A Solomon Islands Canoe at the Vatican

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. (Click any image to enlarge.)

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. (See also our post on a Solomon Islands canoe at the Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology, which we now recognize as a lisi.) 

"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)

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 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 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.

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

Solomon Islands Canoe: Peabody Museum #6

Here's an interesting canoe from the Solomon Islands in Melanesia, on display at Harvard University's Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology. The display card says it was given to the museum in 1898, but provides no other details, so we'll just look at the photos and make what comments we can. (Earlier posts in this series on the Peabody looked at Baffinland Inuit, Aleut, other Alaskan Eskimo, and Chinook, Coast Salish, et al, and other Pacific Northwest exhibits.)

Starting at what we believe is the stern: the canoe is a sewn-plank monohull. The base is a keel-plank, laid on the flat, to which garboards and a second layer of strakes are added. The strakes amidships are lower than those at the ends. Very tall decorations added at both ends. The plank seams are sealed with black mastic, probably derived from the putty nut (Parinarium laurinum). Elaborate decorations under the stem/stern indicate a ceremonial function, as they would be highly impractical for a working boat. (Click any image to enlarge.)

The profile shows the sharp break between the amidship strakes and the end strakes, and the extreme height of the bow and stern decorations. The hull has a great deal of rocker, continuous from bow to stern. The general shape is that of a war or "headhunting" canoe, although headhunting canoes were commonly even more elaborately decorated. They could reach 55' LOA and hold up to 35 men, but this example is probably 25-30'.

Painted decorations near the stern. The object at the left appears to be a bird (facing right). I can't make a guess about the object to the right. The gunwale has small, detailed, chip-carved decoration. Cracks can be seen in the black caulking material. Canoes were typically stored in canoe houses to protect and maintain the sealant as long as possible.

Amidships on both sides are two "medallions" made of mastic embedded with pieces of shell or mother of pearl at the garboard/upper strake seam. Also shown is a very long, narrow, pointed paddle with a T-grip.

Carved decoration on the bow extension: a dog?.

Another detail near the bow. showing plank seams and decorations. The white decoration under the keel appears to be mother-of-pearl.

Throughout most of Oceania, hulls this narrow were usually supported by outriggers. But in the Solomons, monohulls were common. 

In addition to being lashed to each other with (probably discontinuous) stitches, the planks were lashed on the inside to curved frames of complex shape. The thinness of the planks is apparent from this perspective.

A few years ago, In the Boatshed reported on the restoration of a canoe of similar type, size and age.