For the third voyage, Fei Xin's records that the fleet had 48 () and a crew of over 27,000.. Dreyer (2007) states that Fei was probably referring to the treasure ships as .. Yan's and Lu Rong's use the term "treasure ship" instead when they mention the 48 ships for this voyage. Coincidentally, the records the imperial order issued on 14 February 1408 for the construction of 48 treasure ships to the Ministry of Works at Nanjing; these were possibly the 48 treasure ships for the third voyage. Dreyer (2007) states that the treasure fleet likely had an undisclosed array of support ships in addition to the 48 treasure ships.
