Updates on Old and Ancient Canoes

August 27, 2012, 6:48 am

A couple years ago, I noted briefly the discovery of a 230-year-old Canadian birchbark canoe, believed to be the oldest surviving example, in an English barn. At that time, a plan had been announced to transfer it to the Canadian Canoe Museum for study and conservation. The transfer has now been effected, and there are two good articles, one in the Winnipeg Free Press focusing on the news of the transfer, the other, by bark canoe expert Henri Vaillancourt in WoodenBoat, focusing on the canoe itself and its history (after following the link, click the tab "Open Article" for a readable version).

More recently, I noted the discovery of the remains of a Bronze-Age settlement in Whittlesey, near Peterborough, England, that included six dugout canoes. I recently came across an article in The Guardian/The Observer that included the photo above, a much better one than I could find for my earlier post. In addition to the thinness of the hull, indicating the sophisticated skill of the canoe's builder, the photo shows how the excavation left transverse beams of earth intact across the hull to retain its shape.

Back to the subject of birchbarks, here's a fine video illustrating their construction in great detail:

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The Mtepes of Kenya

September 7, 2012, 2:26 pm

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A dau al mtepe (source unclear). Click any image to enlarge.

Among the indigenous boats that disappeared in the 20th century was the mtepe, the world's last large sewn vessel. The last mtepe built was in 1930, and the last one in existence was wrecked in 1935 (they might have been the same vessel: my sources are unclear).

History and Usage

Unique to the Swahili culture of east Africa, mtepes were built in the Lamu archipelago off Kenya. Evidently an old design, their origin is unknown: there are references to sewn boats in the region that date back to classical antiquity and to the earliest years of Portuguese exploration, but these might have been other designs that were similar to mtepes in some respects. The earliest unmistakable references to mtepes date from the 19th century.

Both mtepes and dau al mtepes (shown) carried very large spreads of sail and were reportedly fast sailors and surprisingly weatherly.

Mtepes were of two types, the mtepe proper, and the dau la mtepe, which superseded it. The transition apparently occurred in the 19th century because, while there are contemporary models and documentary evidence of the earlier mtepe, the only photos seem to be of the later dau la mtepe. Both were double-ended and generally similar in design, but there were a few significant differences between the types, which we'll get to below. (I will use "mtepe" in Roman text to refer to both types, and will italicize it as mtepeto refer to the mtepe proper as distinct from the dau al mtepe.)

Model dau al mtepe (recognizable by the bowsprit) at National Marine Museum, Greenwich. The tassels are called the "camel's beard."

Mtepes varied considerably in size. Most seem to have been between 40 and 75 feet (I presume that the measurements were taken on deck, and did not include prow extensions, bowsprits or outboard rudders) and of 12 to 50 tons burthen, but one recorded in the 19th century was 30 meters long and 186 tons. All references report them to have been very fast and able sailors, easily able to out-point settee-rigged dhows. This is surprising considering their rig, which consisted of a single square sail of palm leaf matting.

Faza in the Lamu archipelago was the center for mtepe building: as many as 20 were being built there annually early in the 20th century. With a crew of about 20, they traded north to Zanzibar and south to Kenya's Mrima coast. Toward the end of their employment, their primary cargo was mangrove poles, but earlier cargoes included grain, pottery, cattle, salt, firewood and slaves. To collect the mangrove cargoes, the crew would punt the vessel into a swamp and cut and load the poles themselves, receiving payment from the proceeds of the voyage on a "share" basis. Oars were also used for propulsion when necessary.

Mtepe model at Science Museum, Kensington. Note large rudder, the bird-like figure on the tall prow, flags, tassels and painted decoration, as well as the thatched house aft of the mast.

Mtepes leaked copiously, so bailing was constant. It is recorded that, as a test for employment, a prospective crew member had to demonstrate his ability to lift a bailer full of water measuring 24" in diameter and 9" deep. (This works out to about 3 U.S. gallons or 25 pounds. As a test of strength, lifting it isn't impressive, especially when considering that the bailer was made of woven palm leafs and probably leaked, and that it was very wide and shallow, so unlikely to have been lifted full in any case. On the other hand, if you're bailing a vessel, lifting that weight several hundred times per hour is indeed an impressive demonstration.)

A weatherly hull, but not made for beaching without supports. Image from Hornell.

With their deep V-shaped hulls and flexible sewn construction, mtepes were not stiff enough to lie on their sides. They were never allowed to take the ground unless supported by props.

Construction

The mtepe bears many similarities to dhows and the two might have influenced each other's development in unknown ways in ancient times. Certainly, the dau al mtepe (which I think translates roughly as "dhow-style mtepe") adopted some of the characteristics of the dhow late in the 19th century.

Sketch of a model of a mtepe at Ft. Jesus, Mombasa.

A crew of five or six carpenters, being supervised by the ship's future captain, would typically built a mtepe in two to three months, including harvesting their own timber, which was used green. Like all relatives of traditionally-built dhows, mtepes were built shell-first, on a keel, with smooth-laid planks of mangrove wood. (I hesitate to call it carvel, because that implies a construction method and certain details which do not apply here.)

Garboards were sewn or stitched to a one-piece keel. It is not known whether the keel was rabbeted. On many dhows, the garboard butts against the side of the keel or a beveled surface at the intersection of the top and sides. Stem and sternpost were lashed to the keel only after two or three strakes were in place. There were no deadwoods or stem knees. Partial-length planks were scarfed diagonally without butt blocks.

Planking the hull was an enormously laborious process. After holes were drilled through the planks near both edges, the planks were sewn together with three-strand coir (coconut husk cord). First, coir fiber was pounded into the seam from inside. Then, over the seam was spread a thick paste of made of pounded mangrove bark, the tannin in which preserved the coir caulking. Onto the paste were laid strips of crushed coconut husk, and then a layer of palm leafs. A sharpened piece of palm leaf was attached to one end of the cord and used as a sewing needle. Men worked in pairs, inside and outside the hole.

Each time the man inside passed the cord through the hole, he would pound it with a mallet to compress the package of caulking material beneath the stitch, then would plug the hole with a tapered plug to hold the cord in place temporarily, until his turn came for the next stitch. The man outside would wrap the cord around a short stick, place one end of it against the hull, and lean back, using the stick as a lever to tighten the cord before passing it back through the next hole. About six feet of seam length was sewn at a time, the coir being passed around and through each hole several times, both straight up and down and diagonally. Tapered plugs were then pounded into each hole from the outside.

After the the hull was completely stitched, the plugs outside the hull were cut off flush, and then the stitches themselves were cut off on the outside! This would leave the planks fastened to each other by thousands of very short pieces of cord, held in place only by the plugs pounded in from outside – a very odd way to address the vulnerability of the stitches outside the hull. This last process was omitted only near the stem and sternpost, and apparently some mtepes were built with the stitches remaining on the outside over their whole surface.

Alternate view of plank pegs. Above: oblique (through outer face of lower plank of each pair). Below: edge-set (drilled into the adjoining edges of plank pairs). The direction in which the pegs used to plug the stitch holes were installed also differs in these two views. (Source: Adams)

Most reports indicate that after the strakes were sewn together, pegs were inserted by drilling obliquely upward into the outboard face of a plank so that the drill exited the plank on the edge and penetrated the plank above it also on its edge. Others disagree, claiming that the strakes were first edge-drilled on their matching faces, "dowel tenons" set into the holes, and the upper strake then pounded down onto the lower one. Only then were the planks through-drilled and sewn together.

If the first method (oblique pegging) is correct, then the pegs' main function seems to be to eliminate shear between adjacent strakes. If the second method (edge-set pegs) is correct, then the pegs seem to function primarily as an assembly aid. In both cases, the stitches are primarily responsible for holding the planks tight against each other. It is not impossible that both methods were used.

Cross section of a mtepe, showing futtock frames, stringers, thwart pairs with gammon lashings, mast step, planks and keel. (Source: Adams)

Interior framing was added only after strakes were in place. Amidships, there were futtock frames which rested on floor timbers but were not attached to them. Moving outboard were half-frames, and then one-piece frames (i.e., gunwale to gunwale) in the very ends. The frames were lashed to the hull with a few light cords passed through holes in the planks. Frame spacing was reportedly wide, but no specifics are available. Five or six sets of cross-beams or thwarts were installed in pairs, upper and lower, separated by a few planks. These were notched and passed through the planks, and were gammoned to each other. In addition to transverse strength, the upper thwart of each set served as deck supports and mast partners. Two or three stringers were installed, so lightly lashed to the frames that they seem to have provided little lateral strength: perhaps they helped support and secure the cargo.

During the southwest monsoon, when the mtepe was laid up annually, every stringer and frame was removed and every stitch was replaced. With a full crew working, the job could be done in about eight days.

Rig

Although most reports indicate a plum mast, more recent measurements of models and photographs indicate that the mast had a forward rake of 6 to 14 degrees. The mast was supported by a forestay, two backstays, and usually one shroud per side, although some mtepes may have had a single shroud that was passed from one side to the other when tacking – a rare occurrence for tradewind sailors.

Mast step (bow to right). Note forward rake of mast, which rests against a pair of thwarts and is lashed forward to a stanchion forward of the thwarts. A stanchion beneath another pair of thwarts hold down the aft end of the step. The step typically spanned many frames, nearly the entire interior length of the ship, but it was not a keelson. (Source: Adams)

The sail was made from many strips of plaited palm leaves, sewn together. There were two or three sets of reef points near the head of the sail. The sail was supported by a yard and a boom of delicate appearance. The yard was equipped with parrels; the boom with a simple loop of rope to perform that function. In addition to a halyard, the yard was supported by two "lift braces," which served both functions implied by that name. As I don't understand how this could work, I'll copy my source and perhaps a reader can explain:

"(The yard) is hoisted to the mast-head by means of a halyard supplemented by two lateral tackles which combine the functions of lifts and braces and may therefore be termed "lift braces". The upper end of the halyard is rove through a sheave-hole some way below the mast-head and made fast to the middle of the yard. Each lift-brace functions through a purchase fitted between the mast-head and one end of the yard, a tackle consisting of two single blocks. One end of the rope is rove through the block at the end of the yard, passes to the block at the mast and returns to be made fast to the yard-arm just inner to the first block. These lift-braces, as the name implies, also control the set of the yard; by slacking away on one and hauling on the other, the yard is veered." ("The Sea-Going Mtepe and Dau of the Lamu Archipelago," James Hornell, Mariner's Mirror, January 1941)

Differences Between Mtepes and Dau al Mtepes

Throughout the above discussion, I've treated both types of vessels together, as the features described seem mainly to have applied to both. But there were some differences between mtepes proper and dau al mtepes, some obvious and others significant but not apparent.

The stem and stern of a dau al mtepe were raked considerably more than those of a mtepe, so that, for boats of identical length, the dau would have a far shorter keel. The stem of the mtepe was surmounted by a large curved terminal that may have represented a camel's head. The dau had no such device, but instead had a long bowsprit. The mtepe was more colorful and far more highly decorated, with occuli both fore and aft, painted bands on the topmost strakes, and amulets, tassels and flags. Perhaps by the time the dau came into being, the trade was already under competitive pressure from other, more modern boat types, and decoration was discarded as uneconomic.

Stepped, stacked breasthook stem in the dau al mtepe. The outer false stem (a) was not always present. (From Hornell)

The most interesting difference, however, was in the construction of the stem and sternpost. The mtepe had fairly conventional timber posts, except that the stem was in two pieces joined by an unusual mortise-and-tenon joint open at the front and rear. The dau al mtepe's was even stranger: it consisted of a series of stacked, V-shaped breasthooks, each one about as tall as a strake, tapering aft, and pegged to one another. In some cases, a solid timber was fastened outboard of this stacked construction. It is not known how planks were fastened to the stems/sternposts in either case, or if the timbers were rabbeted.

A Mtepe Replica

The replica mtepeShungwaya in the House of Wonders Museum, Zanzibar (Source: Wikipedia)

In 2003, a mtepe was built for an exhibit on dhow culture at the House of Wonders Museum in Zanzibar. The design was to be a roughly half-size (but not half-scale) interpretation of a mtepe that had been measured in 1877 at 97 feet long, 24 feet beam, and depth of 9.5 feet (apparently including draft plus freeboard). The boatbuilder who was contracted for its construction it had never worked on a mtepe, but had heard about some of the construction processes from his grandfather, who was one of the last builders of dau al mtepes. Even though guided by academics and museum personnel, the builder diverged from several known aspects of mtepe construction, most notably in building the boat frame-first as opposed to shell-first, and in refusing to cut off the plank lashings on the hull's outer surface. Named Shungwaya, the boat was briefly tested in Zanzibar harbor, where it proved to be quick and to leak somewhat as expected. It is now on display at the House of Wonders Museum.

The mtepe Shungwaya

Main sources:

"Construction and Qualitative Analysis of a Sewn Boat of the Western Indian Ocean, Robert Marshall Adams, (MA thesis, 1985, Texas A&M Univ.)

"Arabia to China -- the Oriental Traditions," Jeremy Green, in The Earliest Ships: The Evolution of Boats Into Ships (Conway's History of the Ship)

;(Naval Institute Press, 1996)

"The Sea-Going Mtepe and Dau of the Lamu Archipelago," James Hornell, Mariner's Mirror, January 1941

"The Mtepe 'Sungwaya' Sails Again," Professor Abdul Sheriff, et al, Ziff Journal, 2006

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More on Mtepes

September 8, 2012, 9:16 am

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If yesterday's post on the Kenyan sewn vessel the mtepe wasn't long enough, here's a bit more, gleaned from a source brought to my attention by Yoram Meroz, whose interest is gratefully acknowledged.

First off, I was incorrect in using the plural form mtepes. It should be mitepe, according to this source ("The Mtepe: regional trade and the late survival of sewn ships in east African waters," Erik Gilbert, in International Journal of Nautical Archaeology, 1998).

Next, there's this wonderful photo from the Peabody Essex Museum in Salem, Massachusetts:

The mtepe shown appears to combine the beak-like stempost terminal of a mtepe proper with the sharply angled stem and long bow overhang of a dau la mtepe. Perhaps this c.1890 photo caught the mtepe during its transition period to the new style. As Gilbert notes, it's a graceful vessel, much finer in appearance than the extant chunky-looking models of mitepe proper, and more like photos of other dau la mitepe, but with the advantage of the lovely terminal head.

Gilbert's argument is that the mtepe's survival into the 20th century was not some weird conservative holdover, but due to the fact that its shallow draft, seagoing ability, and substantial capacity made it uniquely suitable to a couple of niche activities.

After the Royal Navy began suppressing the slave trade in 1860, the mtepe found a role as an excellent slaver (please excuse the expression), able to avoid British patrols by sailing near inshore, but capacious enough to carry substantial human cargoes and fast enough to dash across the short deep-water sections necessary to reach its markets. Likewise, shallow draft and good capacity worked to its advantage in the mangrove pole trade, as it could be poled deep into mangrove swamps, where its strong but flexible hull had to take the ground twice daily, while its seagoing ability allowed it to travel regularly between its home in the Lamu archipelago and Zanzibar, where the mangrove forests and markets were.

Although the hull does not appear so particularly shallow in draft (see lines), that characteristic was frequently cited by contemporary Western observers. Gilbert cites the large mtepe upon which the replica Shangwaya was based which, when measured in 1877, had a length of 97 feet, breadth of 24 feet, girth of 40 feet, depth of 9.5 feet and tonnage of186 (tonnage measurement type unknown). From this, Gilbert estimates a draft of 7 feet maximum, which is not bad for a vessel of that capacity.

It was only after the death of both the slave and the mangrove pole trades that the sewn-plank mtepe fell out of use. The jahazi, a dhow style of nailed construction, was already in wide use in the same region, and it did not force the mtepe out, but it filled any remaining niches that the mtepe left vacant.

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Traveling the World to Build Canoes

September 15, 2012, 1:58 am

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I envy Will Meadows.

Will is a senior at Lawrence University (Appleton, WI), and with a $25,000 grant from the Thomas J. Watson Foundation, he's spending a year traveling, building and studying the construction of canoes with indigenous people around the world.

I'm envious because a few years ago I was a finalist for a grant for a very similar project, but didn't make the final cut. But soon after Will was awarded the grant, he contacted me for advice and we had some productive (I hope) communications. His project was written up in the June 2012 issue of Wooden Canoe (published by the Wooden Canoe Heritage Association), and he plans to provide updates to that magazine during the coming year.

Meadows (right) and the native Uros men with whom he built the reed boat on Lake Titicaca.

Will's building and travel plans include:

Lake Titicaca: reed boat
Solomon Islands: Polynesian canoe
Zanzibar: outrigger dugout
Canada: bark canoe (working with Rick Nash and Pinnock Smith of the Algonquin First nation)
Norway: canvas skin-on-frame kayak (working with Anders Thygesen)

Will is documenting his progress in a well-written blog, which indicates that his boat- and canoe-related activities are by no means limited to the list above. For example, his latest post describes the construction and repair of expanded dugout boats on Bolivia's Rio Beni, a tributary of the Amazon River.

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Carving Dugouts as Cultural Education

September 27, 2012, 8:17 am

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We're written before about Voyages of Rediscovery, an educational organization that builds and uses canoes "as a medium for education and exploration," initially confined to the Columbia River, but more recently in other areas of North America. The organization's primary focus has been birchbark canoes and fiberglass replicas thereof, but they've lately gotten into dugouts as well.

Tyee, above, is a 33-foot western red cedar canoe completed early this month at Kettle Falls on the Columbia. VOR's Adam Wicks-Arshak reports that 11 main participants and hundreds of community members carved it over 11 days with guidance from John Ruskey of the Quapaw Canoe Company.

There are plenty of photos of the building process on Flickr in these three sets:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/79648967@N08/sets/72157631165653752/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/79648967@N08/sets/72157631455709838/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/79648967@N08/sets/72157631468488298/

Facebook members can view more photos of the finished boat here:
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.3771677772549.2135995.1294900839&type=3

And here's one of Quapaw's other projects, recently completed at the KIPP Delta Collegiate Middle School in Helena, Arkansas, and being paddled on the lower Mississippi River:

For Facebook users, more photos of the same boat:
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.3855893517890.2137966.1294900839&type=3

I love the carvings on both canoes, which look like mythic aquatic beasts swimming on their respective rivers. I don't think these carvings have solid cultural background, but it's hard to argue with the boats' appearance or the overall value of the projects.

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Bow and Stern Shapes of Dugout Canoes

October 4, 2012, 11:24 am

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In 2000, a drought in Florida caused the water level to drop on Newnans Lake, near Gainesville, leading to the discovery of remnants of more than 100 dugout canoes. Fifty five of these canoes were carefully examined and studied, with radiocarbon dating placing 41 of them in the Late Archaic period (2300 to 5000 B.P.) A paper on the findings states:

"The Archaic period canoes from Newnans Lake are indistinguishable from canoes produced in later periods [in Florida, ed.] and are not the crude, short, blunt- ended type thought to represent the earliest dugout canoes." (ARCHAIC PERIOD CANOES FROM NEWNANS LAKE, FLORIDA Ryan J. Wheeler, James J. Miller, Ray M. McGee, Donna Ruhl, Brenda Swann, and Melissa Memory; American Antiquity, Vol. 68, No. 3 [Jul., 2003], pp. 533-551)

The paper included this graphic, comparing the ends of three of the Newnans Lake canoes with a couple canoes found elsewhere in Florida:

(From Wheeler et al. Click any image to magnify.)

This got me thinking about the shapes of the ends of dugout canoes and how, for such a superficially simple technology, they exhibit a tremendous amount of variation, almost as great, perhaps, as that of plank-built boats, which differ worldwide according to local custom, habit, and conditions. (I'm purposely leaving outrigger-equipped dugouts out of this discussion, as the addition of an outrigger affects the canoe's roll stability and directional stability, and these effects might impose or permit even more variables.)

No doubt the earliest dugouts were blunt-ended, similar to Newnans Lake #19 in the image above, if one accepts that the shaded area in the profile view was indeed present in the boat as built. Regardless of their level of technology, anyone observing the behavior of the water at the bow of this design as the canoe moved forward would have eventually recognized that a smoother shape would be more efficient. The earliest modification was probably to round the ends.

One of the oldest boats of any sort ever discovered, this blunt-bowed dugout, found in the Netherlands, dates to 8500 BC.

Following that, the quest for efficiency might have led in two directions: toward a flat, overhanging bow, or toward a wedge-shaped bow, which might initially have had a straight vertical stem, gradually adopting a sloped, rising shape.

Flat overhanging bow on a Tusipono Embera Indian canoe on the Chagres River, Panama. Photo by Shawn J. Dake, 2011, fromMaritime Matters.

I believe the wedge-shaped bow would be more efficient through the water, but the overhanging design has the advantage of being able to be beached bow-in, making loading and unloading easier. In contrast, a wedge-shaped bow with a vertical stem is highly unstable when beached perpendicular to a sloping shoreline.

Wedge-shaped bow and stern with nearly vertical stem and stern posts. Canoe of unknown provenance. From HistoryFaceBook wiki.

It must have been thousands of years before more sophisticated (or decorative) shapes came into use. The overhanging platform shown in the Moon Lake canoe in the top illustration might give a spear fisherman a place to stand forward of the disturbance caused by the stem moving through the water, giving him a crucial few inches in which to make his strike. A similar platform for a poler in the stern would improve his view and ability to navigate through flooded grassland like the Everglades.

A well-rounded bow like the one below provides plenty of buoyancy, while the raking stem allows it to ride easily over small waves. The pinched knob at the very end might make the end more resistant to splitting.

Rounded bow with rising stem and extended, "pinched" end knob. On the Cavally River, Liberia. From reCycling the World blog.

These extended bows below could serve as carrying handles, or to help part the vegetation when moving through a swamp.

Very long, narrow bow extensions on canoes of the Orang Asal people of Malaysia. From My Rainforest Adventures blog.

The heavy, blocky bow here seems to favor durability and simplicity of construction. The stern appears to be somewhat more refined, thinner, but with a transom shape somewhat like the bow. I suspect that, like the bow, the bottom of the stern transom is above the waterline, permitting the smooth wake.

Blocky transom-shaped bow and thinner transom stern on a Canoa Indígena, Casco or Ubá in Brazil's Amazon region. From Brazilian Boats and Canoes blog.

I hesitate to address the variety of bow shapes employed by the First People of the Oregon/Washington/British Columbia region. These were complex, of great variety, and deserve an extended treatment of their own.

Yes, we're looking at the bow of this canoe from the Queen Charlotte Islands, BC, The red triangular member, a kind of forward skeg, would doubtless have contributed to directional stability but might have made maneuvering difficult. Can you comment on other effects or purposes of this interesting feature? From a Ball State University teaching website highlighting material from the National Museum of the American Indian.

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The Moken Kabang

October 13, 2012, 12:10 pm

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The Moken are an Austronesian people pursuing a nomadic maritime culture in the Andaman Sea. These "Sea Gypsies" live in the Merguyi Archipelago, several hundred islands off the west coasts of Myanmar and Thailand, traditionally spending eight or nine months of each year on the water, and coming ashore only during the monsoon season, during which they would set up temporary communities on islands relatively isolated from the larger mainland societies close by.

Kabang under traditional pandanus squaresail. Source: Moken Projects: http://www.moken-projects.com/site/boat-building/

The kabang is the traditional boat of the Moken, and while propulsion has shifted from a single woven pandanus square sail to outboard engines, the rest of the boat appears to be little changed. It is built on an expanded dugout base, with three strakes per side extending the freeboard to make a hull tall and wide enough to serve as a family home.

Kabang. Source: http://tausug-global.blogspot.com/2010_12_01_archive.html. Click any image to enlarge.

The dugout base is bifurcated at both ends. Tradition holds that these features represent the living nature of the boat: a mouth at the front and an anus at the rear. The practical purpose, however, is to serve as boarding ladders -- an essential feature because much Moken fishing consists of free-diving for finfish, shellfish, sea cucumbers and the like, and a dramatic form of spearfishing in which the fisherman leaps from the boat's bow with a harpoon in hand. (Moken are accomplished free divers, commonly remaining submerged for three minutes or more. Moken children's eyes adapt to achieve underwater visual acuity twice that of Europeans.)

Spear-fishing technique from the bow of a kabang. Source: http://kurungabaa.net/2011/08/09/international-day-of-the-worlds-indigenous-peoples-the-mokan/

During construction, the dugout base is expanded (i.e., widened) by inverting the hollowed log and heating it over live fire. The log is then flipped over and, while it is still hot, temporary cleats are slipped over the gunwales near both ends to hold their shapes and prevent splitting. Then V-shaped clamps are slipped over the gunwales closer to midships on both sides and the clamps are levered outboard, pulling the sides with them.

The wide strakes that are added above the dugout base are traditionally split, not sawn, so that only two planks could be gotten out from a single tree. They are reportedly sewn and pegged in place, but I've found no details on these procedures. Ribs are inserted, and the planks are caulked. (Several photos seem to show the raised sides built not of wide planks but of very narrow strips -- possibly split bamboo?)

Partial decks of narrow planks are laid, and a house whose sides and roof are built of pandanus leaves is added. The sides of the house tilt outward, following the rather shallow angle of the hull sides and no doubt creating a bit more shoulder room inside.

I've not seen any measurements, but I would guess the kabang's length overall at 40' or more. Here's a photo essay showing and further explaining several of the construction steps: unfortunately the images are very small.

An organization called Moken-Projects has partnered with the Kon Tiki Museum to test the sailing characteristics of the kabang in Norwegian waters. Apparently, someone has perceived similarities between the kabang and some ancient Norwegian rock-carvings, and come up with a hypothesis that there's an evolutionary connection between the maritime traditions of Scandinavia and Southeast Asia. Sounds pretty silly to me, but not surprising for a museum founded on the legacy of Thor Heyerdahl. (The perceived similarity is probably that of a bifurcated bow, but several scholars believe the Norwegian carvings represent skin-on-frame boats, not logboat-derivatives, and I believe the rock carvings do not show bifurcated sterns like the kabang's.) (Here's a link to Moken-Projects, but beware: when I visited, some pages were infected by malware.)

The Moken culture is in fairly dire condition, with perhaps 3,000 or 4,000 members remaining in total, and possibly as few as 1,000 still pursuing a traditional maritime-nomadic lifestyle. A movie called "No Word For Worry" about the Moken people and Moken-Projects is in production.

More news about Moken-Projects is on Facebook.

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Bancas on Corregidor

October 20, 2012, 4:20 pm

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Reader Paul Wilson sent me a bunch of wonderful photos of boats from various parts of Asia which we'll looking at in this and the next several posts. We'll start with Paul's photos of bancas or paraws, the double-outrigger canoes of the Philippines. (Earlier posts examined banca hull and outrigger shapes, banca propulsion and steering, and banca construction details.)

To quote Paul:

The Philippines Paraws (Bancas) photos were taken in 2002 at the island of Corregidor in Manila Bay. I loved seeing how the outriggers were attached using heavy fishing line and pipe fittings. Very practical.

The garbage from Manila floats across the bay. As you can see, it is a bit of a problem.

Apply that familiar slanting red stripe at the bow, and even a banca becomes instantly recognizable as a coast guard vessel. (Click any image to enlarge.)

Like most modern bancas, these are inboard powered. The hull appears to be of plywood construction over sawn frames. The text on the stern says "Donated by 125th Coast Guard Auxiliary." (See next image.)

The attachments between outrigger boom and float appear to be pipe hangers. Paul's comment about the garbage being "a bit of a problem" is apparently understatement.

Yuck. A sorry setting for a handsome boat.

That's more like it! A handsome boat with a nice paint job deserves a clean backdrop.

The banca's narrow hull makes the double outriggers a necessity.

This photo and next: an abundance of heavy-duty monofilament fishing line secures the booms to the hull and the floats to the boom on this banca. The boat in the previous photo had two parallel lengths of bamboo for each float. This one has three. I've also seen floats of one and four lengths: it depends upon the diameter and buoyancy of the bamboo available and the stability needs of the boat.

Tune in again soon for more photos of indigenous Asian boats by Paul Wilson, to whom we give sincere thanks.

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Burmese Long-Tails

October 27, 2012, 7:50 am

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≪ Previous: Bancas on Corregidor

In our last post we looked at Paul Wilson's photos of Philippine bancas. This time we'll view Paul's images of longboats from Myanmar. (I've always heard such boats referred to as "long-tails," but it appears that both terms are in common use.)

Here's Paul's description:

The Myanmar (Burma) photos were pre-digital scans of some photos I took while working/touring there in 1999 or 2000. The photos are of longboats in Inle Lake in central Burma. I was interested in the articulated drive mechanism. Unlike the longboats in Thailand, the engine is stationary with a universal joint at the transom. The pipe in the wash from the prop is for water cooling to the engine. Very simple and effective. I loved these boats and their chug, chug, chug with their big Chinese diesels. The long bow allows them to extend out over the shore for easy loading and unloading at the market.

Much more here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inle_Lake

I don't have any photos of them but the leg rowers of Inle Lake are fascinating so give them a google if you haven't seen them before.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dmSYpWIzidY http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gpScZKmDkLo

I agree. This leg rowing is fascinating stuff.

It's plank-on-frame construction, but I'd bet money that it's shell-first. Substantial ceiling or floorboards allow cargo to remain dry and possibly protects the planking from damage. Interesting to see a shiny new engine in a boat type that probably dates back centuries. (Click any image to enlarge.)

A rubber hose connects to the front of the water intake pipe and curves over the massive transom. By pushing down on the tiller, the driveshaft and prop can be raised. The gunwales extend far beyond the transom: I'd like to know the reason for this.

Steering combines the forces of directed thrust (i.e. changing the angle of the prop, as on a sterndrive) and the rudder just ahead of the prop. These steering systems don't look cobbled together: someone is clearly manufacturing them to a standard pattern.

With numbers like this, it's clearly an economically practical design that suits the needs of the society.

In contrast, Thai longtails mount the engine right on the transom, atop a pivot. This is mechanically simpler, in that it eliminates the universal joint for the driveshaft. It has a substantial downside, though: placing the weight of the engine entirely on the transom must make the boat very stern-heavy. It also orients the prop shaft at a downward angle, which reduces propulsion efficiency. To minimize this problem, the shaft is very long (making the angle shallower), but this "solution" compounds the problem of a long, awkward extension behind the stern. The Burmese arrangement, with its horizontal prop shaft, is shorter and inherently more efficient.

Thai longtail. (Source: Kellerna, via Wikipedia)

Thanks again to Paul Wilson for the Myanmar photos.

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Vote to Support Canoe Building Project for At-Risk Ojibway Youth

October 29, 2012, 1:47 pm

≫ Next: Goan Sewn Outrigger Canoes

≪ Previous: Burmese Long-Tails

Here's a project worth supporting, and it'll cost you nothing but your vote:
Anishinaabe Babamadizwin: A Journey By Canoe will work with at-risk Anishinaabe (i.e., Ojibway) youth to build both birchbark and cedar/canvas canoes, and then use those canoes on wilderness voyages. To quote the organization's description on the Aviva Community Fund site, "Such canoe trips could develop leadership skills as well as increase awareness of their Native culture and traditions. The youth participants return to their communities as future leaders."

The organization is competing for a grant from the Aviva Community Fund by soliciting votes from the general public to demonstrate widespread interest and support for the project. To add your voice, go to the project page and register, then vote either on the page itself, or by "liking" it on Facebook.

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Goan Sewn Outrigger Canoes

November 9, 2012, 6:47 am

≫ Next: Opposite Ends of India

≪ Previous: Vote to Support Canoe Building Project for At-Risk Ojibway Youth

Reader Paul Wilson sent us nice photos of some outrigger canoes from Goa, on India's west coast. (See earlier posts for Paul's photos of Philippine bancas and Burmese longtails.) Here's his brief description:

As I am sure you know, Goa used to be a Portuguese colony. The Catholic influenced paintings on the side of the proas are beautiful. You can really see the progression from a dug-out log to higher freeboard with edge stitched planks. There seems to be a wide variety of materials used for the stitching from the traditional coconut husk to fishing line.

My own captions follow.

Built upon a dugout base, the canoe is "extended" by sewing additional strakes to raise the freeboard. Note how the hull is straight-sided and the outrigger float is straight: as we'll see below, these features are not constants. (Click any image to enlarge.)

Stitching of the uppermost strake is obvious in this shot. The Catholic iconography is more than just a hold-over from the colonial era. More than a quarter of Goa's population is Christian. A false keel and false lower stem have been added to protect the dugout hull from damage or abrasion when beaching.

In contrast to the top photo, the added strakes on this canoe tilt outward considerably from the dugout base. The outrigger float is also curved, not straight. I believe those are oars, not paddles, but I see no evidence of rowlocks, tholes, thimbles or other mechanism to hold the shaft against the gunwale.

The lashings of the outrigger booms have been tightened with Spanish windlasses. The short levers of the windlasses are a permanent part of the boat's rigging. If the lashings loosen, the windlass lever can be freed at one end and turned another time or two to tighten them, after which it is lashed back in place.

Paul's wife catches a bit of shade and provides scale for the photo. These canoes are bigger than they appear in isolation.

A nice detail shot, showing the lashing over the coir bundle that serves as external caulking between the dugout base and the added strake. Also a good view of the lashings for the false stem that joins the washstrakes.

A similar shot with a bit more context. The hull rests on cross-timbers which, I think allow it to dry more readily. They look too small to be effective as rollers for moving the boat over loose sand, but they might serve effectively as skids.

You can see the hull lashings from the inside at lower right. Note how the added strakes bow sharply outward from the dugout base. There are big blocks on the inside of the gunwale that appear to be related to the use of oars, but still no sign of rowlocks, tholes, etc. At least four thwarts provide seats for at least four crew, which might be needed to row out through surf. The vertical post near the end probably serves as a fulcrum for a steering oar. On this example, the Spanish windlasses are lashed at the middle and at both ends, which would make tightening the boom-to-hull lashings a bit more work.

Permanently-installed Spanish windlasses are used on the float-to-boom connection too. Don't know if there's any reason for the humpbacked shape of the float. The blunt end is also curious, since a tapered end would be more efficient.

Visit the Indigenous Boats Store for books on outrigger canoes, Asian boats and other watercraft outside the Western tradition.

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Opposite Ends of India

November 23, 2012, 2:09 pm

≫ Next: Manual Dredging in Kerala

≪ Previous: Goan Sewn Outrigger Canoes

More photos of Indian boats from reader Paul Wilson, who kindly provided photos for earlier posts on boats in Goa, Philippine bancas, and Myanmar longtails.

The first batch was taken in Varanasi (also known as Benares) in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh, in 2004. Here's Paul's brief description, followed by my captions:

(Varanasi is a)sacred pilgrim city along the banks of the Ganges. On the other side of India from Kerala but very similar boats to the ones in Kerala.[We'll look at the Kerala photos in a future post; Ed.] I included these pictures to show that the construction of the boats is also edge sewn planking. I think it is interesting to see how they add the frames after the planks are sewn together. It surprises me how poorly supported the planking is in the photo. The color you see in the water is flower petals from the burials and the pilgrims religious offerings. In the pictures you can also see the high water marks when the river goes to flood.

Although these boats resemble Western craft superficially, their shell-first, smooth-skinned construction makes them quite different in fact. (Click any image to enlarge.)

There seem to be both double-ended and transom-stern boats here. No hint in the photo about how these boats are used.

The hull planking is complete. The frames have been cut but are yet to be installed, and the width of the hull is set by temporary bamboo stretchers.. Note how the frames don't quite match the curve of the hull. As the components are fastened to one another, they will both deform somewhat, but I'd bet that the hull will conform more to the shape of the frames than vice versa.

A very nice leaf-shaped hull. The frames don't extend into the bottom: they only support the planking between the turn of the bilge and the gunwales. The deck beams, however, are hefty. The framework that's being used to dry clothes might also be used to support very lightweight walls and a roof, or might serve to display goods for sale.

The fourth boat from the top is considerably longer but no wider than the others, and narrower than some of them. She looks fast and graceful.

Fascinating rig: a tall single mast carrying square mainsail and topsail, and steered with a side rudder. (Let's not speculate about cultural transmission with Medieval Europe.)

Paul took the next set of photos in 2004 in Rameswaram, a town on Pamban Island, in the southern state of Tamil Nadu at the opposite end of the Indian subcontinent and close to Sri Lanka.

Coastal fishing scene. The boats here are deeper than the river craft shown in the Varanasi photos.

These hulls have quite a lot of rocker. Although the water is dead calm in this shot, they are probably meant to maneuver in surf.

With full floor timbers and much more heavily framed than the Varanasi boats, this boat could easily be mistaken for a Western design.

Profile shot of the same boat.

The lateen rig on a steeply canted mast and a stern rudder provide significant contrast to the Varanasi sailboat shown earlier.

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Manual Dredging in Kerala

December 2, 2012, 8:50 am

≫ Next: 1941 Old Town Guide, Never Used

≪ Previous: Opposite Ends of India

Reader Paul Wilson shot these photos in the southwest Indian state of Kerala in 2004. Here's his description:

The boats are traditional construction with edge sewn planks using coconut husk (coir). They are normally used for a variety of purposes but when we were there they were using them mainly for collecting sand and gravel from the river bottom to use for building materials.

My captions follow.

Several boats work together, apparently cooperatively. It would be interesting to know the business structure. Possibilities include: all boats owned by a single party; all boats privately owned but contracted to a single party; or all boats privately owned but working in cooperation. (Click any image to enlarge.)

Dredging is done by hand. One man handles this smaller boat, while another is in the water, near the stern.

Sand and gravel are collected from the bottom in baskets and hoisted into the boat. I wonder what the digging guy thinks about his partner shielding himself from the rain.

One of the larger boats in the fleet collects a heavy cargo. The two shirtless man are diggers. There are two polers, at bow and stern. I guess the other two are managers, doing what managers do.

The same boat as above.

Even in the calmest water, I'd be nervous about this load. Perhaps there's no word for "freeboard" in Malayalam?

The poles sticking up from the riverbed are probably used to keep track of which areas have been dredged.

In future posts, we'll look at Paul's photos showing the construction of these boats, including spinning the coir.

Thanks again to Paul for this contribution. For more of Paul's photos of Indian boats on this blog, see: boats of Varanasi and Rameswaram and Goa outrigger canoes.

Also see a previous post on surf boats of Kerala.

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1941 Old Town Guide, Never Used

December 8, 2012, 8:17 am

≫ Next: Spinning and Stitching in Kerala

≪ Previous: Manual Dredging in Kerala

Maine Maritime Museum, in the shipbuilding city of Bath, is celebrating its 50th anniversary this year. In an exhibit of "favorite" items from its 50 years of collecting is this fine old 20-foot Old Town Guide model canoe. Here's what the exhibit card says:

This canoe comes with an unusual story. It was purchased at the Old Town factory by Charles H. Cahill, Jr., in August, 1941. He brought it home to Bath, and never used it. Always intending to use it "soon," he kept it first in a cellar, and then for 42 years in a storage bay of the gas station he owned, under blankets. Still attached are the leather straps which held it to a rack on Cahill's pickup truck, and the red flag for the overhanging end on that trip from Old Town to Bath. This is a 1941 canoe in factory-finish condition (with a few dings).

Old Town designed this model for stability and steadiness, for carrying inexperienced sportsmen and sportswomen. It was popular with guides and with directors of summer camps. Dark green was the stock color; this one has the mahogany gunwale upgrade.

His children inherited the canoe about 2004, and decided it belonged here at the Museum.

Wow. The notion of a valuable old canoe stored (usually in a barn) and forgotten is a popular collector's dream. But that the canoe might be pristine and unused goes beyond the common fantasy.

Foredeck with original decal in fine condition. (Click any image to enlarge.)

Serial number on stem: 127036-20. Also shown is the forward end of the removable floorboards, held in place with a turnbutton made from a section of the same brass half-round that's used for the stembands.

Red flag used during transport.

Leather straps used during transport.

Mahogany gunwales, original seat caning, Old Town's trademark diamond-head seat hanger bolts -- nice all around.

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Spinning and Stitching in Kerala

December 18, 2012, 2:07 pm

≫ Next: Houseboat and Sprit Rig in Kerala

≪ Previous: 1941 Old Town Guide, Never Used

We recently looked at how sewn boats are used in manual dredging operations in the Indian state of Kerala. Now we'll look at the construction of Keralan boats, and at the process of making the coir (coconut fiber) ropes that hold them together. All photos are courtesy of Paul Wilson, to whom sincere thanks are given.

A careful look at this elegant canoe reveals coir bundles that run along the inside of the seams. The bundles are neatly bound in place with stitches of coir that penetrate the hull. (Click any image to enlarge.)

On this larger hull, the planks have been notched so that the stitches are flush to the outer surface and largely protected from abrasion. Note the stitches fastening the hood ends to the stem. Gunwales are nailed or spiked in place. Admidships, it appears that the hull is having some kind of waterproof coating, possibly tar, applied.

I believe the man is treating the stitches with a waterproofing agent, or possibly plugging the stitch holes with tarred pegs.

Again, coir bundles are nicely lashed over the interior seams. Full, one-piece frames are widely spaced but hefty, and the structure is additionally strengthened with four thwarts nailed to the top of the gunwales, and two seats fastened below them. Solid construction!

Making coir rope is women's work in Kerala. I believe these photos show both the spinning of light cordage from loose fiber, and the twisting of several cords into rope. As I'm thoroughly ignorant about rope-making, I'll allow the rest of the photos to speak for themselves to anyone who can hear them.

Do you know rope-making? Please post comments or email me to share your knowledge about the process shown in these photos. Thanks.

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Houseboat and Sprit Rig in Kerala

December 27, 2012, 1:15 pm

≫ Next: Songhai Sewn Boat

≪ Previous: Spinning and Stitching in Kerala

Rounding out a nice big batch of photos from the Indian state of Kerala, here are a couple of sizable stitch-planked houseboats, and a class of open boat powered by a sprit rig.

So much to see here. Huge, decorative sternpost. Manual bilge pump. Sewn planks. Cabin side covers can be raised as individual windows. From the rod along the bottom of the woven cabinsides, it appears that each side can also be raised as a whole. (Click any image to enlarge.)

I like the little ventilator on the cabin top. I suspect the outboard engine is auxiliary power, and that the prime mover is the pole, as shown on another similar boat, below. Not sure what the rod is sticking up next to the sternpost -- it doesn't seem to be a rudder stock.

A similar boat being propelled by bamboo poles fore and aft. Note the solid aft cabin bulkhead. The stern poler has no view forward, so the bow poler must do the pilotage. With the sides lifted, there's plenty of ventilation, even without the little cabintop ventilator shown in the previous photos.

There appear to be many passengers aboard. While I'm fairly certain the design is a houseboat, perhaps this one is giving tours. Or maybe it's just a big family, or a social gathering. I love the complex curves of the cabintop.

An open canoe-shaped hull propelled by a square spritsail. The spars appear to be bamboo poles; the sail to be made of cloth bags sewn together.

The same boat passing one of the sand dredging barges discussed in an earlier post.

"Put any two sailboats of a similar type next to one another, and it's axiomatic that they'll race." (Tom Rankin, friend and past employer)

The masts are stepped well forward. There appear to be braces to the heads of the sprits -- something I don't believe I've ever seen on a Western sprit rig. Steering is by means of an oar over the port (!) quarter.

Please do not reuse these photos without written permission. Many thanks to Paul Wilson, who shot these photos in 2004. See more of Paul's photos in earlier posts on manual dredging and hull-sewing techniques in Kerala; boats in Rameswaram and Veranasi, India; outrigger canoes in Goa, India; longtail boats in Myanmar; and bancas in the Philippines.

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Songhai Sewn Boat

January 8, 2013, 11:59 am

≫ Next: The Chumash and the Tomol

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Songhai stitched boat. Bow is to the left. (Click any image to enlarge.)

Living in the semiarid Sahel region south of the Sahara Desert, the Songhai people of Mali have limited access to native timber for boatbuilding. But with the Niger River running through their land, boats are an economic necessity. The solution was this narrow canoe built of small pieces of palm wood sewn or stitched together with cord made from palm fiber. Boats like this were used from Lake Debo, near Timbuktu, to Ansongo, near Niger.

A Songhai boat being built or repaired.

Typical lengths were between 6 and 7.5 meters; beams about 3/4 meter, and depth less than 50 cm. The traditional wood was from the dourmier or dum-palm, but other woods have been pressed into use more recently as they became available. Holes were through-bored near all plank edges. Seams and stitch holes were sealed with bourgou grass caulking. One thwart near the stern provided a seat for the boatman, and in some cases one to three additional seats were added. These would also have contributed to the boat's strength.

The center thwart/brace in the foreground boat appears to pass through the sides of the hull. In the background boat, the rear cross-brace is clearly lashed to the top of the gunwale, while the seat-thwart appears to be below it, as in the plans at top.

The boats were used for fishing and general transport, but around the city of Gao their primary use was the transportation of rice from the paddies to the villages for threshing. Propulsion was by both paddle and pole, depending upon the river's depth.

Stitching detail, with grass caulking captured between the stitches.

Around Gao, rice is harvested in December and January. Consequently, the boats generally underwent maintenance during October and November. This involved tightening or restitching and recaulking the seams.

West of Lake Debo and south of Ansongo, a different kind of sewn boat was used. Called the Kole-Kole, this boat was two half-dugouts, sewn together along a central seam. This boat was preferred in its indigenous regions due to the presence of suitable trees for this type of construction.

All information and images are from "A note on a sewn canoe in use at Gao, the Republic of Mali," by Timothy Insoll, in The International Journal of Nautical Archaeology (1993) 22.4: 345-350. This information is now two decades old, and I do not know if these boats are still in use.

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The Chumash and the Tomol

January 23, 2013, 11:43 am

≫ Next: Tomol Construction

≪ Previous: Songhai Sewn Boat

A tomol replica built in 1976. Source: Chumash Maritime Organization. (Click any image to enlarge.)

The Chumash were a North American maritime culture, originally based on the mainland and Channel Islands on both sides of the Santa Barbara Channel in California. (I use the past tense in describing the culture as maritime for, while many Chumash people still remain in the area, their culture is no longer defined by maritime activities.) The area is particularly rich in marine resources, and the Chumash used at least three kinds of boats to exploit them.

Probably the first to appear was the tule reed "balsa," a raft of bundled reeds. It seems likely that tule balsas provided the means by which the islands were settled some 12,000 years ago, long before Chumash culture arose. Bundle boats are among the simplest of all watercraft to produce, and the main building materials were readily available in large quantities on the mainland shores of the Santa Barbara Channel, and in smaller amounts on the islands. In addition to large beds of reeds, naturally-occurring tar, in the form of asphaltum, is found in the area, and the Chumash used this to coat the reed bundles and increase their water resistance.

Even with a tar coating, tule reeds are a short-lived commodity, so hard evidence for the use of such craft so long ago is hard to come by. But the early occupation of the islands, and evidence of cross-channel trade that followed it but predates the probable development of other boat types, indicate that some sort of watercraft was in regular use, as do excavations of dwelling sites that indicate that the Chumash diet included marine animals that would have been difficult to obtain without the use of a boat.

Tule reed balsas were still in use at the beginning of the historic era (around the middle of the 16th century AD), when the Spanish first explored and later colonized the area. They were about 2.5 meters LOA and capable of carrying two or three people. They were used primarily for nearshore and coastal fishing and transport, and occasionally for cross-channel crossings. The Chumash also had dugout canoes, but confined them to nearshore and coastal use.

The boat for which the Chumash are best known was a large and highly capable sewn-plank canoe called a tomol. The tomol has been called "the single most important, valuable property in the Chumash economy" and "one of the most sophisticated technological innovations in precolonial North America," and described as "(possibly) the most sophisticated and laborious-to-build large watercraft of the New World," requiring costly materials and some 500 man-days of skilled labor to construct (All three quotations: Arnold, 2007).

As an unusually expensive construction, it is not surprising that the tomol played a central role in Chumash culture. Its development around 500 AD gave rise to the culture's central economic activities (fishing for large, powerful fish species, and trade), and defined important aspects of cultural hierarchy, including the creation of economic elites and the centralization of power in chiefdoms.

Lines for the replica tomol shown above, based on a boat built in 1912 by an old Chumash master builder. The replica boat was 26.5 feet LOA.

Tomols ranged from 3.7 to 9 meters LOA, with most between 6 and 7 meters. They were double-ended, with flat bottoms and lightly-curved sides that sloped sharply outward. Those of the most common size could carry two tons of cargo or 12 passengers, although far more passengers could be carried in a pinch. During the Chumash revolt in 1824, two tomols carried 50 adults and children, including crew, cross-channel from Mission Santa Barbara to escape from Spanish forces.

Crews ranged from three to six men including a man assigned to bailing, for the tomol leaked constantly. Paddlers knelt on grass mats in the bottom, using double-bladed paddles with very long shafts and small, gourd-shaped blades.

Tomols were launched from open beaches. They were light, and were launched by being lifted and placed in water deep enough to float them before they were loaded. One man remained in the water to help hold the boat bow-on to waves and give the boat a good shove to get it started.

Paddle strokes were coordinated among the crew. It's reported that a good crew could paddle all day, repeating this song over and over:

The canoe / Courage! / You have the power to succeed in reaching the other side, so that you may get where you want to go . . .

All common fishing methods were conducted from the tomol: hook and line (using hooks made of shell), netting, trapping, harpooning, and collecting by hand. Large, aggressive species, including swordfish, marlin, tuna, shark and giant sea bass were caught, as were anchovy, abalone, and sea mammals.

The tomol made possible regular cross-channel trade in large, heavy, bulky items and nonessentials. Mainland exports to the islands included stone mortars and vessels, stone tool cores, bundles of milkweed fiber (used for binding, including stitching the tomol's planks), seeds, acorns, deer, bows and arrows, and large chunks of asphaltum. Reverse trade consisted mainly of finished products of stone or bone, baskets, and otter pelts.

Considerable non-trade travel also occurred, probably for social, matrimonial and ceremonial purposes, the last of which might include the movement of an entire village. Fares were sometimes paid with shell bead money.

Tomol construction was controlled by a guild and supervised by a master builder, known as the altomolich, who directed a building crew of six in arange of skilled tasks, including getting out and fitting planks, fastening, caulking, and decorating. In control of such a critical economic activity, the altomolich was of high status and well compensated. Only chiefs and altomolichs could afford to own tomols, and sometimes the two roles were held by a single individual.

Stay tuned. We'll continue to look at the tomol in future posts.

MAIN SOURCES:
Jeanne E. Arnold, "Credit Where Credit is Due: The History of the Chumash Oceangoing Plank Canoe," American Antiquity, 72(2), 2007, pp. 196-209
Dee Travis Hudson, "Chumash Canoes of Mission Santa Barbara: the Revolt of 1824," Journal of California Anthropology, 1976
Brian Fagan, "The Chumash," in Time Detectives. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1995

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Tomol Construction

February 2, 2013, 9:34 am

≫ Next: The Tomol Revival

≪ Previous: The Chumash and the Tomol

A Chumash tomol. Painting by Robert Thomas. Click any image to enlarge.

In our previous post, we looked at social and economic aspects of the California Chumash planked canoe or tomol. Now let's see how they were built.

The primary construction materials were softwood for planking, asphaltum (i.e., bitumen) and pine pitch for sealing, and red milkweed for caulking and sewing. Redwood was the preferred wood, because of its light weight, durability, rot resistance, and ease of working. Redwood is not native to the Santa Barbara region where the Chumash lived, but a fair amount turned up as driftwood, primarily on the shores on the Channel Islands. Far less redwood driftwood was available on the mainland on the other side of the Santa Barbara channel. On the other hand, bitumen was easily mined on the mainland from exposed coastal cliff faces, so most tomols were built on the islands with bitumen imported from the mainland. But because of the economic importance of the tomol, they were built wherever possible, including on the mainland, and if redwood was unavailable, other softwoods were used.

Tree trunks were split into planks with wedges made from whalebone. The quality of the planking material was of such concern that a log might only yield a few planks acceptably free of knots, cracks and bad grain. After being split, planks were further worked to consistent thickness with axes and adzes made of stone or shell, then smoothed with sharkskin "sandpaper."

The tomol was built right side up. The bottom plank was somewhat dished, but it was not thick enough to constitute a "dugout" base: in other words, the tomol was a true plank-built boat, not an extended dugout. The bottom plank was set on a V-shaped framework that established the angle of the sides. (It's not clear to me from the available materials whether this was a single building form located amidships, or a series of connected forms -- i.e., a building frame -- that determined the shape at several stations.)

Each strake consisted of several short planks which were beveled at the ends to make lap joints. The strake-to-strake joints were butted and had caulking bevels, like standard carvel planking. The garboards, which were set on top of the bottom plank, were beveled to establish the proper angle for the sides.

Fitting the planks was probably the most difficult and time-consuming task in tomol construction. A complex series of lines was strung as guides to each plank's shape. On occasion, it was possible to get out a plank with the proper curves from a suitably curved piece of timber; at other times, a plank might be hewn to the required curved shape. Most planks, however, had to be sprung in place. To soften them, they were placed in clay-lined, water-filled pit, and hot rocks were added to boil the water. After the planks had soaked for some hours, they were removed and quickly bent and twisted to shape on the boat. They were bedded in yop -- a mixture of bitumen and pitch pine.

Pairs of holes were bored in adjacent planks with stone drills, and grooves cut between the holes. Waxed cordage made of red milkweed fiber was passed through the holes: each stitch consisted of three turns, followed by two knots. (Cordage was made by women; men performed all other tasks associated with construction.) All stitches were separate. The ties were recessed into the surface of the plank, and so were protected from abrasion. Plank laps were stitched in a similar manner. More milkweed fiber was forced into the planking bevels. All plank joints and tie-holes were sealed with more yop.

A tomol built in 1912 or 1913 for anthropologist John Peabody Harrington by Fernando Librado, the last Chumash to have worked with the old "Brotherhood of the Tomol" boatbuilders guild.

Most tomols had six strakes. A single thwart was placed amidships, sandwiched between the fifth and sixth (gunwale) strakes. This was the only internal strengthening member, and it was never used as a seat. The first five strakes were apparently beveled to meet at the bow and stern (where they were stitched together): the gunwale strakes stopped just short of one another, leaving a V-shaped gap at the ends through which fishing or harpoon lines could run. Half-round "ears" were sewn atop the ends of the gunwale strakes, raising the height of the V. While claims are made that these served as washboards, they appear too small to have been functional: I believe they were primarily decorative. A rope was passed around the both ends, just inboard of the ears, to keep the uppermost strakes from spreading.

After planking was complete, internal stem- and sternposts were added. These were triangular in cross-section and extended from the bottom plank to the top of the fifth strake, and were fastened with yop and stitches.

Excess yop was then scraped off and the wood was sanded again and sealed with pine pitch. Red ochre was added to the pitch for color. Using a raccoon-tail brush, all stitches were painted black. The ears were often decorated with shell inlays in geometric patterns, and occasionally crushed abalone shell was dusted onto the pine pitch sealant while it was still tacky: this made the whole boat sparkle in the sunlight.

Helek, a replica tomol (26.5' LOA) built in 1976.

Construction of a tomol took two to six months for seven workers– a really significant outlay of labor and resources for a hunter-gatherer society. The boats were highly valued and received daily maintenance. Although they leaked badly and required almost constant bailing, they were seaworthy and well-suited to the needs of their builders. According to a Spanish sea captain's report in 1602:

"A canoe came out to us with two Indian fishermen, who had a great quantity of fish, rowing so swiftly that they seemed to fly.... After they had gone five Indians came out in another canoe, so well constructed and built that since Noah's Ark a finer and lighter vessel with timbers better made has not been seen."

After the Spanish settled the Santa Barbara region, Chumash boatbuilders produced tomols for the Spanish missions, which relied on them for communications and trade. The design of the tomol did not change, but the Spanish made sawn lumber and steel tools available, and this must have greatly telescoped the building process.

A tomol replica: does anyone know where this is and who built it?

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The Tomol Revival

February 9, 2013, 8:32 am

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In our most recent posts, which looked at the cultural background of the Chumash tomol and at tomol construction, both referred to replica boats – tomols that have been built since the end of "natural" indigenous use of this interesting sewn-plank canoe.

Tomol under construction by Fernando Librado, 1912 or 1913. (Click any image to enlarge.)

The first such replica was built in 1912 or 1913 under the direction of Fernando Librado, probably the last of the Chumash "Brotherhood of the Tomol" – the guild that built and used the boats. Librado, then 73 years old, built the boat at the request of John Peabody Harrington, an anthropologist who "discovered" (for the purposes of modern science) that the Chumash had not died out by the 1870s and were, in fact, still a living culture in the first decade of the 20th century. Recognizing the central role the tomol had played in Chumash culture prior to and well into the era of the Spanish missions, Harrington plied Librado with hours of questions about every aspect of tomol construction and usage, and had him build a full-size replica that is now in the Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History. (See the museum's pages on Chumash life.)

Librado's replica was not correct in all respects -- it used commercially sawn lumber and its shape was not quite authentic -- but through its construction, Harrington was nevertheless able to capture much detail about the building process, and through his intensive questioning of Librado, he was able to tease out the differences and arrive at was is probably a very accurate depiction of the boat's original form and construction. Harrington continued to live among the Chumash so intensively that he became one of them and, after receiving a post with the federal Bureau of American Ethnology, he documented their culture in thousands of pages of hand-written notes, leaving virtually no aspect of Chumash life unrecorded.

Librado's tomol in the Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History. (Photo from blog Jack Elliott's Santa Barbara Adventure.)

In the 1970s there was a widespread reawakening of American Indian/First Peoples pride and culture, and in 1975, members of the Quabajai Chumash Indian Association built Helek, a tomol that took advantage of Harrington's notes and Librado's replica. (I've seen the word helek defined variously as hawk, falcon, and peregrine falcon.) This boat was launched in 1976, and it was campaigned on historic Chumash stomping grounds between San Miguel Island, Santa Rosa Island, and Santa Cruz Island in the Channel Islands group.

Plans for Helek, based on Harrington's description and Librado's replica. This is probably the most accurate depiction possible of a tomol.

Helek's maiden voyage.

Helek proved the be the first of several modern replicas. The Chumash Maritime Association was founded in 1996 and built the tomol 'Elye'wun (Swordfish) which, in 2001 crossed from the mainland to Santa Cruz Island: a 21-mile voyage taking 10 hours. Since then, channel crossings by the group have become a nearly annual event (the trip was cancelled in 2012 due to rough seas on the scheduled day).

'Elye'wun, built by the Chumash Maritime Association

A Google image search for "Chumash tomol" turns up photos of several additional replicas, although details on most of these have proven elusive. Some of them are clearly more authentic than others, and the quality of workmanship varies widely. Nonetheless, it appears that tomol construction is no longer in danger of becoming a lost art, and that it is being practiced by cultural organizations and individuals as a means of preserving both Chumash heritage and native skills.

I invite readers to provide information and photos about specific tomol projects. We'd love to learn and show more. Thanks!

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