According to retired submariner and amateur historian, Gavin Menzies, in 1421, decades before Christopher Columbus spotted the New World and a century prior to Ferdinand Magellan’s exploration of the world beyond the Unknown, a humble Chinese admiral by the name of Zheng He set out with His Majesty’s fleet to discover the world!

Mr Menzies’ theory has obviously been dismissed by more professional historians, yet had Zheng He’s fleet been composed of such fanciful dirigibles as the craft depicted here, perhaps he would have been capable of sailing the clouds to unravel the mysteries of those continents beyond the horizon?

This charming artwork was created by a Mr James Ng, Hong-Kong born but traveled across the Americas in a fashion similar to the exploits of his medieval ancestors—that is, if we are to believe Mr Menzies after all!