The Warrau Canoe and the Construction of Landscape

In October, I gave a presentation titled The Warrau Canoe and the Construction of Landscape at the first Early Watercraft Congress in Vila do Conde, Portugal. The presentation was derived from my PhD thesis (in process), which is based on fieldwork conducted in 2022 and 2023 in Imbotero, a small village of Indigenous Warrau people in northwest Guyana. The canoes in question are dugouts, and "construction of landscape" refers to the cognitive processes of making sense of the physical environment in which the people live and creating personal and social structures to suit. 

Click the image below to view the video on YouTube. A brief introduction to my presentation, by Dr. Niall Gregory, begins at 25:18.

Do watch the other presentations before and after mine on this video, and some of the other excellent presentations from the conference:

https://www.youtube.com/@EarlyWatercraftCongress

https://www.youtube.com/live/dmaHAgopDQY?si=Ie5MjuUqTVbjGu23

https://www.youtube.com/live/YtCjb_LOd7Y?si=6_QA351a5MYDBm8r

https://www.youtube.com/live/LbJtqd2VtsA?si=i8Mf9oGavhL1L5kI

https://youtu.be/kTxgw-yAZek?si=LmxPMpq7e3J5oGau

https://www.youtube.com/live/HEdLmWdSVNc?si=LYHWESrEzJLvwJmZ

https://youtu.be/MyEdiF6q_BI?si=kxGraGUhuoWs2dax

https://www.youtube.com/live/2o2kBeNu8Cg?si=HpV0Bbbv9SolOxGf

Poujade's and Piétri's books on traditional Vietnamese boats: free dowloads

Blocks and pulleys onVietnamese sailboats. From Sailboats of Indochina (Voiliers d'Indochine) by J. B. Piétri. 

Thanks to a contributor who wishes to remain anonymous, I'm delighted to present two more works on the boats of Vietnam for free download: Sailboats of Indochina by J. B. Piétri, and Bateaux en Indochine by Jean Poujade. They join a page of other free downloads of books on Chinese and Southeast Asian watercraft.

Piétri was a fisheries officer for the French colonial government in Indochina, and he evidently travelled the coast intensively and documented everything he saw. His work, presented in English translation, is an encyclopaedic survey of boat types by geographic area, with detailed descriptions and fine illustrations of construction methods, fittings such as rigging details, achors, and rudders, and how each boat type is used. The French edition of 1949 (Voiliers d'Indochine) was translated by Stephanie Dumont and published by the Vietnam Wooden Boat Foundation, Port Townsend, Washington, in 2006. I have attempted unsuccessfully to contact the VWBF and the translator for permission to make the book available. I welcome the parties to contact me to discuss the matter. I will respect copyright requests by its current owner.

Poujade's shorter work, presented in the original French, consists of brief essays on a small selection of boat types, accompanied by pleasing drawings in pencil. Poujade was an officer in the maritime law department of the French colonial navy in the Far East.

A small Vietnamese fishing boat. From Bateaux en Indochine by Jean Poujade.

REVISION 12 FEBRUARY, 2024: Some readers are finding problems with the maritime terminology in the English translation of Petrie's Sailboats of Indochina (Voiliers d'Indochine) posted here. A translation that some find superior is avalable at reasonable cost on Lulu.com as an e-book and in paperback.

REVISION, 28 Nov. 2023: The French original of Piétri's work, Voiliers d'Indochine, is also available on this blog's download page.

Download Volume 2 of Worcester's Junks and Sampans of the Yangtze

Miao-Ch'uan boat, from Junks and Sampans of the Yangtze, Vol. 2, G.R.G. Worcester

Now available for free download is Volume 2 of G.R.G. Worcester's huge and detailed work, Junks and Sampans of the Yangtze: The Craft of the Lower and Middle Yangtze and Tributaries. It joins Volume 1 and other books on Asian watercraft on our page of free downloads. 

Among the hundreds of craft included are the lovely Miao-Ch'uan or Miao boat (above). The one shown, at 47' LOA, beam ~5', and depth 2', is a typical size for the type. Although slender and graceful, they are heavily built on eight bulkheads, for use in rapids. During downstream travel, control is maintained with the long bow sweep; to move upstream, the craft is tracked with a line fixed to the short mast. They were used to carry cargoes of beans, cotton, yarn, and gypsum, and by hog farmers to carry pigs, meat, manure and feed.

The tiny double sampan below, a little more than 5' long and 5' broad, was used by fishermen on calm waters, using a long-handled net to scoop up fish between the twin hulls. It was light enough to pick up and carry home at the end of the day.

Ichang "Water Shoes", from Junks and Sampans of the Yangtze, Vol. 2, G.R.G. Worcester