A couple of posts back, I ran comments from reader and blogger António Fangueiro of Portugal about the dhow type known as the buggalow. According to António, the buggalow shows evidence of European influence both in design and in the quality of workmanship which, he says, is considerably finer than that of most dhows.
António subsequently sent me these photos, taken in Mozambique, I believe. He says they were published in a Portuguese magazine around 1910, and presumes that the photos were taken considerably earlier.
Looking at the foreground vessel in the first photo, I'm struck by the crooked mast, the heavy shrouds, the apparently very light yard built up of two sections and lashed about 1/3 of the way up from the bottom, and the unusually long luff on the settee sail. The vessel in the left background is another buggalow, without a rig.
I believe the caption of the second photo refers to the buggalow's similarity to the Portuguese nao or caravel, a couple examples of which appear below, also courtesy of António. I don't know the original source of these images. (If their owner contacts me, I will gladly provide credit.)
Of course, while there are some similarities, there are also substantial differences between buggalows and caravels, not least being the rig. The dhow rig carries a settee sail, while the caravel carries a lateen. See here for discussion of the difference between these two superficially similar types.
Thanks to António for his input.
Old Photos of Japan is a fine blog aptly described by its title. A search for "boats" pulls up only a few hits, but they're quite interesting. I won't bother paraphrasing the content; just follow the links to the full articles.
The Ainu are the native people of Japan's northern island of Hokkaido. This article mentions their dugouts and describes their lashed canoes and sailboats. (Photo from the 1920s.)
Ainu fishermen in dugouts, with very specialized fish spears (photo from 1900s). Lots of detail here.
Thanks to Heather Hernandez, technical services librarian at San Francisco Maritime National Historic Park and blogger for Maritime Compass, for passing along this fine resource. Thanks also to Old Photos of Japan.
A few weeks back I wrote about the bark canoes of Australia's Arafura Swamp, noting that the design was unique to that area. Bark canoes of other styles were used elsewhere in Australia, as shown below in this image from Edwin Doran, Jr.'s Wangka: Austronesian Canoe Origins
, which I cited a recent post. As always, the image may be clicked to enlarge.
To quote Doran's complete description (items in [square brackets] are mine):
Among the simplest, and presumably most ancient, types of watercraft in Austronesia are boats made of bark. The simplest of all are formed of bark sheets plugged at the ends with clay [top image], whereas others are tied at the ends [center] and more complex ones have sewed ends [bottom]. The principle location [i.e., within Austronesia] of bark canoes is Australia, but a few relicts are found in Indonesia, probably indicating a much wider distribution.
The very simple bark rafts of the Tasmanians allowed some mobility on the water but became waterlogged in about six hours and were never used for distances offshore greater than about eight miles.
The sewn canoe shown differs from those of Arafura not only in the shape of the end but, significantly, in its having gunwale members lashed to the sheerline. The Arafura boats were entirely without added structural members.
Although Doran says that bark canoes were "Among the simplest, and presumably most ancient types of watercraft" (emphasis added), he is not implying that they are the simplest or most ancient. That distinction he applies to log rafts, noting that true rafts rely on the inherent buoyancy of their material of construction, rather than on a designed, built structure that displaces water. Also in support of his argument: it is a simpler matter to tie one floating log to another, thus creating a raft without any tools at all, whereas even the simplest bark canoe requires tools of some sort to strip the bark from the tree.
Doran shows the distribution of the various types of bark canoes in the following map, along with the distribution of dugout-based outrigger canoes with constituted the focus of his study.
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