters long, and given that nobody has come up with a citation for it in the past 2 1/2 years, I feel comfortable deleting the claim re the length. 206.208.105.129 (talk) 14:34, 24 January 2014 (UTC)

Sampan
I have 3 photos of a boat from Birma that looking like sampan. That photos from various sides and it is vissible that the boat more then 6 mtr over all (same some sanpans in your article Sanpan more longer then 4.5 mtrs. Boat's design including side's coamings looking like a sampan. If you will increase my photos (forward part of photo 3) you will sea that were used plenty planks to make boat's side. Anyhow here http://www.cherini.eu/etnografia/EO/slides/E0_0016.html and here http://www.cherini.eu/etnografia/EO/slides/E0_0017.html drawings of the same boat mentioned that it is sampan. Can be better mention various kinds of sampans (depends of coutry and morernism) and describe that now the same designe but not some planks used only. I will try to join 3 photos soon - same as drawing that mentioned in above mentioned adress. Also pay attention that mostly sampans exept japaneese have stern uprising horns and smal coamings. BRGDS Sory for my bad English Грищук ЮН (talk) 07:08, 5 July 2013 (UTC)