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Updates on Old and Ancient Canoes
A couple years ago, I noted briefly the discovery of a 230-year-old Canadian birchbark canoe, believed to be the oldest surviving example, in an English barn. At that time, a plan had been announced to...
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The Mtepes of Kenya
A dau al mtepe (source unclear). Click any image to enlarge.Among the indigenous boats that disappeared in the 20th century was the mtepe, the world's last large sewn vessel. The last mtepe built was...
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More on Mtepes
If yesterday's post on the Kenyan sewn vessel the mtepe wasn't long enough, here's a bit more, gleaned from a source brought to my attention by Yoram Meroz, whose interest is gratefully...
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Traveling the World to Build Canoes
I envy Will Meadows.Will is a senior at Lawrence University (Appleton, WI), and with a $25,000 grant from the Thomas J. Watson Foundation, he's spending a year traveling, building and studying the...
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Carving Dugouts as Cultural Education
We're written before about Voyages of Rediscovery, an educational organization that builds and uses canoes "as a medium for education and exploration," initially confined to the Columbia River, but...
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Bow and Stern Shapes of Dugout Canoes
In 2000, a drought in Florida caused the water level to drop on Newnans Lake, near Gainesville, leading to the discovery of remnants of more than 100 dugout canoes. Fifty five of these canoes were...
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The Moken Kabang
The Moken are an Austronesian people pursuing a nomadic maritime culture in the Andaman Sea. These "Sea Gypsies" live in the Merguyi Archipelago, several hundred islands off the west coasts of Myanmar...
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Bancas on Corregidor
Reader Paul Wilson sent me a bunch of wonderful photos of boats from various parts of Asia which we'll looking at in this and the next several posts. We'll start with Paul's photos of bancas or paraws,...
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Burmese Long-Tails
In our last post we looked at Paul Wilson's photos of Philippine bancas. This time we'll view Paul's images of longboats from Myanmar. (I've always heard such boats referred to as "long-tails," but it...
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Vote to Support Canoe Building Project for At-Risk Ojibway Youth
Here's a project worth supporting, and it'll cost you nothing but your vote:Anishinaabe Babamadizwin: A Journey By Canoe will work with at-risk Anishinaabe (i.e., Ojibway) youth to build both birchbark...
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Goan Sewn Outrigger Canoes
Reader Paul Wilson sent us nice photos of some outrigger canoes from Goa, on India's west coast. (See earlier posts for Paul's photos of Philippine bancas and Burmese longtails.) Here's his brief...
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Opposite Ends of India
More photos of Indian boats from reader Paul Wilson, who kindly provided photos for earlier posts on boats in Goa, Philippine bancas, and Myanmar longtails. The first batch was taken in Varanasi (also...
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Manual Dredging in Kerala
Reader Paul Wilson shot these photos in the southwest Indian state of Kerala in 2004. Here's his description:The boats are traditional construction with edge sewn planks using coconut husk (coir). They...
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1941 Old Town Guide, Never Used
Maine Maritime Museum, in the shipbuilding city of Bath, is celebrating its 50th anniversary this year. In an exhibit of "favorite" items from its 50 years of collecting is this fine old 20-foot Old...
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Spinning and Stitching in Kerala
We recently looked at how sewn boats are used in manual dredging operations in the Indian state of Kerala. Now we'll look at the construction of Keralan boats, and at the process of making the coir...
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Houseboat and Sprit Rig in Kerala
Rounding out a nice big batch of photos from the Indian state of Kerala, here are a couple of sizable stitch-planked houseboats, and a class of open boat powered by a sprit rig. So much to see here....
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Songhai Sewn Boat
Songhai stitched boat. Bow is to the left. (Click any image to enlarge.)Living in the semiarid Sahel region south of the Sahara Desert, the Songhai people of Mali have limited access to native timber...
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The Chumash and the Tomol
A tomol replica built in 1976. Source: Chumash Maritime Organization. (Click any image to enlarge.)The Chumash were a North American maritime culture, originally based on the mainland and Channel...
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Tomol Construction
A Chumash tomol. Painting by Robert Thomas. Click any image to enlarge.In our previous post, we looked at social and economic aspects of the California Chumash planked canoe or tomol. Now let's see how...
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The Tomol Revival
In our most recent posts, which looked at the cultural background of the Chumash tomol and at tomol construction, both referred to replica boats – tomols that have been built since the end of "natural"...
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