Quantcast
Channel: Indigenous Boats
Viewing all 142 articles
Browse latest View live

More Old Quffa Photos

$
0
0
In response to our recent post on the Mesopotamian quffa, Harvey Golden sent us these scans of old stereoscope photos in his possession. (Harvey is the founder of the Lincoln Street Kayak and Canoe Museum in Portland, Oregon, and author of Kayaks of Alaska and Kayaks of Greenland, which we'll be reviewing soon.) We present them with thanks and brief comments.

Quffa boatman, old sterescope image
A lone quffa boatman passes a row of riverside homes. Date and location unknown; Baghdad is a guess. (Click images to enlarge.)
Quffa building, old stereoscope image
Two men were required to work on a quffa, one inside and one outside, to pass the stitches through to bind the coils of basketry togetherNote the multiplicity of very light frames, arranged radially throughout the interior. The stitches that hold the coils of rushes together appear to enclose the frames as well. 


Canoe Paddle from Rio Beni

$
0
0
Canoe paddle from Beni River, Bolivia
Paddle from Beni River, obverse
This wonderful paddle, in the collections of the American Museum of Natural History, is from the Beni River, a tributary of the Amazon. It was collected prior to 1909 by a surveyor for a South American railroad. 
Canoe paddle from Beni River
Paddle from Beni River, reverse
The museum's description of the object is sparse, and even the exact location of its origin is ambiguous. The image listing says "Bolivia?," but old collection notes (see pages 311-312) say that it came from "the Beni." Rio Beni is entirely within Bolivia, although it flows into Brazil after joining other major rivers and changing names. The reason for the question mark, therefore, is unclear.

Although the museum's documentation does not say, one assumes the paddle was used with a dugout canoe. It was collected "by native boatmen," whom the surveyor evidently employed in his work. 

The paddle's appeal lies in its geometric purity. The blade is very nearly round, which is strongly emphasized by the painted designs on both sides. The shaft is untapered -- a perfect cylinder. And the grip is a simple triangle (apparently with a rolled top).

The design on the obverse of the blade divides the area into three concentric circles, the outer two of which are divided into quadrants. The reverse is two concentric circles divided into six wedges. The same four colors are used on both sides. A bit of asymmetry in the arrangement of the colors on both sides breaks up what might otherwise be a  too-rigid geometry.

Thanks to Cate Monroe for pointing us to this item.

Bark Canoes in Arnhem Land, Australia

$
0
0
This short video clip, filmed in 1948 in Arnhem Land, Northern Territory, Australia, shows a few of the steps of building a bark canoe and a bit of paddling what appears to be a different canoe at the conclusion of a successful sea turtle hunt.


What we observe of the canoe under construction:

  • The bark was stripped in a rectangular section, not the ovoid or lozenge-shaped sections as were used for the canoes of the Murray Valley and as seen in the image at the bottom of this post.
  • The bark appears to be charred on the inside of the hull. This might have been done to make it more flexible, to harden it, or to drive out insects and/or moisture and prevent rot.
  • The bark is folded roughly in half and held upright by stakes driven into the ground, which define the width of the hull.
  • The ends are stitched closed with what we presume is vegetable fiber. The stitching is on an angle for a bit of bow or stern overhang. The bark is cut back to a line several inches outboard of the stitches after they are in place.
  • A "thwart" is tapped into place to open the bark envelope to the desired width and keep it from closing up.
  • There are gunwale timbers of round poles (seen briefly at 0:24) that stiffen the sides but do not extend to the ends of the boat. We assume they are stitched/tied to the top edges of the bark, but can't make out that detail.
  • Abaft the thwart (assuming that we're looking toward the bow), a withy is tied between the opposite gunwales, apparently to keep the bark from opening too wide (which we assume could occur as it softens when wet).
  • The ends are caulked with a liberal application of tree sap, probably mixed with some hardening agent like ash or charcoal.
The canoe shown in use appears to have a different bow shape than one under construction. The stem is vertical; there are no gunwale timbers; and the visible thwart is shaped flat, not like the unshaped round stick as appears in the construction segment. In spite of the lack of gunwale timbers, the boat is well-shaped and apparently stiff, handily carrying its crew of four. Paddlers #1 and #4 have full-length paddles; crewman #2 paddles mainly with his hands but briefly uses a very short paddle or perhaps some other available implement; crewman #3 paddles with both hands only.

We've written previously about canoes in Arnhem Land as they appear in the movie Ten Canoes. The construction method shown there appears to be the same, but the bow shape is different. In Ten Canoes, the craft have a ram bow or reverse overhang that may have been useful in parting the tall grass in the swamps where they were used. In contrast, the canoes in the present video were used at sea, where an overhanging bow would serve to ride up on waves and keep the interior dry, and a straight stem would at least not tend to shovel water into the boat.


Gunwale timbers similar to those shown in this video appear in other Australian bark canoes, like the one shown at the bottom of the image below. The shape of the bow in this example, however, is quite different from either of the boats shown in the present video.
Australian bark canoe types
Three types of Australian bark canoes. The one at top is the Murray Valley style, with the ends plugged with mud or clay. The ends of the canoe in the middle are bunched and tied. The canoe at the bottom has timber gunwales and a stitched end of complex shape. (Source: Edwin Doran, Jr., Wangka: Austronesian Canoe Origins)



Hōkūleʻa in Bar Harbor, Maine

$
0
0
Hawaiian voyaging canoe Hokule'a
Hokule'a off Oahu. (Photo: Polynesian Voyaging Society)
Hōkūleʻa is a Hawaiian voyaging canoe in the midst of a multi-year voyage around the world. (We wrote about her previously here.) Launched in 1975, the double-hulled vessel is 62 feet LOA, with a beam of 20 feet and draft of 3 feet. Her hulls are cold molded, but she is considered to be a "performance-accurate" reproduction of the canoes that are thought to have been used by Polynesians to settle much of the Pacific, including Hawaii. Built originally to test theories about Polynesian seafaring techniques and technology, she has since become an ambassador of Polynesian culture and a campaigner for environmental awareness. There's plenty about the vessel, her mission, and her circumnavigation on the website of her owner, the Polynesian Voyaging Society.

We visited Hokule'a this weekend when she stopped in Bar Harbor, Maine. Because she was tied up to a pier with her rig stowed, we couldn't get a good view of what she really looks like, but we did go on board and took photos of some design and construction details. We also talked with Kaleo Wong, navigator on the most recent leg of the boat's voyage, about the mechanics of sailing a double crab-claw rig. (This is literally the first video we have ever done, so please be kind.) 




Hawaiian voyaging canoe Hokule'a: steering sweep
The blade of the main steering sweep raised from the water.
Hawaiian voyaging canoe Hokule'a: lashing detail
Lashings between one of the main cross-beams and one of the hulls. The boat is entirely lashed together. There are no mechanical fasteners.
Hawaiian voyaging canoe Hokule'a: female idol
Hokule'a carries two idols on the vertical projections at the stern. On the port side (the female side of the boat) is a female figure. 
Hawaiian voyaging canoe Hokule'a: male idol
On the starboard or male side of the boat is a male figure. Where the female figure has prominent eyes and can see, the male is blind. But he holds a disc that represents the wisdom of the ancestors. Between the two of them, they have the perception and knowledge to guide Hokule'a safely.
Hawaiian voyaging canoe Hokule'a: navigator Kaleo Wong
Kaleo Wong sitting atop the starboard berth enclosure. There are five or six berths on top of each hull, all in a line, under a narrow sloped tarpaulin "roof," with tarpaulin covers over the entry side as well. Kaleo's feet rest on the starboard steering sweep, which is not steerable: it can only be lowered or raised to change the boat's center of resistance.
Hawaiian voyaging canoe Hokule'a: main steering sweep
The main (center) steering sweep, looking aft.
Hawaiian voyaging canoe Hokule'a: main steering sweep lashings
Another look at the main steering sweep, showing the lashings that hold it in place and serve as its pivot.
Hawaiian voyaging canoe Hokule'a: port berths
Two berths on the port side. There's just room to lie down, or sit up and place your feet over the edge. Accommodations do not look comfortable, and they're probably wet in bad weather. (This side was orderly. The starboard berths were a shambles of unstowed gear. Just sayin'.)

NOTE: We're obliged to Sym (5) and Ars Sonor for free use of the nice ambient music we used for the intro and outro of the video.

Asmat Dugout Canoe at the Met

$
0
0
In December I visited the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City and saw a wonderful display of art and crafts from New Guinea. We'll quote the display card in full for the nearly 50-foot-long dugout canoe shown in the following photos:


"The homeland of the Asmat people of southwest New Guinea consists mainly of densely forested swamps drained by numerous large and small rivers. Canoes are essential to life int he Asmat region, providing the only means of transportation for fishing and food-gathering expeditions, visiting neighboring communities, and, in the past, for embarking on headhunting raids. When paddling the canoes, the paddlers stand erect, skillfully maintaining their balance as they dip the blades in the water
"All large Asmat canoes have carved prows, and those of large communal canoes, such as the present one, are especially ornate, adorned with images of ancestors and headhunting symbols. Nearly fifty feet long and capable of carrying twenty people, this canoe was carved by the master woodcarver Chin
asapitch of Per village, assisted by other men. The seated figure on the prow depicts his deceased sister Banditis, while the reclining figure represents a young man who had recently been killed by members of an enemy village."
Asmat (New Guinea) dugout canoe
Asmat (New Guinea) dugout canoe, bow at left; with paddles. The hull is very round-bodied. The vertical stripes appear to be applied color, not a natural feature of the wood. (Click any image to enlarge.)
Bow carvings, Asmat dugout canoe
Bow carvings depicting two deceased people from the canoe maker's village
Asmat canoe from the bow, with paddles
Asmat canoe from the bow. Paddles leaning on both sides have very long shafts without end grips. The blades, which are lashed with fiber (presumably vegetable) to the shafts, are rounded at the bottom and square-shouldered at the top.
Asmat dugout canoe, from the stern
Asmat dugout canoe, from the stern

Asmat dugout canoe, from the stern
Another view from the stern.

Asmat men paddling a dugout canoe, standing
A photo accompanying the Asmat exhibit canoe shows the vigorous standing paddling method used. (Please excuse the poor quality of this photo-of-a-photo.)
Below, is an image from Wikipedia's article on the Asmat people, showing the prevalence of dugout canoes in the culture in 1912 or 1913.
Asmat people with dugout canoes
Asmat men and boys in dugout canoes, 1912 or 1913.
(Source: Tropenmuseum, part of the National Museum of World Cultures [CC BY-SA 3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons)





Asmat Spirit Canoe

$
0
0
Our previous post featured a large dugout canoe from New Guinea's Asmat culture at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. That one was ceremonial but functional. Beside it in the same exhibit was another Asmat canoe that was purely symbolic and religious in function. We'll quote the display card in full:
"Asmat spirit canoes (wuramon) are ceremonial carvings in the form of supernatural vessels. Wuramon are created for a one-time use during emak cem (the bone house feast), a ceremony that celebrates the spirits of the recently dead and the initiation of young boys. After being secluded within a ritual house for several months, the boys emerge one by one and crawl across the wuramon on their bellies. As each crosses the vessel, he is transformed from a boy into a man. Once across, he is seized by a man who cuts designs into his body; these heal into permanent scarification patterns that mark him as an adult. 
"Crewed by spirits, the wuramon has no bottom to its hull, as spirits do not require a complete hull for their journey. The spirit figures have a dual nature: their outer forms portray supernatural creatures, but each is named for a specific recently deceased ancestor, whose spirit it embodies. A turtle (mbu), a fertility symbol because of the numerous eggs it lays, appears near the center of this wuramon. Behind it is an okom, a dangerous Z-shaped water spirit. The other figures, gazing down through the bottomless hull, represent menacing water spirits (ambirak) or human-like spirits (etsjo). A hammerhead shark is depicted on the prow."
Asmat spirit canoe (wuramon)  at Metropolitan Museum of Art
Asmat spirit canoe (wuramon), with hammerhead shark figure at the bow (left). Click any image to enlarge.
Asmat spirit canoe (wuramon)  at Metropolitan Museum of Art
Asmat spirit canoe (wuramon)  at Metropolitan Museum of Art. The spirit figures are lashed to the gunwales.
Spirit figures looking down through bottom of hull on Asmat spirit canoe
Spirit figures looking down through bottom of hull. The gunwale displays a fine pattern on the outer surface.
Asmat spirit canoe (wuramon)  at Metropolitan Museum of Art
Spirit figures at stern 
Turtle spirit figure on Asmat spirit canoe
The turtle spirit figure symbolizes fertility. Behind it is an okom, "a dangerous Z-shaped water spirit."
Spirit figures at on Asmat spirit canoe
More spirit figures looking through the bottom of the hull. Behind the spirit canoe is the large dugout canoe featured in the previous post. Note the fine decorative carving on the gunwale, similar to that on the wuramon. 
Asmat spirit canoe at the Met
Shadow on the floor shows the bottomless nature of the spirit canoe's hull

Harvey Golden's Magnificent Kayak Surveys

$
0
0
 

My usual approach to using reading material for this blog is to take some interesting (to me) facts that I read concerning some kind of boat, or some culture's use of boats, and condense, paraphrase, or synthesize the source into an article, hopefully for the benefit or entertainment of my readers. Sometimes I rely entirely on a single source; at others, I'll do a little more digging into the subject and put together what amounts to an essay on the subject.

This time, the books themselves are the subject, because Harvey Golden's Kayaks of Alaska (2015) and Kayaks of Greenland: The History and Development of the Greenlandic Hunting Kayak, 1600-2000 (2006) are huge, valuable, awesomely impressive, and worthy of an article about themselves. When I opened the mailing package that contained them, I was, without exaggeration, awestruck by the enormous quantity of sheer fact they contain and the clarity of its presentation. Having lived with them for a few months now, my opinion has not diminished a bit.

Golden is an independent researcher in the field of museum studies. He has examined and surveyed almost every historically significant kayak held in museum collections and many private collections in Europe and North America, taking off lines, photographing and sketching the most minute and intricate details, and delving into the collections' documentation and the historical, popular, and academic writings of others. When personally surveying an artifact, no detail seems to escape his notice. If a deck line had once been present on a kayak but was later removed, perhaps 200 years ago, Golden is certain to have detected it by the presence of a tiny nub of a thong cut off close to the deck. 

Kayaks of Alaska and Kayaks of Greenland divide the boats surveyed by geographic and cultural ranges, each associated with different boat types. In the Greenland book, Golden creates a typology of eight types, although the distinctions between the types are sometimes difficult to see. Certainly, the kayaks of Greenland are more similar to one another than the kayaks of Alaska, where the differences between nine regional types Golden describes are in some cases really dramatic. Hereafter, we'll focus on the more recent Kayaks of Alaska. Kayaks of Greenland is similar in most respects.


A kayak from Point Barrow, from Kayaks of Alaska
A kayak from Point Barrow, from Kayaks of Alaska (Click any image to enlarge.)
Kayaks of Alaska begins with a short chapter of history. This is followed by nine chapters on the kayaks of different regions -- said regions defined by cultural borders and the distinct types of kayaks used within them (e.g., Unangan, Central Yup'ik, Southern Inupiaq, etc.). These nine sections, therefore, constitute a typology of Alaskan kayaks, one which Golden has developed as an expansion on the thinking of kayak scholars before him.


Lines of a North Alaska kayak in the Burke Museum, Seattle, from Kayaks of Alaska
Lines of a North Alaska kayak in the Burke Museum, Seattle, from Kayaks of Alaska
Each chapter on a kayak type begins with a more detailed history of the kayaks themselves and of the history and scholarship concerning those kayaks, illustrated with drawings and photographs from historical and academic sources as well as Golden's own illustrations. The type is clearly and exhaustively defined and variations are discussed. This is followed by a series of plates of lines and construction drawings of several artefactual kayaks of the type, the plates being followed by a section containing detailed descriptions of each one. These descriptions discuss the artifact's provenance, its condition, and construction and decorative details; compare and contrast it to others of the same type; and in some cases discuss the construction of recent replicas and their performance. (Golden has built several, which he maintains in his own museum, the Lincoln Street Kayak & Canoe Museum in Portland, OR.)


Construction plan of a North Alaska Kayak at the Center for Wooden Boats, Seattle, from Kayaks of Alaska
Construction plan of a North Alaska Kayak at the Center for Wooden Boats, Seattle, from Kayaks of Alaska
Golden produces his lines drawings by hand, and they are admirably clean and detailed. In several instances where the kayak has been damaged by accident or deformed by inadequate support over the years, he reproduces the lines "as surveyed," and beside them shows lines for a likely "as-built" reconstruction based on the scantlings of the boat and on the form of other kayaks of the same type. In cases where good lines drawings were already made by others, he reproduces these instead. 
Interior construction details of an Alaskan kayak, from Kayaks of Alaska
Interior construction details of an Alaskan kayak, from Kayaks of Alaska
In addition to standard waterline, sheer plan, and section lines, several of the kayaks are presented in a three-quarters view that gives one an excellent feel for the shape that standard views sometimes fail to impart. He also includes sketches of numerous construction and decorative details, deck fittings, and deck equipment associated with the boat in question.



Kayak builders, from Kayaks of Alaska
Kayak builders, from Kayaks of Alaska
Chapters on kayak construction, equipment, and paddles follow the chapters on kayak types. The chapter on construction is not a "how-to," however: it will tell you little or nothing about how to select lumber, cut a mortise, or steam-bend a rib. Rather, it addresses the construction details that are common to many or all of the boats, right down to details such as knots and lashing patterns for the joints between longitudinal and transverse structural members. (Deviations from common construction methods are covered in minute detail in the descriptions of the individual artifacts that follow the plates in each "type" chapter.) If you want to build one of the boats in this book and lack knowledge of skin-on-frame construction methods, I recommend The Aleutian Kayak by Wolfgang Brinck and Building the Greenland Kayak by Christopher Cunningham (neither of which, I believe, are in print). For would-be builders who do possess building skills, Kayaks of Alaska and Kayaks of Greenland contain the necessary lines and construction details, but not tables of offsets, from which accurate reproductions can be built. (Golden provides instructions for lifting offsets from the plans on his website.)

A charming bonus in Kayaks of Alaska is a section of color plates containing reproductions of Golden's hand-drawn depictions of colored decorative details on many of the kayaks and paddles. Aside from this, all illustrations in both books are in black and white.

These are big, heavy books, each 8.5" x 11" and over 500 pages. As self-published projects, they are extraordinary for the quality of their production, but this is almost trivial compared to the quality and value of their contents. They are not books that many will sit down and read cover-to-cover, for the descriptions of thousands of details on dozens of kayaks do not make for an engaging narrative. But one can dip into them at any point and learn something about kayak history or about a particular design, and as reference sources, they are incomparable in their clear and comprehensive coverage of their subjects.

In the immense contribution they make to the study of indigenous watercraft, Golden's books stand as equals to Adney and Chapelle's The Bark Canoes and Skin Boats of North America and Haddon and Hornell's Canoes of OceaniaKayaks of Alaska and Kayaks of Greenland are magnificent achievements. 


* * *
Visit Harvey Golden's website to purchase Kayaks of Alaska and Kayaks of Greenland. IndigenousBoats.com has no business affiliation with Harvey Golden, and we make no commissions on sales of his books. 

A Very Early Maori Canoe

$
0
0
A sizable component of a large canoe found in New Zealand gives clues to the type of boats used to settle the islands, which probably occurred sometime between 1050 and 1250 CE. Found at Anewaka, on the northwest coast of South Island, the artifact has been dated to around 1400. Given the slowness with which technology changes in traditional societies, it seems probable that the boat it came from was similar to those used by the islands' first colonizers.
Canoe fragment recovered at Anewaka, New Zealand
Canoe fragment recovered at Anewaka, New Zealand (click any image to enlarge)
More than 6m long and 85cm wide at its widest point, the part was a piece of what must have been a large composite canoe. For convenience, we'll call it a plank, though it was carved "in the round," following the shape of the tree trunk from which it came, and it is therefore somewhat closer to dugout technology than to plank-on-frame boatbuilding. (The proper term for this kind of component is ile.) The boat was, however, by no means a dugout. The part represents less than one quarter of one hull which may have been from a single-outrigger canoe but was more likely half of a double canoe.

Stitching holes exist around the entire perimeter of the plank, and pounded tree bark that was used to caulk these holes was recovered from some of them. Carved ribs and a longitudinal stringer on the inner surface of the plank show sophisticated carpentry and structural design. The stringer has notches and lashing holes along its whole length which were obviously used to locate and lash other parts of the boat's structure, but the exact nature of those other parts and the connections between them is unknown.

Partial hull reconstruction of Anekawa canoe
Partial hull reconstruction through duplication and mirror-imaging of the single recovered plank 
The authors of a paper on the find suggest that the part would have had a mirror-image to itself opposite, plus a similar pair of parts extending the hull at least a comparable distance from its butt end. To avoid having the mirror-image parts meet along the hull's "keel" line, where lashings would have been exposed to rapid wear when grounding the boat (an arrangement that, the authors state, is unknown ethnographically), it is necessary to accept another part between them -- call it a keel plank if you will. Although the two ends of the hull need not have been identical, it seems fair to assume that they were of similar length. There is nothing to preclude more sections between the two end pieces, for a much longer hull.

Carving of a sea turtle on the Anewaka canoe plank
Carving of a sea turtle on the canoe plank
A sea turtle appears carved in relief on the outer surface of the plank. If one assumes that it is depicted swimming forward, then the plank must be from the after part of the hull. Sea turtles are not important in the iconography of the New Zealand Maori, so its carving here is thought to be a lingering transmission from pre-colonization Maori culture, which arrived in New Zealand by way of the Society Islands.

Proposed reconstruction of the Anewaka canoe as a double-hulled voyaging canoe
Proposed reconstruction of the Anewaka canoe as a double-hulled voyaging canoe with a single oceanic sprit rig
Relying on internal and ethnographic evidence and historical records, the authors created a reconstruction showing a double-hulled sailing canoe with dissimilar ends, a house aft of amidships, and a steering oar. The single sail is an inverted triangle held by two spars: known as an oceanic sprit rig, this is a tacking rig.

A Tahitian tipaerua, drawn by John Webber
A Tahitian tipaerua, drawn by John Webber
As the authors note, the Tahitian tipaerua has a similar hull configuration, though the sailing rig depicted by John Webber on James Cook's third voyage to the Pacific was different. The authors suggest that the Anewaka canoe and the tipaerua had a common ancestor.

Thanks for Yoram Meroz for alerting us to this item.

With the exception of the final image, all images are from An early sophisticated East Polynesian voyaging canoe discovered on New Zealand's coast by Dilys A Johns, Geoffrey J. Irwin, and Yun K. Sung.


Buckminster Fuller's Model Boat Collection, Part 1

$
0
0
Buckminster Fuller is normally associated with technological modernism, but it seems he had a penchant for preindustrial technology too. His granddaughter recently donated Fuller's collection of boat models to Penobscot Marine Museum, the bulk of it representing boats "outside the Western tradition," as we put it.

Collections Manager Cipperly Good kindly granted us access to the collection, which the museum received with almost no accompanying documentation. Being brand new to the museum, it has not yet been carefully studied, so most of the vessels represented have yet to be identified. Of the roughly 15 models in the collection, one is American (an early 20th century powerboat hull) and three are European (20th century Greek and Danish vessels). The rest represent preindustrial types: seven are from Asia, two from Oceania, one appears to be from Africa, and one is a mystery even at the continental level.

Most of the models appear to have been built for the tourist trade and, as such, may not be detailed or accurate enough to associate with real, specific vessel types. Some of them are fanciful, intended more as an artistic expression than an accurate representation.

Here we present our photos the non-Western types that are not from China. (We'll look at the Chinese models in our next post.) Our identifications of types and provenances are largely speculative. As we learn more, we'll update the captions. Please help us identify the models by writing to us in the Comments. As always, click any image to enlarge.

Model of a double hull voyaging canoe from Bora Bora
Double-hull voyaging canoe. An identification tag found inside the deckhouse (the roof lifts off in the manner of a trinket box) reads "Bora-Bora. Given to R.B.F - 1966 by native chief" (Richard was Fuller's first name.) The hulls are carved from solid, dense hardwood. The horsehead figureheads and all other features are glued on. The proper location of the spar on the table in the foreground is unknown. Many of the glued parts are coming loose but the model is otherwise in good condition.

Model of a double hull voyaging canoe from Bora Bora, stern view
A rudder under the aft deck is steered by a massive rudder post with tillers extending from both sides. The tillers would be far too short to steer the real vessel. Horses, of course, were unknown in the Society Islands before European contact, and we doubt that they were ever used as figureheads in Bora Bora even after they were known. 

Model of a Samoan single-outrigger paddling canoe
Samoan outrigger paddling canoe. ("Samoa" appears as part of the carved decoration on the starboard bow.) The hull is solid hardwood. The maker used the heartwood/sapwood division of his workpiece to advantage in creating a two-toned hull, with the lower half darker than the upper. Incised carving in the lower half was accentuated by rubbing in some light-colored material.


Model of a Samoan single-outrigger paddling canoe
Although it was made for the tourist trade, the model strives toward accuracy in some details. The outrigger extends further forward than it does aft, beginning just short of the waterline at the cutwater, but ending just past the aft outrigger struts. The complex configuration of the struts appears to be accurate. Crudely carved paddles with pointed, leaf-shaped blades are lashed to the tops of all three outrigger booms.


canoe model, Southeast Asian
Canoe, probably Southeast Asia. The hull and the long bow and stern decks are carved from a single piece of lightweight wood, but the model may represent a dugout or a boat with stitched or metal-fastened planks. Deck extensions or seats located just inboard of and slightly lower than the decks were added separately, as were three sitting thwarts. All of these added pieces rest on a ridge carved on the hull's inner surface.

Southeast Asian canoe model, decorative details
Most upper surfaces are decorated with incised carvings of geometric and floral designs. The two long-shafted paddles have bulbous end-grips and blunt leaf-shape blades. From the shape of the raised bow and stern and the style of the decorations, we believe this represents a Cambodian, Thai, or Vietnamese type.

Model of a Southeast Asian (?) water taxi (?)
A small passenger vessel, possibly a water taxi. We believe to be from Southeast Asia. The hardwood hull seems to represent a plank-built hull with a flat central bottom part and fore and aft bottom pieces that rise from it at angles. The thwart-seats and coach roof are carved with a geometric, possibly floral, design. The low main passenger seat (for two?) and the "floor" in front of it are upholstered with fabric. A pair of paddles or oars with heart-shaped blades are held in sockets directly behind the house. Two empty sockets in the thwart aft of them may have held another set at one time.

Our guess is that the vessel operators would have stood on the aft deck. The gunwales rise to two points adjacent to the cabin and are reminiscent of the arrangement of tholepins on a Thames skiff, but we believe this is a superficial similarity only. In a real vessel of this type, the coach roof would probably have been lighter in relation to the rest of the boat -- probably of matting or cloth.


Model dugout canoe, African?
A dugout (?) canoe. The men appear to be wearing fezzes and have negroid features. We assume this model is African. Alternately, the boat's shallow shape is reminiscent of some bark canoes of Australian Aborigines, but then the "fezzes" would have to be interpreted as a hairstyle instead.

Model dugout canoe, African?
The model builder was not trying to achieve a literal depiction of a canoe and its passengers. The hull is extremely shallow and hollowed only slightly. Aside from their heads and faces, the passengers are represented mainly as flowing shapes that merge smoothly into the bottom of the boat; they have no hands, and their feet and arms are only vaguely suggested. A paddle is suggested in the form of a heavy shaft that extends to the left of the bow paddler, although it has no blade at its end and does not extend beyond the gunwale. Lozenge-shaped objects at the bow and stern may represent cargo.

wooden model boat propelled by a kneeling paddler
Boat propelled by a kneeling paddler. The blade of the long-shafted paddle is broken off. We have no guesses about the provenance of the model or the type of boat it refers to.

wooden model boat propelled by a kneeling paddler
The exaggerated rise of the bow does not reflect any real boat's design and is the model maker's artistic vision in a piece that is intended only as a decorative item. The sides and top surface of the hull are decorated with vine-and-leaf carving. Although crudely formed, the human figure's posture does a nice job depicting the vigorous, muscular, yet graceful movement of paddling.


Buckminster Fuller's Model Boat Collection, Part 2

$
0
0
In this post we look at the remainder of Buckminster Fuller's model boat collection that was recently donated to Penobscot Marine Museum. See our previous post for the first half of the collection.


Chinese junk model for inland use at Penobscot Marine Museum
Chinese junk. Lightweight wood, possibly bamboo. This model has enough detail so that it might be possible to associate it with a specific type, even though some of the features are overly simplified (e.g., the capstan) and others appear to be out of scale. The rigging and the house, however, have received a good amount of care and seem to reflect accurate observation of a real vessel type. The masthead devices, if accurate, may help in identification. 

Chinese junk model for inland use at Penobscot Marine Museum
With the hull's extreme tumblehome, the vessel is clearly a bulk carrier, and the scale of the house indicates it's a fairly large one. I believe the deck planks, laid athwartships, would lift off on the real ship to facilitate loading and unloading. Three heavy wales at the waterline strengthen the hull and serve as fenders. The three-masted, fully-battened balanced lug rig is supplemented by one long sweep on each side, which I believe makes this a vessel intended for river/inland use.

Deckhouse detail of Chinese junk model for inland use at Penobscot Marine Museum
Deck beams extend through the sides of the house. Housetops are made of woven material, probably meant to represent bamboo or palm leaf matting.

Stern detail of Deckhouse detail of model Chinese junk for inland use at Penobscot Marine Museum
Details of mizzenmast, deckhouse, transom and the large balanced rudder of complex construction. 

Foremast device on Chinese junk model
Masthead device on foremast

Mainmast device on Chinese junk model
Masthead device on mainmast (mizzen is similar).

Ma-Yang-Tzu junk from Ships of China by Valentin A. Sokoloff
Although there are many differences between the present model and this image of a Ma-Yang-Tzu junk from Ships of China by Valentin A. Sokoloff (not the least being the single mast of the Ma-Yang-Tzu versus the three-masted rig on the model), there are a number of similarities that indicate a possible relationship, including: heavy round cross-beams at deck level; sweeps on both sides; the capstan well aft of the bow; a barrel-backed deckhouse with a raised barrel-back coachroof; a tall athwartship "horse" (located over the deckhouse, forward of the coachroof on this vessel); red-topped pins sticking up from the transom; and a balanced rudder with an acute angle at its lower aft corner.
The Ma-Yang-Tzu is a river vessel, and the heavy cross-beams reinforce it and provide points of attachment for the tow line for upstream travel. The pins on the transom are for storing spare towlines.

Model Chinese seagoing junk at Penobscot Marine Museum
Chinese seagoing junk. With its deep rocker and high gunwales, this model represents a seagoing junk. Much of the rigging is in disarray but otherwise the model is in good condition. Although some details are out of proportion (for example, the weight of the sail battens and of the rail around the aft deck), there may be enough accurate observation here to facilitate identification with a real ship type.  The color scheme on the sides, the design on the transom, the colorful pole-mounted device on the aft deck, and the shape of the oculus are especially promising in this regard.
The vessel is a three-masted rig with fully battened lugsails that have a distinctly ovoid shape. The foremast has a forward lean; the mainmast is approximately vertical; and the mizzenmast rakes aft. 

Stern detail of model Chinese seagoing junk
Stern details, including painted transom design, unbalanced rudder, and heavy wales at the waterline.  

Deck detail of model Chinese seagoing junk
There is a capstan aft of the foremast and a tall windlass at the aft end of the main deck, probably used for raising sails. Two tall “horses,” (please advise concerning the correct term in the Comments) one each aft of fore and main masts, appear to be tying-off points for running rigging. There are deck hatches fore and aft of the mainmast. 

After deck detail of model Chinese seagoing junk
"Horse" aft of mainmast;, windlass; crossbeams beneath the aft deck extend through the sides of the hull. Is the pole-mounted device on the aft deck a lantern or a symbol identifying the vessel's port of call or purpose? 

Model of small Chinese junk at Penobscot Marine Museum
Small junk, China. This model, somewhat less detailed than the previous one, represents a smaller, simpler vessel. It has a single deck with lower gunwales and what might be termed a schooner junk rig, with two masts, the forward one shorter and raked sharply forward. The mainmast has a slight forward rake. Both masts are set with fully battened lugsails. The foresail has a straight, vertical luff and a moderate amount of roach to the leech. I believe the mainsail is similar. As on the previous model, the rigging is in disarray.
There is a capstan just aft of the foremast, and a windlass just aft of that. Also as on the previous model, there are deck hatches immediately forward and aft of the mainmast.

Bow detail of model of small Chinese junk
Bow detail. The bow transom is painted red. Atop it is a heavy beam tying the gunwales together and extending beyond them: perhaps fishing nets would be drawn over it?

Deck structures on model of small Chinese junk
One bow-backed deck shelter is covered with fabric, and a framework is present for a second shelter to be erected should the need arise. This makes me think this vessel is occupied by a family who would use it for small-scale commercial fishing and/or trading.

Stern details on model of small Chinese junk
The rudder is unbalanced; the tiller is missing from the top of the rudder post. A crossbeam at the top of the stern transom is smaller in diameter than the one at the bow and does not extend beyond the vessel's sides.
I do not know the purpose of the horizontal beams on both sides of the vessel extending past the stern transom on this and the previous junk and on the raft that follows. They don't appear to serve as davits. If you know their purpose, please explain in the Comments. 

Taiwanese model seagoing bamboo raft at Penobscot Marine Museum
Bamboo Raft, Taiwan. This very touristy model, essentially a nicknack, was built of shell or horn and represents a seagoing bamboo raft of a type once used for fishing. It is believed that Micronesia was settled by people using vessels like this prior to the development of the outrigger canoe.

Taiwanese model seagoing bamboo raft at Penobscot Marine Museum
Heavy crossbeams at the bow and stern are etched with zigzag patterns to represent lashings to the craft’s main longitudinal members, which would have been bamboo stalks. The mast rests on a heavy step that serves as another crossbeam amidships. On the foredeck is a representation of a basket of elaborate shape, probably for keeping the day’s catch. The item on the aft deck might represent a basket-built dinghy, a deckhouse, or possibly a net. Oars are tied to tholepins on both gunwale rails. Whether they are for propulsion or steering is unclear.

Sail detail on Taiwanese model seagoing bamboo raft
A fully battened balanced Chinese lugsail is represented, but the model is entirely without rigging. The sail is inscribed “Taiwan” in English. Translations of the Chinese characters and explanations of the other symbols on the sail are welcomed in the Comments.

Model Thai market boat at Penobscot Marine Museum
Thai Market Boat. The model represents a Thai market boat of the type used in the famous Bangkok floating market. Market gardeners bring their produce to the market in these boats and sell directly from them. The model shows the construction of this boat type fairly accurately. It is a plank-built boat of sampan construction, with wide planks laid on deep frames. An important function of the frames is to support the tall washstrakes. Boats like this are often built of teak, and the model may be as well.
Most photos of the Bangkok market show paddles being used for propulsion, but the model has a long oar or sweep that pivots on a waist-high post and that would be rowed in a standing, forward-facing position. Perhaps the oar is used for efficiency in open water, then removed in the close confines of the market, where a paddle then comes into play.
A teak Thai market boat very much like this model was restored by the Small Open Boats shop in Port Republic, Maryland.

Bow detail on model Thai market boat
The long overhanging square bow allows for easy boarding and loading/unloading over the bow onto a wharf or other walkway, and the metal strips would protect it, especially if that walkway were of stone or concrete. Given the crowded conditions in the floating markets, over-the-bow loading a more efficient use of limited wharf space than tying up side-to.

Floorboards, frames on model Thai market boat
All the decks and floorboards of the model are loose and removable, notched to fit over the deep frames.

Rudder, tiller on model Thai market boat
The boat is steered by an underhung transom rudder of elegant shape. We speculate that when the oar is in use, the oarsman or -woman might operate the beautifully-curved tiller with one foot.

A Solomon Islands Canoe at the Vatican

$
0
0
On a trip to Italy this month, we visited the Vatican Museums, eager to see masterpieces like the Laocoon group and the Apollo Belvedere. Upon entering, however, the first thing we saw was this plank-built canoe, an eye-catching introduction to an extensive temporary exhibit of boat models and paddles from around the world.

Stern view of a Solomon Islands mon canoe at the Vatican.
Stern view of a Solomon Islands mon canoe at the Vatican. (Click any image to enlarge.)
Bow of the Solomon Islands mon canoe at the Vatican.
Bow of the Solomon Islands mon canoe at the Vatican.
The Vatican's stated purpose for the exhibit is to represent of the diversity and interconnectedness of world cultures. The curators were far more interested in communicating that ecumenical message than in the details of the items on display, for we saw nothing to identify the boat or paddles on exhibit, and the models were accompanied by only scanty information. Nevertheless, we'll concentrate on the exhibit's sole full-size boat in this post, and move on to the paddles and models in subsequent posts.

We believe the canoe is from the Solomon Islands. Haddon and Hornell (in Canoes of Oceania, Vol. 2) identify four types of plank-built monohull canoes in the Solomons. Those with continuous washstrakes like the one here were called mon and were characteristic of the central Solomons, including Bougainville, New Georgia, and Choiseul. 

In contrast, canoes called lisi, with discontinuous washstrakes both fore and aft, were characteristic of the southern part of the chain (including Guadalcanal, Malaita and San Cristoval) and of the tiny island of Buka, at the chain's northernmost end. With the exception of its discontinuous washstrakes, the following image of a Buka canoe observed in 1753 by Labillardiere is very much like the canoe in the Vatican.


Solomon Islands "lisi" canoe from Labillardiere (1800)
"Buka Island Canoe (Solomon Islands)" from Labillardiere (1800), Atlas pour servir a la relation du voyage de la recherche de la Perouse.
(Source: University of Cambridge)
Frame and plank lashings, Solomon Islands canoe
Bent (?) frames amidships, with decorative carving at the upper ends, are lashed to cleats on the planks' interior surface. Also in view is the seat riser.
The exhibit canoe is built of long parallel planks with no keel. Each plank is gotten out with cleats left standing proud on its interior surface near the lower edges, one cleat per rib. These cleats are lashed to ribs with vegetable fiber and caulked with resin made from the "putty nut" (Parinarium laurinum).

Carved frame/thwart units in a Solomon Islands canoe
Carved frame/thwart units near the bow.
Most of the ribs are roughly round in section and appear to be bent to shape, their top ends being carved with faces that are decorated with eyes of shell inlay. The two forward-most frames and accompanying thwarts are carved from single pieces of wood, and painted, carved decorative elements appear within that perimeter. Continuous thwart risers are lashed to the ribs and run nearly the whole length of the boat, supporting multiple seats for paddlers and passengers.


Bow detail of Solomon Islands canoe
Bow detail showing a carving of a horned beast (or demon?) at the waterline, extensive shell inlay, and cowry shells lashed to the forward surface of the stem well above the waterline.
The most distinctive feature of the canoe is its tall, elaborately decorated prow and stern. The outboard surfaces of these features are inlaid with thousands of pieces of carved shell in circle and cross patterns, and the decks feature diamond-pattern shell inlays. A grotesque painted and carved animal head (a goat? a demon?) sits right at the waterline on the cutwater with its horns on either side of the stem. Cowry shells are lashed to the fronts of both the stem and sternpost high above the waterline. The stem is capped with a painted carving of two parrot-like birds facing one another over a bulb-topped post that might represent fruit on a tree. The sternpost also features a painted carving at the top of an obscure geometric design.


Stem-head decoration of Solomon Islands canoe
Carved stem-head decoration

Sources: 
Canoes of the Solomon Islands by R.J.A.W. Lever.
"Canoes of the Solomon Islands," from The Maori Canoe by Elsdon Best
Canoes of Oceania, Vol. II: The Canoes of Melanesia, Queensland, and New Guinea, by A.C. Haddon and James Hornell

Vatican boat model exhibit, Part 2

$
0
0
In a current temporary exhibit at the Vatican Museums, dozens of models of watercraft from numerous nations and cultures are presented to represent the diversity and interconnectedness of humanity. (See our previous post on this exhibit.) The models are displayed in glass cases (hence the poor quality of the photos that follow) with little explanatory material. 

We present our photos with the scanty information from the exhibit cards in quotation marks, and our own brief observations in parentheses. We invite readers to contribute additional information about any boat in the Comments. Only models representing craft from "outside the Western tradition" are included here. More images of other models from the exhibit will follow in a subsequent post. As always, click any image to enlarge.
"Japan: Sailing boat" (looks like it would be highly capable in surf)
"Indonesia: Sailing boat with outrigger" -- (actually two outriggers. Although the rig is set as a square sail, it appears to be hung asymmetrically on the mast and can probably be canted to form a kind of lugsail.)
"Philippines: Sailing boat with outrigger" -- (again, two outriggers. This is a banca, with a Western-style sailing rig.)
"Sri Lanka: Boat with fisherman" (We wonder if the model attempts to represent any real type of boat, or if it is purely fanciful, its shape dictated by the material available to the modeler. What's surprising and touching about this model is the paddler, who is modeled with a great deal of humanity.)
"India: Pirogue with rowers" (paddlers, actually)
"China: Boat for recreation" (and by that, we mean eating, drinking and sex.)
(background) "India: Pirogue with rowers" (again, paddlers in fact)
"Thailand: Royal boat" (identical exhibit cards for both models)
"China: Sea Junk" (The truncated bow and minimal rig are fascinating aspects of this model, which is certainly not meant to be an accurate representation.)
"Southeast Asia: River boat" (a sampan)
"China: Sea Junk with three masts"
"China: River boat"
"China: Dragon boat for racing"
(Nationality not identified)
Back row:
Left: "Raft for fishing with cormorants"
Center: "Houseboat with passenger and boatmen" (Error in labeling, as this open craft is clearly not a houseboat. The Italian label identifies it as a sampan with a passenger and a boatman)
Right: (label illegible in photo)

Front row: 
Left: "Houseboat with coxswain"
Center: "Houseboat with passenger and boatmen" (Error in labeling, as this open craft is clearly not a houseboat. The Italian label identifies it as a sampan with a passenger and a boatman)
Right: "Houseboat with fisherman"
"Samoa: Seven paddle canoe" (Noticeable similarities to a Samoan canoe in our post about Buckminster Fuller's model collection)

Vatican boat model exhibit, Part 3

$
0
0

This is the final post about a current exhibit of boat models and canoe paddles at the Vatican Museums. Previous posts about this exhibit cover the other models representing boats from outside the Western tradition, and one full-size canoe from the Solomon Islands. As noted in the previous posts, exhibit signage was sparse. We reproduce the English text of the exhibit cards in quotation marks. Our own comments appear in parentheses. As always, click any image to enlarge.

model: "Tahiti: Catamaran"
"Tahiti: Catamaran" (The two hulls are essentially the same but with their ends reversed. The boat should perform the same in either direction when it shunts.)
model Maori war canoe
"Aotearoa New Zealand: Maori boat" (A monohull war canoe. See our earlier post on boats like this.)
model 3-hull catamaran, New Guinea
"Papua New Guinea: Three hull catamaran" (beautiful double crab-claw rig)
model 3-hull catamaran, New Guinea
(Same model as above, showing the hull configuration.)
model New Guinea outrigger paddling canoe
"Papua New Guinea: Boat with outrigger" (The main hull is a dugout with high washstrakes stitched in place)
model Solomon Islands monohull canoe
"Solomon (Islands): Canoe with bird shaped bow" (Somewhat similar to the full-size canoe that serves as the exhibit's centerpiece.)
"Fiji: Sailing boat" (Twin-hull canoe with oceanic lateen sail)
"Fiji: Sailing boat" (Twin-hull canoe with oceanic lateen sail)
"Fiji: Sailing boat" (Twin-hull canoe with oceanic lateen sail)
(Same model as previous. The port hull is much smaller and shorter than the starboard, but it is nonetheless a true hull, not an outrigger float.)
model Alakaluf Canoe, Chile
"Chile; Alakaluf Canoe" (This looks much like the Yamana/Yaghan canoe we've written about previously.)
model kayak-form canoe
"Alaska: Canoe" (Adney called this a "kayak-form canoe.")
model Yaghan (Yamana) canoe
"Chile: Yaghan (Yamana) canoe" (Images created by Europeans show greatly different forms of Yaghan or Yamana canoes. See the Alakaluf canoe two images above.)
model bark canoe with full decks
"Canada: Canoe" (...and a rather fanciful one at that! We're not aware of any bark canoes built with full decks and a round cockpit coaming. The modeler seems to be combining aspects of the open bark canoe with the skin-on-frame kayaks of Alaska.)
model Caraja river boat, Brazil
"Brazil: Caraja river boat" (The cargo of what appears to represent a dugout canoe is probably tortoises or sea turtles. At the right is a pregnant woman; at the left, a baby.)
models, Alaska and Canada bark canoes
background: "Canada: Canoe"
foreground: "Alaska: Bark canoe"
model twin-hull raft from Bolivia
"Bolivia: Mosetenes raft" (A double-hull raft. Perhaps it is built to be separated, so that it can be used as two smaller craft.)
model reed boat, Lake Titicaca
"Peru - Bolivia: Ayamara boat"(A reed boat of the type used on Lake Titicaca.)
bark canoe models, USA
background: "Rocky Mountains: Canoe"
foreground: "USA: Canoe"
(Both are birchbark types.)
model canoes, Madagascar
background: "Madagascar: Dugout canoe"
middle-right: "Madagascar: Dugout canoe"
left: "...West Coast" (presumably Africa; we failed to capture the full label text)
front-right: "Madagascar: Dugout canoe"
model coracle, Mozambique
"Mozambique: Raft" (We'd call this a coracle, not a raft, since it relies on the enclosure of space for buoyancy. The model is made from a single piece of bent bark. If the full-size boat is built the same way, it must be quite small, or else it requires an enormously wide tree.)
model outrigger sailing canoe, Africa east coast
"Africa - East Coast: Sailing boat with outrigger" (The main hull is extraordinarily narrow and highly rockered. This must be a thrilling boat to sail.)
models Congo dugout canoes
background: "Congo: Canoe with rower" (a paddler, in fact)
foreground: "Congo: Canoe"
model boats, Nigeria
background: "Nigeria: Boat with two rowers" (paddlers)
middle: "Nigeria: Boat with passengers"
front: "Nigeria: Boat with passengers"
(All three represent dugouts with an aft platform carved as an integral part of the hull for the stern paddler/helmsman. Locating the paddle force so far aft of the submerged part of the hull lends a great deal of power for turning and correcting strokes, making these boats highly maneuverable.) 
model Yoruba dugout canoes, Nigeria
"Nigeria: Yoruba boats: H.E. Mons, Carlo Maria Viganò" (These were the only models in the exhibit credited to whom we assume was the donor or lender.)
canoe paddle display, Vatican Museums
A nice selection of canoe paddles were exhibited at the end of each of the spiral levels of the hall, unfortunately with no exhibit cards or other identification. (This photo by Cate Monroe)
canoe paddle display, Vatican Museums
A closer look at the paddles on the middle level.

(All images by the blogger except as noted.)

The Yathra Dhoni - A Single-Outrigger Ship of Sri Lanka

$
0
0
yathra dhoni beached
The large vessel is a yathra dhoni. Its outrigger allows it to sit upright on the beach without temporary supports (from Devendra, "The Lost Ships of Lanka.") (Click any image to enlarge)
Seagoing ships with outriggers are a rarity. If one defines “ships” as “(floating mobile nautical) structures which constituted significant elements in the economies of the societies which built and operated them” (Basil Greenhill, in The Earliest Ships: The Evolution of Boats into Ships), then a few of the larger traditional single-outrigger canoes of Oceania would qualify, but based on their size, burthen, and the fact that they are “canoes,” most modern observers would still call them “boats” without hesitation. Some motorized bancas of the Philippines might be (just) large enough to be thought ship-like by some, but no one of these double-outrigger vessels would qualify on the grounds of economic significance.

The yathra dhoni of Sri Lanka and the Coromandel Coast on India, then, may be the only traditional outrigger vessel that was undeniably a “ship.” Large and burthensome enough so as not to be mistaken for a boat, and used as a cargo carrier on both coastal and short oceanic voyages, the single-outrigger yathra dhoni (also spelled yatra dhoni, and also known as the maha-oruwa or maha oru, meaning “big outrigger canoe”) was in use for centuries – possibly thousands of years – and remained in common use into the early twentieth century.

Admiral Paris's drawing of a yathra dhoni
Admiral Paris's drawing of a yathra dhoni (from Essai sur la construction navale des peuples extra-européens ou Collection des navires et pirogues construits par les habitants de l'Asie, de la Malaisie, du Grand Océan et de l'Amérique dessinés et mesurés pendant les voyages autour du monde de "l'Astrolabe", "la Favorite" et "l'Artémise")
Outrigger ships in Sri Lanka were noted by Strabo (65 BCE-19 CE) and Pliny (23-79 CE), and if these were not yathra dhonies per se, they were probably their direct ancestors. A temple carving in Borobudur, Java, dated to the 8th to 10th century CE, shows “the arrival of Aryan emigrants to the Indonesian Islands” (Vitharana) in an outrigger vessel with features similar to the yathra. (The original Aryans, however, were from the area that is now northern India, not Coromandel or Sri Lanka.) Near the end of their history, yathras were known to be trading as far as the Moluccas, so their earlier use transporting Aryans or their neighbors to Java (which, like the Moluccas, is in Indonesia, but closer to India) seems credible.

Most yathras were 50 to 60 feet LOA with a main hull beam of 12 to 15 feet. The largest were 100 feet long with a 20 foot hull beam. Vitharana states that they were 10 to 15 feet in height, although it is unclear what points of measurement are implied. Cargoes ranged from 25 to 75 tonnes, with 50 being typical. The main hull was double-ended, with slack bilges, full midsections, and a slightly hollow entry.

Vosmer's drawing of Dodanduva yathra dhoni model
Tom Vosmer's profile drawing of the Dodanduva yathra dhoni model (from Devendra, "The Lost Ships of Lanka)
The outrigger varied in length, from about a third (Paris) to well over two-thirds (Vosmer’s drawing of a highly detailed model built in the former yathra center of Dodanduva, Sri Lanka, that is widely accepted for its authority) the length of the main hull. It was always mounted on the port side, fastened directly to substantial, downward-curving booms that extended right through the main hull at the level of the deck beams. (One simplified model exists with the outrigger to starboard, but this model lacks a rudder and may represent a different vessel type, or the difference may be due to imprecision on the modeler’s part.) Guys leading diagonally from the main hull to the outer ends of the outrigger booms helped stabilize the outrigger float fore-and-aft.

Dodanduva model of a yathra dhoni
The Dodanduva model of a yathra dhoni (from Green) 
The yathra’s rudder followed the curve of the sternpost. The rudder on the Dodanduva model is enormous and wide, but other reliable sources show rudders of more graceful shape and conventional proportions. From this, it appears that rudders were fitted in a range of sizes and styles. Vitharana refers to a “secondary rudder to act as a leeboard … in the region of the main mast touching the water on the starboard side,” but in no models or drawings that I know of does such a feature appear. A leeboard would appear to be unnecessary, since the hull was built on a keel that provided significant lateral plane to resist leeway. Some models and drawings also show a “gripe” at the bow and a skeg at the stern (upon which the rudder’s lower end was hung), both of which added to the lateral plane and directional stability.

Hornell's sketch of a yathra dhoni
Hornell's sketch of a yathra dhoni
The common rig was a ketch with square headed, loose-footed cloth lugsails and a jib on a bowsprit, said by Green to be “a rig common to the region of the Indian subcontinent.” Some smaller yathras may have had a single mast. Hornell’s sketch of the ketch version shows a second headsail inside the first one, apparently set flying, with its tack led to the port bulwark or possibly to the foredeck. Admiral Paris’s drawing shows a whisker pole holding out the luff of the mainsail. Standing rigging included shrouds, fore- and backstays, and a stay between the mastheads. According to Green, “The arrangement of the halyards was such that they prevent the mizzen yard from passing around the forward side of the mast. It must therefore be concluded that the mizzen sail on the yatra was never tacked, but went aback against the mast when occasionally on a starboard tack.”

Two bulkheads divided the hull into three sections: small bow and stern compartments, the use of which I have not found described, and a large cargo hold between them. Much of the deck was covered by a light, removable deckhouse roofed with split bamboo, leaving only narrow walkways along the sides for the crew to move fore and aft. Sliding cargo hatches were offset to starboard, and a simple cargo handling crane was located to port. In order for this to come in use, lighters – probably small dugout canoes – must have come alongside the main hull between the outrigger booms. But because the vessel would sit upright on a beach, supported by the outrigger, it may be that loading and unloading was often done on land. One assumes that the deckhouse roof was removed before cargo was handled.

The hull of the yathra was of a carvel construction using an unusual combination of stitched and nailed fastening. The planks, a minimum of 2” thick, were stitched to each other with coir rope and nailed to the frames with iron nails and roves. Accounts differ on whether the stitching holes penetrated straight through to the inner surface of the planks or exited on the plank edges. In any case, it is clear that the stitching served only to hold the planks against each other and not to the frames. Details on the order of construction are lacking, but one presumes that the planks were stitched first to make them tight, and nailed second. Joints were caulked with coconut husks and leaves inserted before the stitches were drawn tight.

yathra dhoni construction drawings
Vosmer's construction drawings of the Dodanduva yathra dhoni model (from Devendra, "Pre-Modern Sri Lankan Ships")
Stem and sternpost were fastened to the keel with hooked scarfs held with locking wedges. The frames and deck beams were few in number and widely spaced but of heavy scantlings, providing sufficient overall strength. Deck beams extended through the planking on both sides. Green says the frames were continuous from sheer to sheer, but given their scantlings and the hull’s shape, this seems impossible. Perhaps his information, which is not footnoted, stems from observation of a model which used continuous frames for expediency.

Tom Vosmer took careful measurements of the Dodanduva model, fed the details into a hydrostatics program, and found that the main hull, even without the outrigger, was “reasonably stable.” The outrigger, of course, significantly increased the vessel’s righting moment (by a factor of 100). It also increased drag, and therefore, the ship’s powering requirements. The rig, therefore, could have been smaller and simpler if the (still seaworthy) hull did not have an outrigger attached.

Yathra dhoni at anchor in Kalpitiya, Sri Lanka
Yathra dhoni at anchor in Kalpitiya, Sri Lanka, 1913 (from Devendra, "The Lost Ships of Lanka") 
Yathras were mainly short- and medium-haul cargo vessels, serving ports large and small throughout Sri Lanka and the Coromandel Coast and making regular voyages to the Maldives (550 miles from Colombo, Sri Lanka), although they also sailed at least occasionally to the Moluccas (3,600 miles). Typical cargoes included textiles, rice, salt, fish and fish products, tea, and tiles. A large one carried a crew of 18.

The outrigger was always kept to windward except, perhaps, in the most benign conditions – an unusual and highly limiting practice for a tacking single-outrigger vessel. Working within these limits required coastal voyages to make use of the daily reversal of land and sea breezes: the vessel sailed only during the part of day when the prevailing breeze allowed the outrigger to be kept to windward. On longer voyages, the monsoon breeze dictated direction. This would have meant just a single round trip from Sri Lanka to the Maldives in any given year, whereas a vessel that could sail with either side to windward would be able to make several round trip voyages of that distance each year.

Most accounts tell of the yathra succumbing to competition from steamships around the turn of the twentieth century. Vitharana claims that 40 of them were still serving Dodanduva in the 1930s, but all other accounts tell of the last one being built there to some fanfare in 1930; that is was wrecked on its first voyage in the Maldives; and that that was the end of the tradition.

Sources:
Somasiri Devendra, "Pre-Modern Sri Lankan Ships" in Ships and the Development of Maritime Technology in the Indian Ocean, David Parkin gand Ruth Barnes, editors. Routledge, 2002
Devendra, "The Lost Ships of Lanka," from Maritime Heritage of Lanka: Ancient ports and harbours. National Heritage Trust Sri Lanka, 2013
Devendra,"The Mansion of the Sea," The Island Online - Saturday Magazine
Jeremy Green, "The archaeological contribute to the knowledge of the extra-European shipbuilding at the time of the Medieval and Modern Iberian-Atlantic tradition" Proceedings: International Symposium on Archaeology of Medieval and Modern Ships of Iberian-Atlantic Tradition
James Hornell, Water Transport: Origins and Early Evolution, Cambridge University Press, 1946
The National Trust of Sri Lanka, "The Annapoorani and The Amugoda Oruwa: The Forgotten Ships of Lanka" on Facebook
Corioli Souter, "Travellers and Traders in the Indian Ocean World Curatorial Audio Guide," WAM Audio Tours, Western Austrian Museum
Vini Vitharana, "The ORU & the YATRA" Nautical Archaeological Society, 1992, republished 2012

Bronze Age Carpow Logboat Moves to Permanent Home in Perth

$
0
0
We haven't had time for a post lately, so to keep the pump primed, we'll bring this recent news item to your attention, courtesy of The Courier.

The Carpow boat, a 3,000-year-old logboat excavated in 2006 from the River Tay in Scotland, was recently moved to a permanent home at the Perth Museum and Art Gallery. The 9.25-meter-long boat was recovered in generally very good condition, and it includes the transom board that closed in the stern. It is the second oldest logboat discovered in Scotland. Sadly, much of the bow is missing, but it is still one of the best-preserved Bronze Age logboats in Britain. This short video summarizes the excavation.



This next video shows the boat after conservation. The transom board is not in place, but you can clearly see the bosses that held it there, which were left standing on the inner surface of the boat when the trunk was carved out.






Bundle Boats in Oman and Elsewhere

$
0
0
In the last week or so, two bundle boats from Oman came to my attention. First, a reader sent me a link to this travel article in Daily Kos, containing this photo:
Mangrove root bundle boat, Oman
Caption from original article: "This old, traditional, fishing boat is made from “barasti”, the aerial roots of the mangrove.  I took this shot on the beach near Sohar, the third largest city in the country located near the UAE border." (Click any image to enlarge.)
This brought to mind the following photo of a shasha, another Omani bundle boat, from Tim Severin’s The Sinbad Voyage, which I reproduced in a post several years ago. But unlike the boat in the Daily Kos photo, this one was made from palm fronds.
palm frond bundle boat, Oman
A shasha -- an Omani bundle boat made of palm fronds (Source: The Sinbad Voyage)
The very next day, an image of another Omani bundle boat, also apparently made of palm fronds, appeared in my Facebook feed. I found it surprising that, even in the present day and within the confines of a rather small country, two methods of bundle boat construction, based on different materials, remain in use.
palm frond bundle boats, Oman
Original caption: "These are fishing boats in Oman. They are filled with polystyrene and paddled out to sea. At night the catch is landed and the village builds bonfires to cook supper. Which is fish." (Posted by Jonathan Savill to the Facebook page Church of the Double-Bladed Paddle)

Bundle boats are not really boats: they are boat-shaped rafts that derive their buoyancy from the materials of their construction, which are themselves buoyant. In contrast, true boats achieve buoyancy enclosing air within a watertight shell (or, to phrase it another way, by excluding water from a watertight shell).

In most cases, bundle boats are made from soft, flexible materials like grass, rushes, reeds, or leaves, large amounts of which are wrapped with cordage into long bundles – generally pointed at both ends – and then tied to other bundles into a boat shape – i.e., pointed at the bow (and often, at the stern), and usually with something approximating either raised gunwales, also composed of bundles, or a cockpit formed by leaving a cavity in or between bundles.

Sticks, roots or branches may also be used for construction. In most cases, these are tied into bundles in a manner similar to that used for soft, flexible materials, but in others, they are arranged and lashed side-by-side and not truly bundled. This method reduces the craft’s buoyancy and freeboard, also reducing its payload and leaving the boatman’s bottom constantly wet, but it also reduces its weight and makes it easier to dry, probably prolonging its life.
ambatch bundle canoe, Upper Nile
A canoe-like bundle boat used on the Upper Nile by the Dinka and Shulluk people. In this example, ambatch branches are tied into bundles, then the bundles are tied to each other into a boat shape. Indigenous to parts of Africa, ambatch is a  large shrub or small tree with a lightweight wood. (Source: Hornell)
ambatch bundle boat, Angola
An ambatch canoe on Lobito Bay, Angola. In this example, the branches are not truly bundled, but are lashed side-by-side into a boat shape. This photo and the one above it are from Hornell's 1946 work, Water Transport: Origins and Early Evolution. I don't know if such craft are still in use.
Absent gunwales or a cockpit, a bundle-built craft would no “inside,” and lacking this characteristic, it would be a stretch to to call it boat-like. But that’s hardly a firm definition. Some models of papyrus bundle craft from ancient Egypt lack “insides” but are so boat-like in shape that it is hard to deny them the name bundle boat. (The models do have very low bundle-built toe-rails, however, which approximate the function of gunwales in a minimal way.)
Egyptian reed fishing boat model
Ancient Egyptian papyrus-bundle canoes pulling a trawl between them. (Source: Hornell)
Somewhat similar reed “boats” remain in use on Lake Titicaca, although they have substantial bundle gunwales, and thus a definite “inside.” What most distinguishes these craft from Egypt and Lake Titicaca from the Omani, Upper Nile and Lobito Bay types shown above, however, is the large volume of the bundles in comparison to the load, placing the boatman and his cargo well above the water and giving fair promise of keeping himself and his cargo dry.
Reed balsa boat, Lake Titicacas
A fishing balsa made of totora reeds, on Lake Titicaca (Source: Hornell)
The bundle boat was an technological dead end in the sense that it apparently never evolved anywhere into a true boat. Although stick-built bundle boats appear superficially to be a step in that direction, they are still solidly rafts in concept.

But technological evolution is not the sole measure of past or present validity. The fact that bundle boats remain in use in more than one culture in the 21st century testifies to their practicality and the soundness of the concept. 

Sources: 
Basil Greenhill, Archaeology of the Boat
Paul Johnstone (Ed., Sean McGrail), The Sea-Craft of Prehistory
James Hornell, Water Transport: Origins and Early Evolution
(and as noted in text)

The Vattai of Tamil Nadu

$
0
0
Examples of traditional frame-first boat construction in Asian cultures are rare. Throughout the Far East, Middle East and east Africa, shell-first construction of planked boats is the norm, where it is used for everything from sampans and junks to dhows. One of the few exceptions is the vattai, an open, sail-powered, flush-planked (carvel) fishing boat common in the state of Tamil Nadu, in India’s southeast.

A vattai in Tamil Nadu
A vattai in Tamil Nadu. Source: Blue (click any image to enlarge)
The vattai is described by Lucy Blue in “The Historical Context of the Construction of the Vattai Fishing Boat and Related Frame-First Vessels of Tamil Nadu and Beyond,” published in Ships and the Development of Maritime Technology in the Indian Ocean(David Parkin and Ruth Barnes, editors; Routledge, 2016). The information and images in this post are from that article.

To quote Dr. Blue:
"Vattai, are flat-bottomed, have a box-like transverse section and are near wall-sided over much of their length. They range in size from around 13.72m long, with a beam of 2.13m and a depth of 1.37m, to the smallest vessels of c. 5.18m x 1.07m x 0.76m. However, irrespective of their size, they are all similar in shape with very high bows, and two or three masts each with a settee-lateen sail, a balance board, and, uniquely on this coast, leeboards."
The design process is of much interest. A single mould form or template is used to lay out most of the frames on a scrieve board, the form being flipped to draw the port and starboard half-breadths. (Forms for different boats differ from one another, apparently, only in the radius of the curve that joins their two straight, right-angled legs.) Since the boat’s cross-section (half-breadth shape) is constant across its entire midbody, a single shape drawn on the scrieve board suffices to define most of the frames, and this follows the exact shape of the form laid square to the edges of the scrieve board.

Use of mould form and scrieve board to design a vattai boat
Use of the mould form and scrieve board (A) to create the shapes of the "equal" frames for the midbody (B,C,D), and the progressively narrower frames toward the ends (E, F, G). 
Fore and aft of the “equal” frames that constitute the midbody, each of the next three progressively narrower frames at the bow has an identical counterpart in the stern. These frames that define the ends are derived from the same mould form according to a formula that defines how far in from the scrieve board’s upper edge and how far up along the diagonal the form is placed. By rotating and raising the form, different frame shapes may be drawn to create the narrowing and flare of the hull’s ends. The final three frames in the very bow and stern, however, are not drawn or gotten out at this time.

In the boat recorded by Blue, there were 15 “equal” frames for the midbody plus 12 “unequal” ones, evenly divided between the bow and stern. The midsection always consists of an odd number of frames – the central master frame, and equal numbers of identical frames fore and aft of it. The design can be readily made longer by the addition of more equal frames in the midbody with no changes to the ends, and made wider starting with a wider scrieve board but using the same mould form. Rules of thumb establish ratios between length, breadth, depth, and frame spacing, so the builder’s discretion to make changes is limited mainly to his choice of the mould form and number of frames.

Vattai construction drawing
Vattai construction drawing
Frames are built up from floor timbers and futtocks, which are assembled with “a complex dovetail joint” that “extends right through the turn of the bilge.” The vattai has no backbone, so apparently the frames are set up on the straight, flat bottom planking, which must be laid down first. Stem and sternpost are butted with a lap joint against the ends of the central bottom plank. The article states variously that the shapes of the very ends are determined by battens (ribbands) or by laid planking between the midbody frames and the end posts. Whichever is truly the case, these define the shapes of the three final pairs of half-frames at each end. Only in these final three sets of frames do the shapes of the vattai’s bow and stern differ. They are installed without floors, their lower ends overlapping fore-and-aft where they land on top of, or are notched onto, the stem and sternpost. (This detail can’t be determined from the drawing.)

I have been unable to find any other photos, descriptions or even references to the vattai through Google searches and would welcome additional input. There is much else I’d like to know, including:
  • whether the planks have a caulking bevel, and the materials (if any) used for caulking
  • the design process for the end profiles (i.e., whether the stem and sternpost shapes are determined by template or drawn by eye.) 
  • details of the rig and leeboards
  • details of usage: crew size, responsibilities, sailing procedures and performance

I would also much like to see additional photos. Google image searches for terms like “fishing boat Tamil Nadu” yield a number of stock photos of open fishing boats that do not appear much like the vattai (the distinctive bow shape is an easily-noticed identifying characteristic), and nothing else even close. Please communicate in the comments if you can add to the discussion.

Fishing Boats of Orchid Island’s Tao People

$
0
0
Boats of Tao (Yami) people, Orchid Island
Tao tatara boats, with and without culturally significant decorations. (source) Click any image to enlarge.
Orchid Island, also known as Lanyu, is about 45 miles due east of the southernmost point of Taiwan. Only 7.5 miles long, it is home to a culture best known as the Yami, although the people themselves prefer the name Tao, which means simply “people” in their language. Numbering about 4,000, the Tao, a Malayo-Polynesian people, make up about two thirds of the island’s population, the remainder being Han Chinese from Taiwan.

Although Lanyu is now part of the Republic of China, there was little cultural contact with Taiwan until the second half of the twentieth century, leaving Tao society relatively intact and among the least affected by outside influences of all Southeast Asian cultures. The people continue to speak their own language and are culturally more akin to the inhabitants of Batanes, the northernmost province of the Philippines, about 100 miles across the Bashi Channel. They are the only of Taiwan’s remaining aboriginal peoples with a maritime culture.

Lanyu is mountainous, of volcanic origin. Much of it is covered by tropical rainforest, parts of which are untouched. “Coral reefs are distributed around the island and the warm Japan Current also flows by, attracting vast schools of fish.” (source)

Flying fish play a central role in the culture of the Tao, their migrations determining the Tao’s annual cycle of ritual and economic activities. The boats used to fish for flying fish are “a central cultural emblem,” and so distinctive as to have become the island’s best-known cultural artifact and image for tourism.

The Tao’s boats range from the 1- and 2-man tatara, about 2.3m long, to the 10- and even 14-man chinedkulan, at 7.6m long. All are of similar form and construction, their most obvious distinguishing features being the extremely high extensions of the stem and sternposts that sweep up sharply but gracefully from the gunwales, and the elaborate carved-and-painted decoration of the hulls.

Tao boats show similarities to those of Batanes, to the mon of the Solomon Islands, and to those of Lamalera, on the island of Lembata in Indonesia. Chinedkulan are notably seaworthy, having formerly been used for voyages to Batanes (but apparently no longer so used). Tatara are said to be quite unstable and are used only in protected waters in calm conditions.

The Tatara and Chinedkulan Hulls

Structural cross-section of a Yami chinedkulan boat
Structural cross-section of a chinedkulan. "Botel Tobago" is another name for Lanyu or Orchid Island. Image source: R. H. Barnes (see bibliography)
Built on a keel with separate stem and sternpost, the hull is symmetrical fore-and-aft, V-bottomed, and chined. It is built shell-first, with frames that (at least, on the chinedkulan) do not reach to the topmost strake. Thwarts, too, span the second-to-top strakes, not the topmost ones. Making up for this, a strong shelf near the lower edge of the top strake provides a great deal of rigidity. The shelf is not attached to the plank as a separate component but, rather, is carved as an integral part of the planks of the top strakes. Each strake consists of three plank sections. The larger chinedkulan has four strakes, the tatara three.

Frame/plank lashed connection in a Tao tatara boat
Detail of lashed-lug construction between frame and planks in a Tao tatara. Source: R. H. Barnes
The smooth-planked (i.e., carvel) hull is of lashed-lug construction. When each plank is gotten out, “comb cleats” (pairs of lugs with a short gap between) are left on the inside surface. Holes are bored in the lugs. The U-shaped frames are placed in the gap between the cleats and tied in place with rattan lashings. But before this happens, the strakes are assembled to the keel and to one another by blind-pegging. The upper edge of each plank is drilled with numerous holes – from photos, it appears that they are spaced rather closely, perhaps 4” apart. Dowels are inserted in the holes, and the next plank, with corresponding holes, is forced down against the lower one. Joints are caulked with vegetable fiber.

Pegged plank fastening, Tao boat, Orchid Island
Blind pegged fastening of planks. Source: R. H. Barnes (see bibliography)
The planking has three sets of lugs: one set, amidships, holds the frames. The smaller boats have a single frame amidships. The larger ones have two frames, dividing the hull approximately in thirds lengthwise. The second set of lugs, appearing at one end only, is used to fasten a transverse bulkhead. The third set, appearing at both ends, holds lashings to pull the port and starboard planks in toward each other. It’s unclear how the hood ends are fastened to the endposts, or how the butt joints between the plank sections are fastened.

Tao Tatara boat of Lanyu
Tatara with single frame amidships. Also shown are shelf near the bottom of the sheerstrake and a transverse bulkhead at right. Source: R.H. Barnes
The backbone consists of three pieces – the V-shaped keel and two endposts – joined in a stepped joint (and presumably pegged).

The boats are rowed with oars that pivot against a kind of tholepin structure that consists of two or three posts arranged with their bottoms splayed fore-and-aft and their tops, which rise high above the gunwale, lashed together with many wraps of heavy rope. The bottom ends appear to penetrate the shelf that runs near the lower edge of the topmost strake, and perhaps are held in place by lugs in the planking below the shelf.

Thole structures, sheerstrake shelf, steering oar yoke and thwarts (deckbeams) are all visible. Source: R.H. Barnes 
Tao (Yami) Boat Construction Procedures

To begin construction, trees are felled with an ax, and planks are shaped with an adze, each trunk yielding a single plank or backbone section. The center of the trunk becomes a plank’s outer surface. The endposts, in order to avoid grain run-out in the rapidly curved transition from the horizontal to the vertical, are gotten out from the base of a tree with buttress roots, in the manner of grown knees in Western boatbuilding.

Much of the construction of Tao boats is regulated by ritual. All of the major parts of the boat must be cut from live trees, there being a prohibition against the use of dead wood. According to Barnes, “(T)imber should be felled, worked into rough shape and carried back to the village on the same day. The bow and stern pieces require some twenty men taking turns to carry them across the island.” A ceremony and celebration, with feasting, greet the men on their return to the village.

Having brought the major pieces back to the village, the boat is finished in a special boatbuilding shed, using axes, adzes, chisels, gouges, and borers or a brace and bit to produce the holes for the planking dowels.

Construction takes two or three years. When it is complete, a boat may be painted rather simply – usually with white topsides inside and out and a red bottom – and put into use. It is more common, however, to apply elaborate conventional decorations in traditional red, white and black painted and carved patterns that represent human figures, waves, and bow oculi in the form of the sun. Borders made of multiple bands of repeating triangles of the three colors outline the sheer, cutwaters at bow and stern, and waterline. The tops of the endposts are decorated with chicken feathers.

Hull decorations on fishing boat of Orchid Island
Traditional decorations includes (from left to right) the sun-like oculus, human figures, and ocean waves. (source)
The Tao, according to a Taiwanese government website, “consider a boat as a man’s body. Boat-building is a sacred mission and a part of life. Owning a boat means owning the ocean and the sky and having valor. For the Tao, boat-building is the manifestation of divinity and beauty.” Carrying such heavy social/psychological meaning, only boats that will be subjected to an expensive, elaborate launching ritual may be decorated in the traditional manner.

One step of this ritual consists of covering the boat in taro roots which, after flying fish, is the most important staple of the Tao diet. Given the large amount of taro required, land clearing and planting may begin three or four years prior to the start of building the boat. After the boat is covered in tubers, they are removed to become part of a celebratory feast (which also includes roast pig, shared with the community but also slaughtered as a sacrifice) in which the whole village partakes. Women wear special clothing for several days before the ceremony. In the climax to the ritual, men, wearing the loincloths that they also wear when fishing, circle the boat several times to guard it from evil spirits, then lift it above their heads and throw it into the air several times.

Boat launching ceremony, Lanyu
Tossing a newly-built chinedkulan into the air: part of the traditional launching ceremony on Lanyu. (source)
Boat Use on Lanyu (Orchid Island)
“Surrounded by sea, the Tao society is a typical maritime one. Their annual schedule corresponds to the flying fish season. The Tao people designed a calendar according to habitual behaviors of marine life and the movements of ocean currents, which includes restrictions and taboos regulating the fishing area, timing and methods.” (source)

The Tao celebrate flying fish season with a festival consisting of 13 distinct rituals. Flying fish are caught from March through June, but “shoulder seasons” at both ends make the period from February to October the most important part of the Tao’s year economically and culturally. Almost all activities during this longer period relate to catching, preparing, distributing and storing the fish for use throughout the year. Flying fish may not be caught outside of the official flying fish season, although other kinds of fishing, especially for crabs, octopus, and shellfish, occur at other times.

To catch flying fish, the Tao boatmen work in concert with free divers. The larger boats are rowed with one man per oar and steered with a steering oar. Nets as long as 8 meters are spread into a U-shaped wall attached to the bottom, their tops 2m to 4m below the water surface. Divers, numbering between 25 and 40 and remarkable for their lung capacity, spread out some distance from the net in a half-circle that can be up to 300m wide. Using large, whisk-like beaters that they sweep through the water and hit against the bottom, they drive schools of fish toward and into the net. They then gather the ends of the net together, and it is lifted into the boat.

“After each drive, the fish are taken to shore, removed from the net and scaled. For scaling the Yami use stone chips. After the fish are cleaned, they are put back into the boat, the net is loaded into the boat as well, and the group performs one or two more drives. On a lucky day the catch may total over a thousand fish, but such days are rare. Usually a good catch brings in five or six hundred fish.”

The catch is processed communally and distributed by a formula that takes account of who owns the boat, the net, and who participated in that particular drive.

Sources:
R.H. Barnes, "Yami Boats and Boat Building in a Wider Perspective," in Ships and the Development of Maritime Technology in the Indian Ocean, David Parkin and Ruth Barnes, eds.Routledge, 2002
"Tao: Introduction to the Ethnic Group," in Digital Museum of Taiwan Indigenous Peopleshttp://www.dmtip.gov.tw/Eng/Tao.htm
"A Minority Within a Minority: Cultural Survival on Taiwan's Orchid Island," in Cultural Survival Quarterlyhttps://www.culturalsurvival.org/publications/cultural-survival-quarterly/minority-within-minority-cultural-survival-taiwans-orchid
Jerome F. Keating, "The Driving Forces and Scope of the Mapping of Taiwan," in Mediascapehttp://www.tft.ucla.edu/mediascape/Winter2012_Taiwan.html
"Orchid Island (Lanyu)" in Taiwan: The Heart of Asiahttp://eng.taiwan.net.tw/m1.aspx?sNo=0002123&id=650
"Offshore Islands: Penghu; Kinmen National Park; Matsu; Green Island (Lyudao); Orchid Island (Lanyu)" in Taiwan: Heart of Asiahttp://go2taiwan.net/monthly_selection.php?sqno=7
"Yami People" in Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yami_people
Dezso Benedek, The Songs of the Ancestors: A Comparative Study of Bashic Folklorehttp://asian-lp.uga.edu/jpn_html/yami/
Katherine Kuang, "Yami Creation Myths": http://www.laits.utexas.edu/doherty/plan2/kuang.html


Shade Fishing from Catamarans in India

$
0
0
Catamarans, of the type used on the Coromandel Coast in India’s southeast and in Sri Lanka, close by across the Palk Strait, are subject to two kinds of misconceptions. The first is one of terminology. In its original meaning, kattu-maram (Tamil for “tied logs”) denoted a raft, not a vessel with two identical hulls, as the term is commonly understood. The erroneous transference of the term was probably made by an early European traveler who, being familiar with Indian catamarans, decided to call the twin-hulled boats he found in the Pacific by the same name, it probably seeming logical at the time to call any indigenous, non-European small craft by the same term. Henceforth, our use of the term will refer only to the raft.

The second misconception concerns the nature of timber rafts, which are commonly conceived to be rectangular, flat, and capable only of drifting with the current rather than being directed according to the boatman’s wishes. Catamarans are, specifically, shaped rafts of wood or bamboo, and they behave more like true boats than like the flat, rectangular platform upon which Huck and Jim floated inexorably down the Mississippi.

Model of a jangada
Model of a jangada (source). Click any image to enlarge.
In Water Transport: Origins and Early Evolution, James Hornell describes several varieties of catamaran on India’s east coast and in many other parts of the world. Such craft are still in use in some locales. We have written about the jangada, a Brazilian catamaran in current use, and one can easily find with a Google search contemporary images of catamarans of more than one type on Sri Lanka.

three-log raft "boat catamaran" from Sri Lanka
A three-log raft from Sri Lanka of the type called a "boat catamaran" by Hornell. (source)
Hornell also distinguishes between catamarans that are more or less boat-like. In the Sri Lankan type that he calls “boat catamarans,” the central of three logs extends below the outer two, forming a keel, while the upper surfaces of the outer ones are considerably higher than that of the central one, forming an inside space that could be termed a hold or cockpit. In contrast to this, he describes the “flying fish” catamaran of Coromandel, which is the main subject of this installment. While it lacks a keel, it has enough of a depression in its upper surface to have an identifiable “inside,” and it is considerably more shapely and boat-like than the common conception of a raft.

Seven-log flying fish catamaran of the Coromandel Coast
A seven-log flying fish catamaran of the Coromandel Coast

In Fishing in Many Waters, Hornell describes in detail the flying fish type and its use, which he observed in the Tanjore district. Pursuing flying fish requires sailing to deep waters as far as 25 miles from shore with a crew of seven and staying out for as long as three days. As such, the deep sea catamaran is a substantial vessel, averaging 30 to 35 feet long. They are built of seven main logs of light wood, dressed on all sides and tapering from back to front and from bottom to top. Curved logs are selected, so that, when assembled, the main section of the raft is an isosceles trapezoid in plan view, and dished both longitudinally and transversely.

The logs are lashed together with coir rope. At the forward end, says Hornell, “the completed craft becomes definitely wedge-shaped in plan after the addition of an elegant upturned prow of five pointed pieces cleverly jointed on to the forward ends of the seven main logs.” Another log is lashed atop the outermost log on the starboard side to serve as a working platform.

rig details of a Coromandel Coast flying fish catamaran
Coromandel flying fish catamaran, showing rig details

The two-masted rig is refined, although it looks crude as a result of the materials from which it is made. Short masts fit into sockets on the whichever outside log happens to be to leeward, hoisting lateen or settee sails. The head of each cotton sail is lashed to a long yard with a short downward-curving extension at the forward/lower end. The foot of the sail is lashed to a boom that extends only as far forward as the mast. Between the mast and the end of the extension-piece of the yard is a foot-rope. The sail, however, does not extend all the way to the forward apex of the triangle. Its forward corner or tack is cut off short, so that the sail has a very short luff.

There are forestays and backstays, and the halyards serve as shrouds on the upwind side. There is also a short strut lashed at its lower end to the windward hull log, and at its upper end to the mast, about three feet from the base. Hornell writes, “Even with these substitutes for shrouds there is always the danger of the masts and sails falling overboard should the craft be taken aback by a sudden change of wind; this, however, is of rare occurrence…so steady is the wind at the season when these craft are at sea.”

As to control lines, “Each sail is provided with a sheet and a vang or guy made fast to the upper end of the yard.” The sail can be furled by rolling it up around the lower boom, and by moving the grommet from which the yard depends down from the masthead onto one of a series of notches provided for the purpose.

To counter leeway, the raft has two large leeboards and a large-bladed steering oar, the attachments for none of which are described. Hornell gives the following dimensions for one raft of typical size:
LOA: 33 feet
beam at forward lashing: 4 feet
beam at aft lashing: 7 feet
forward yard: 29 feet
after yard: 21 1/2 feet
steering oar: 12 feet
forward leeboard: 10 1/2 feet
after leeboard: 9 feet
draft (boards up): 1 foot

The boat is equipped with paddles and oars for when the wind fails. Two dip nets, consisting of a rectangular piece of netting (measuring 5’6” x 4’9”) with its short sides tied to poles about 7’ long, are carried. The rest of the equipment is limited to spare rope, a jar of drinking water, a bundle of cooked rice, a scoop to throw water on the sails, and three large bundles of bushes or shrubs, the last of which are key to the curious method of fishing practiced.

The raft is sailed into deep waters until a shoal of flying fish is sighted. The raft is brought into their vicinity, turned with its starboard side to windward, and the entire rig is dropped. The bundles of shrubs are then thrown over the accessory log on the windward side. Each bundle is attached to a rope of a different length: 300 ft.; 180 ft.; and 60 ft. The bundles act like sea anchors, and with the raft’s shallow draft, it quickly drifts downwind of them. (A block of wood tied to each bundle acts like a float, but it’s unclear from Hornell’s description to what purpose, for it’s clear that the bundles of shrubs sink to different depths determined by the length of rope to which they’re tied.)

Flying fish are attracted to the bundles. After a large number of fish have gathered, one of the bundles is pulled in slowly and carefully. The fish follow until it is close to the raft, at which time the dip nets come into play. Each net is operated by two men, one per pole. The net is dipped into the water nearly vertically, then brought up under the fish and tipped back so that the fish fall into the boat – the whole proceeding being performed in silence so as not to disturb the fish who remain beside the shrub bundles. When that group of fish has been disposed of, the next bunch of shrubs is hauled in and the process repeated.

According to Hornell, the attraction that the bundles hold for the fish is neither their shade nor the expectation that they harbor small prey upon which to feed. Rather, the fishing occurs during the flying fishes’ spawning season, and the bundles replicate the bunches of seaweed upon which they normally deposit and fertilize their eggs. 

Large quantities of flying fish may be caught by this method over the course of two or three days. Fish that are not eaten fresh are sun-dried, but given the long distance that the rafts sail from shore, it often occurs that the catch may spoil before it reaches market.

Also in Fishing in Many Waters, Hornell describes a second method of “shade fishing” from catamarans done off the Coromandel coast near Madras. Although he does not describe the catamarans, they are different from those described above, and from the illustration appear to consist of only four logs and to be manned by just two men. Nor does Hornell identify the fish thus captured. Four catamarans must cooperate to employ the madi valai, what Hornell calls (but does not translate as) a “handkerchief net.”

shade fishing with four catamarans off Madras
Shade fishing with the madi valai net and four catamarans off of Madras

A long length of coir rope is made up with many strips of palm leaf between the strands, making a bushy appearance. (We presume the rope appears far bushier in practice than in the illustration.) One end is tied to a stone anchor or heavy bunch of turf; the other to a piece of light wood as a float. Anchor rope is dropped in “several fathoms of water” in an area where current is prevalent, and allowed to remain until fish collect in its shade.

A large rectangular net is suspended at its corners by four ropes, the upper ends of which are held by a man in each catamaran. Moving against the current, the four boats approach the suspended shade rope from downcurrent, with the forward edge of the net held low and the after edge high. When the men in the forward two catamarans feel the net contact the shade rope, they begin to pull it up as quickly as they can, gathering the fish that have collected in its shade.

Although catamarans are still fished in Sri Lanka, I do not know if either of these methods from the Coromandel Coast are still in use.

Sources:
Except where stated otherwise, information and images are from:
James Hornell, Water Transport: Origins and Early Evolution, Cambridge Univ. Press, 1946
James Hornell, Fishing in Many Waters, Cambridge Univ. Press, 1950

Bonito Fishing Boats in Maldives

$
0
0
In Fishing in Many Waters, James Hornell describes the practice of bonito fishing in the Maldives, including a description of the boats used. Although he doesn’t name the boat type, it can be termed a dhoni. (Somewhat like dhow, dhoni is a generic term that doesn’t indicate a single type of boat. According to Wikipedia, it means simply “small boat” in Tamil and related languages, while thoni is the equivalent term in Malayalam. We’ve written previously about the very different yathra dhoni of Sri Lanka.)

Drawing: a bonito dhoni of the Maldives (Source: James Hornell)
A bonito dhoni of the Maldives (click any image to enlarge)
Probably no longer in use, the Maldivian bonito boats that Hornell observed were “built (especially) for the fishery, long, beamy, graceful craft, fine of line and shallow draft as befits vessels that have their home in coral-infested lagoons of little depth.” He further describes them as stoutly built, mostly open boats with short decks fore and aft and six or seven transverse bulkheads. The aft deck, from which the fishing was conducted, was “shaped like the extended wings of a butterfly” and extended over the sides of the hull. Hornell noted the distinctive “snakelike” stemhead, which rose high above the gunwales, curving gently aft and then slightly forward near the very top “not unlike that of an old Viking ship which, indeed, the boat as a whole closely resembles.” (This latter is an exaggeration. While the stemhead does indeed call to mind a Viking ship, the differences between the two types of craft are far more dramatic and substantial than the purely superficial similarity between them. Hornell, infinitely more than I, understood this well.)

The two compartments fore and aft of the mast each had four to six plugged holes in the bottom, which, when the plugs are removed, allowed them to serve as livewells for bait. These livewells were managed in a curious manner, described below.

A single mast was held in a tabernacle and could be dropped into a crutch aft. The mast supported a tall, narrow squaresail of woven matting and a boomless gaff mainsail of cotton. Although the drawing shows no shrouds, it appears that the squaresail’s halyard may have served as a combination backstay/shroud. The drawing seems to show a light spar extending upward and forward from the base of the mast, but Hornell did not explain its use. (Perhaps it served as a kind of whisker pole for the squaresail?)

traditional Maldivian dhoni, model (Photo: Badr Naseem)
This model of a traditional Maldivian dhoni shows the transverse bulkheads and butterly-shaped aft deck of the bonito boat, but not its S-curved stemhead, recurved sternpost, or two-sail rig. (Photo: Badr Naseem. Source.)
Although somewhat similar dhonis, with transverse bulkheads and the aft platform extending over the sides, remain in use in the Maldives, none of the recent photos we’ve found show the old style bonito boat’s distinctive double-curved stemhead, recurved sternpost, or mixed squaresail/gaff rig. Lateen rigs are the norm in existing boats (or at least, those that are not motorized), and the stemheads curve sharply aft, with no hint of reverse curve.

Before bonito could be caught, the same boats were used to catch baitfish. A square net was fastened to long poles and lowered to the bottom of a lagoon. Ground bait (bait for the baitfish) was dropped over the net. When the baitfish came to feed, the net was raised. Presumably this was repeated many times before sufficient bait for a bonito fishing trip could be accumulated. The live bait was kept in a huge basket in the lagoon until it was time to go fishing in earnest.

The baitfish were then transferred into the dhoni’s livewells and the plugs were removed. According to Hornell:
“(T)he holes being unplugged, continuous streams of water spout inwards. This inrush would speedily swamp the boat were it not that two men are set to work to keep pace by bailing, with the inrush. By means of perforations at suitable and varying heights in the intervening bulkhead the inflowing water is conducted to the after compartment where the two bailers are located. In this way the water in the wells is constantly renewed and thereby maintained in a fit condition to keep alive the stock of little fishes for use as bait.”
In addition to two bailers, the crew consisted of several anglers with fishing poles, a helmsman, four “splashers,” and three or four boys to tend the squaresail. The poles were about six feet long with a line of about six feet fixed fast to the end. Barbless hooks of bright steel at the end of the lines were shaped to resemble baitfish.

Photo: a bonito dhoni of the Maldives (Source: James Hornell)
Bonito fishing in process. Note the heavy splashing around the aft deck.
Upon approaching a shoal of bonito, one of the bailers would stop bailing and begin throwing baitfish into the water while the splashers would use long-handled scoops to vigorously splash water all around the boat. Per Hornell:
“This is a measure of economy; the bonito have to be gulled into the belief that a large shoal of small fish are about and without the splashing the amount of live bait thrown out would be insufficient to carry through the deception successfully.”
But successful the ruse was. The anglers, crowded upon the stern platform, would drop their unbaited, lure-like hooks in the water and yank bonito from it directly into the hold. The barbless hooks could be disengaged merely by slacking the tension on the line for the briefest moment before they were returned to the water with scarcely a pause.

In an active shoal, a man might average one catch per minute, and a boat might catch a full load of 600 to 1,000 fish in two or three hours. The boat owner received 21 percent of the catch as his share, the rest being apportioned amongst the crew. That which was not eaten fresh was cured for later use or for trade by a combination of boiling, smoking, and sun-drying.

Sources:
Except where otherwise noted, information and images are from:
James Hornell, Fishing in Many Waters, Cambridge Univ. Press, 1950


Viewing all 142 articles
Browse latest View live