Vatican boat model exhibit, Part 2

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)

Buckminster Fuller's Model Boat Collection, Part 1

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.

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.

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. 

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.

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, 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.

UPDATE: This information provided by Mick Allen:

(This model) is an abstraction of sampans from Tonle Sap Lake in Cambodia or from that connected section of the Mekong river. These boats range in size from about 12 ft [4 m.] to about 25 ft [8m]. Each end is smoothly carved from one log piece with stepped insets for each level of planking of the main body. The keel connecting the two carved ends is also deeply shaped following the a curved cross section. The minimum number of planks each side of the keel is 3 with 1 washstrake plank increasing to 4 or 5 with 2 washstrake planks. Most planking is carvel on frames, decks are planked parallel to the gunwales. Washstrakes stop either short of both ends or one end only with the other end resolving to the carved ‘stems.’ Most examples seem to be more curvaceous in plan that the model, but the inset carving on the model does not seem to be present on the common examples that I’ve seen, however they are painted in varying colours: blue for the exterior, reds and oranges for the upper stem facets and the rest left uncoloured. Whatever the case, these sampans are supremely elegant. 

We thank Mick for the input and agree with his identification. In fact, we blogged about the paddle-propelled boats of Tonle Sap here and here, and several of them are indeed clearly of the type that the model depicts.

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.

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.

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.

UPDATE: Mick Allen also identified this one as a carving from Kenya. He found a listing on Amazon of a nearly identical model here. It's so close that it appears to have been made by the same artist. Thanks again, Mick.

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.

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.

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.

The Samoan Va'a alo

A va'a alo, from Kava Drinking Ceremonies Among the Samoans And A Boat Voyage round 'Upolu Island, Samoa, S. Percy Smith. Note rows of decorative shells on bow and stern decks. (Click any image to enlarge.)

Both dugout and plank-built outrigger canoes were indigenous to Samoa. This is surprising, since most pre-industrial societies that had access to trees large enough to build boats of the desired size with dugout technology never developed a planked alternative. But the earliest European records of Samoa attest to the presence of planked craft there. In 1722, a Captain Roggeveen "saw very neat and fast canoes with three paddles. At Ta’ū he noted that some canoes were not made of hollowed-out trees but were made of planks very neatly joined together."  (See earlier posts on the inshore Samoan paddling dugout, the paopao and the larger offshore sailing dugout, the 'iatolima.)

What Roggeveen saw were apparently bonito canoes, or va'a alo, which were still in use when observed by Te Rangi Hiroa in the first third of the 20th century. As their name suggests, these were used for bonito fishing, and they were considered essential accouterments of chiefs and other high-ranking Samoans. Indeed, large bonito (those over 24" long, called skipjacks) were reserved for chiefs, and the common fisherman who caught and ate one, instead of turning it over to the chief, was subject to having his house burned down and his crops destroyed. Many other taboos applied, including a rule against stepping over a va'a alo during bonito fishing season, and the obligation of the owner to provide the builders with gifts and the finest of foods during construction.

Va'a alo were paddled by two or three men who would watch for seabirds hovering over the water, waiting to catch the prey fish of fast-moving predatory bonito. The fishermen would paddle through a school of bonito trailing a shell hook or gorge from a rod and line. If, while bonito fishing, the fishermen encountered a shark, they would gather in the line and attempt to capture the shark with a lasso.

To quote Te Rangi Hiroa:

"The bonito canoe (va'a alo) was built for speed so as to keep up with the schools of fish being pursued by the bonito. To obtain speed, the hull had to be made as light as possible. The size of the canoe was no problem as trees larger than the canoe were readily obtainable and were used in the soatau and 'iatolima types. To get the hull thin enough, it was easier to control the thinness of the material by dubbing out short sections of planks than by excavating the whole hull in one piece. Of later years, better control over a one-piece hull has been obtained with the sharper steel adzes, and has led to the manufacture of dugout bonito canoes. Before the advent of steel adzes, however, the technique of the plank bonito canoe had become established and many craftsmen despise the dugout bonito canoe as not being true to type. The manufacture of the plank canoe came within the field of the guild of expert carpenters. The canoe is made in the old style except for the use of steel adzes."

Profile of the hull, with plank section layout, keel, stempiece and sternpiece. The bow is to the right.

The complexity of va'a alo construction illustrates why plank-built boats were rare among societies that could build dugouts adequate to their purpose. Adzes were the primary tool used in construction: steel when it became available, and presumably stone or shell before that. Before the steel bit and brace became available, a conical shell with spiral whorls was used as a bit. Lashings were of braided sennit made from palm-leaf fibers; the mid-ribs of palm leafs were used as sewing needles to pass the lashings through the holes.

Plan and sections of the keel.

Va'a alo were built upon a keel, which was carved to a careful, elaborate shape designed to provide secure lashing and watertight joints for the first row of planks. Two styles of keels existed: a "simple" keel with a relatively straight profile (but complex plan and cross-sections), and a "compound" keel, with a sternpost and the lower portion of the stem carved as integral parts. An example of a simple keel recorded by Te Rangi Hiroa measured 23'5" long, 4.5" maximum width, and 2.5" maximum depth.

Keel bent against building posts.

The keel (of either type) was set up on posts inside a boat shed or a vacant house, with props against the roof beam to force it into the desired curve. The first strake consisted of five plank sections per side, each with a predefined shape and its own name. The bottom edges of the planks fit into a rabbet in the keel, and pieces were carefully mated for a watertight seal by repeatedly rubbing the keel with red earth, trial fitting the plank sections, observing where the clay transferred to the mating piece, then dubbing off the high spots. Blind holes were drilled through the inside surface of the planks and keel, and the pieces were sewn together with braided cord (sennit). In some canoes, a pair of parallel ridges ran along the top surface of the keel, allowing the fishermen to sweep a canoe bailer lengthwise along the bottom without interference from, or damage to, the lashings.

Lashing of keel to lower plank sections.

The plank sections of the upper row were not so strictly defined as the bottom: the available raw material determined the shapes, and the pieces – typically four per side – did not each have their own name.

Plank section (inside surface) with integral strengthening ribs and cleats.

The inside surface of planks was carved with integral ribs and foot braces. Lashings between planks were made through holes bored through a cleat running all around the planks' perimeters. The thickness of the cleats and ribs was 1.5 inches, but between them, the planks were thinned to just 0.25 to 0.5 inches. This greatly lightened the boat, giving it the speed capability needed for the bonito fishery.

Complicated sternpiece design.

Probably the most complex pieces of woodwork on the va'a alo were the ends. Whether carved integral with the keel or as separate pieces, the stem and stern pieces featured numerous details designed to ensure secure, watertight joints with the plank ends. The mere length of caption to Hiroa's illustration (above) gives some idea.

Bonito canoes had bow and stern decks which were decorated with knobs, and sometimes with valuable shells, along their centerline. Running between the decks on both sides and sewn to the top edge of the upper strakes were gunwale timbers, which both strengthened the hull and raised the topsides by two inches.

Arrangement of outrigger float, struts, and boom.

As on Samoan dugout canoes, the outrigger float was on the left side and was cut off blunt just abaft the aft boom. It was not parallel to the main hull's centerline, but instead angled slightly inward toward the bow. The float was attached to two straight booms through pairs of angled struts. A third boom, between the other two, did not attach to the float, but served as "a brace to the gunwales, a back support to the front seat, and an additional means of carrying the canoe if needed" (Hiroa).

The va'a alo was the last native plank canoe used in Samoa, and it was already on its way out when Hiroa wrote about it in the 1920s. If any remain in use, they are almost certainly heritage-minded recreations rather than true working boats.

Sources:

Most content and all images except photo from Samoan Material Culture, Te Rangi Hiroa.

Also: 

Historic Fishing Methods in American Samoa, Karen Armstrong, David Herdrich, Arielle Levine

Kava Drinking Ceremonies Among the Samoans And A Boat Voyage round 'Upolu Island, Samoa, S. Percy Smith. 

The Samoan 'iatolima

Some weeks ago we discussed the Samoan "small canoe," or paopao, drawing from the work of Te Rangi Hiroa. In contrast to the paopao, which was paddle-propelled and used only on calm waters, the larger 'iatolima was sail-propelled and meant for use outside the reefs. Both were outrigger dugout canoes, with the outrigger on the port side.

'iatolima-rigged soatau, from Hiroa's Samoan Material Culture. (Click to enlarge.)

Hiroa could not find any 'iatolimas for direct observation, and it is possible that none remained in use at the time of his research. The image above depicts a model of a boat that combines the hull of a soatau with the rig of an 'iatolima, and that seems to be the best we have to go by. The soatau was very much like the paopao, even down to the carved decorative elements, only somewhat larger. The 'iatolima hull, in contrast to this, was broader in the ends and would have had "topsides" or "bow and stern covers" (Hiroa's terms, i.e., partial decks) to protect it from boarding waves.

The 'iatolima rig, however, is believed to appear intact in the sketch of the model. It is unusual in having five outrigger booms, when most boats of this size would make do with two or three. ('iatolima translates as "five booms.") But the extra booms are put to good use.

The two forward booms (#4 and #5 in the illustration) are very close together, serving as a mast step. The two booms amidship brace and support the balancing beam, a broad plank on which the sailor could hike out to starboard in order to counterbalance the boat's heel to port. The aft-most boom needs no explanation. The outrigger float is cut off short immediately behind the aft boom connection, as on the paopao. 

Two longitudinal timbers are lashed to the booms directly above the float. While this would have stiffened the ends of the booms somewhat, that hardly seems necessary, given the width and number of the booms. I suspect they mainly served as another hiking platform, for use when sailing on a port tack.

The rig is, in most respects, a standard oceanic sprit of an upright posture. Stepped far forward, it is a tacking, not a shunting, rig. It is stayed to an unusual degree, with a forestay and shrouds on both sides of the "mast." Also shown (#18 in the illustration) is an "aft stay from aft spar to aft boom" but I believe this is an incorrect interpretation. Such a stay would immobilize the sprit and prevent tacking. I think that this line is really the main sheet, tied down to the aft outrigger boom in the model simply to avoid it hanging loose, as it probably would have been when sailing.

The Samoan Paopao

Born in 1877 or thereabouts, Te Rangi Hīroa, aka Sir Peter Henry Buck, was a half-English, half-Maori anthropologist who studied Maori and other Pacific cultures. In his 1930 publication Samoan Material Culture (complete text here free), he described seven boat types of Samoa: three based on dugout technology, and four of sewn-plank construction. Quoting directly from the source, these were:

Dugout Canoes
1.         Paopao. The smallest dugout, with two outrigger booms, propelled by paddling.
2.         Soatau. A medium dugout, with three outrigger booms, propelled by paddling.
3.         'Iatolima. The largest of the dugouts, with five outrigger booms, topsides, bow and stern covers, and sail.
Plank Canoes
4.         Va'a alo. The bonito boat made of lashed planks, with two outrigger booms connected with float, propelled by paddling.
5.         Amatasi. A plank canoe larger than the bonito boat, with two outrigger booms connected with the float, a platform over the booms, balancing spars on the right, and a mast for sailing.
6.         Taumualua. A wide plank canoe without outrigger, modelled originally on whaleboat lines, idea foreign but technique native.
7.         'Alia. The double voyaging canoe made of planks and consisting of two canoes lashed together.

Due to the incursion of Western technologies and political administration, only one of each category was still in use during his research: the paopao and the va'a alo, although a few stray examples of some of the other types were still in existence, if no longer usable. Here we'll look at the paopao; we may address some of the other types in future posts.

Model of a paopao. All images from Samoan Material Culture. (Click any image to enlarge.)

The paopao, or small canoe, was a single-outrigger paddle-propelled dugout designed for one man, although it was capable of carrying two in a pinch. It was used exclusively inside the islands' surrounding reefs primarily for transportation and for fishing, often by trolling a hook. According to Te Rangi Hīroa, the paopao was "in active general use throughout the (Samoan islands)…and is an indispensible part of every male adult's equipment in life."  To quote further:

The paopao canoes are made by the householders who are not expert carpenters. A master builder while enumerating the canoes made by the carpenters' guild omitted the paopao. On my mentioning it, he smiled and said, "The paopao is not a canoe." Neither is it from the expert point of view. In the eyes of the guild they rank with the cooking houses and are beneath their dignity to build.

In Hīroa's time, most or all of this home-grown boatbuilding was done with steel adzes.

Paopao in plan and cross-section.

The main hull of the paopao has a fascinating cross-section. The stem was heavy and vertical on the outside, and the hold was deepest at its forward end, gradually becoming shallower until it reached the rear outrigger boom, at which point the bottom sloped up sharply to meet the sheerline. The paddler sat aft of amidships, so his weight raised the forward end and this resulted in approximately even draft along the boat's length, but it also meant little freeboard aft. The knob at the very end of the stern was used as a fastening point for a rope when transporting the log from the forest to the boat's building site. It served no further function, but was retained as a decorative element.

In plan view, the hull was narrow, double-ended, and roughly symmetrical fore and aft. Amidships, the hull was round in cross-section – i.e., it was not expanded – so the greatest beam was some inches below the sheerline. (A 16'8" LOA paopao hull measured 14.5" maximum beam.) Inwales were carved to provide a wider bearing surface for the outrigger booms: as they weren't intended to contribute to stiffness, these inboard hull flanges did not continue into the ends.

As the boats were not sailed, outrigger booms were fairly short: a measured 15-footer had booms 4'6" and 4'7" long. Each boom was lashed to the hull through a single hole bored just below the inwale. The booms were straight, and connected to the float by struts. The floats were long and pointed at the forward end, but cut off square just behind the aft support. Floats were aligned parallel with the main hull.

Because of the sloping run of the hull's bottom, the forward connecting struts were longer than the aft struts. Two styles of struts were observed:

1. Paired rods: Each boom had two pairs or ironwood rods, with the top ends lashed directly to the boom. The upper ends of the paired rods that were inboard of the float slanted inboard (i.e., toward the hull), while the rods outboard of the float sloped outboard. The bottom ends of the rods were sharpened and forced into holes bored on either side of the centerline on the top surface of the float. To make all fast, lashings were passed over the boom and through holes bored transversely through a longitudinal ridge standing proud on the upper surface of the float.

2. Forked branches: Each boom had a Y-shaped connector: the two upper arms of the Y were lashed to the boom, and the sharpened bottom end was inserted into a hole bored on the float's upper surface. The lashing method was not recorded, but it may have been similar to that used for the other method.

Paopao end decorations

Some paopao had decorative protrusions left standing proud on the upper surfaces of the solid ends. Short sections of V-shaped serrations were also carved into the gunwales of some of the canoes just inboard of the solid ends. The seat was a simple plank that locked over the gunwale just forward of the aft outrigger boom, and it was removed when the boat was not in use. Where paopao were used for rod fishing, a forked rod rest would be lashed to the forward boom, while the pole's butt end rested on the after boom.

(All information derived from Samoan Material Culture by Peter H. Buck, a.k.a., Te Rangi Hīroa)