A ancient ship of the Song Dynasty, which was excavated in Quanzhou , has 13 watertight cabins.

Watertight cabins first appeared in the Tang Dynasty (618-907) around the 8th century, and were widely used in sea boats and some riverboats after the Song Dynasty (960-1270).

The concept of watertight cabins referred to the division of the whole cabin (cargo and passenger space) into several small cabin areas with cabin walls, the number of which could be 8 or 13. This ship structure, with its many advantages, and which was used to guarantee the strength of ship bodies and to prevent shipwrecks, marked another breakthrough in China's shipbuilding.

First, the cabins were closely spaced. Therefore, while a ship was in navigation, especially in oceangoing navigation, even if one or two of the cabins broke down, letting water flow in, the other cabins would not be influenced and the ship could still stay on course. As for the whole ship, as the buoyancy was relatively strong, the ship would not sink easily. In case too much water entered inside, making the ship hard to sustain, freight could be thrown overboard to reduce the load, thereby averting a sinking. Thus, the application of watertight cabins improved the sinking-prevention ability, which further guaranteed much safer oceangoing navigation.

Secondly, the closely spaced cabins made it more convenient to load and unload as well as to manage the freight, as different consignors could load or unload their freight in different cabins.

Moreover, since the cabin walls and the shipboard were closely nailed together, the ship body was greatly strengthened. Watertight cabins, therefore, replaced the installation of ribs (the original complex framework of a ship's body), hence simplifying the shipbuilding craft.

With so many advantages, the watertight cabins became popular within a short time. The structure could be found on a sea boat of the Southern Song Dynasty (1127-1279) and on one of the Yuan Dynasty (1271-1368); both ships were excavated respectively in Quanzhou Bay in 1974 and in Xin'an Sea of South Korea in 1976, each having eight cabin areas.

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