Ship design and ship building

The Kunai people have double canoes, and those of very pretty work. The Loyalty Islands canoes are inferior to these, but are also double, with a platform, two triangular mat-sails, and oars 6 feet long, passing through holes in the platform. A long oar serves for steering, and so they sail to New Caledonia. At Hood Bay in New Guinea rafts are used resting on five trunks; on a single platform these carry as many as a hundred men and quantities of goods. They carry one or two masts, a stone anchor, and a mat-sail.

Wooden baler, New Guinea - length approx 280mm. (British Museum.)

It is not usual for single trunks to be used exclusively for seafaring; but in coast navigation and fishing they meet local requirements, even where large regularly built vessels exist. We find them in Tahiti, under the name of buhu or shells, usually sharp at one end and seldom holding more than two men. But such is the development of boat-building, that the smallest boats are, where necessary, built with great care in several pieces. On Waituhi the Paumotu Islanders have a great number of small boats, put together of coco-palm wood, 16 feet long at most, capable of being carried by two persons and of carrying two or three; they have pointed pieces specially fixed on fore and aft, an outrigger and two recurved paddles.

Ornamental gorget - Tahiti
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The Tahitians build their boats of several pieces, for the very good reason that large timber, such as the Maoris obtain from the Kauri pine, does not grow in their island. In the Society Islands, elegant double canoes, known as "twins," are made by patting together two single stems, which must exactly match. The kabekel of the Pelew Islands is a vessel between 60 and 70 feet long, usually hewn out of one large tree-stem, and pulling as many as forty paddles. Its beam and depth are very small for its great length. The entire vessel is merely a hollowed-out keel, supported in the water by the outrigger attached to one side. A kind of deck made of bamboo is arranged amidships, on which the leader takes his place, and the baggage is packed.

These single-tree craft afford the basis also for the larger built ships. The keel of these consists of a stem hollowed out by means of fire, or, in the bigger vessels, of several. Large ships are found chiefly in Fiji, Tonga, Samoa, and New Zealand; and the number of boats is correspondingly large. In Tahiti, Forster saw a fleet of 159 large double canoes and 70 smaller craft. The small ones in many cases travel very fast, and serve as despatch-boats to the larger.

Ship building

The tree or trees intended for a ship will be felled to the recital of religious sentences, and then hollowed by means of fire. While many of the natives are qualified for this task, the actual building is in the hands of a privileged class; so closely were the interests of state and society once bound up with this art and mystery. Even to the present day in Fiji the carpenters, whose chief work is shipbuilding, form a special caste. They bear the high-sounding title of "the king's craftsmen" and have the privileges of real chiefs.

These highly-honoured artisans carry on their trade of shipbuilding with particular care. Planks are attached to the keel, stern and bow provided with carved ornaments, sails and ropes are all finished and fitted by special workmen, and the outriggers prepared by others. Everything is done according to old tradition; the laying of the keel, the finishing of the whole, the launching, all take place with religious ceremonies and festivities. Tangaroa was the patron of shipmen, and they bore his worship all over the Ocean. Even the gods themselves like to build ships, and undertake daring voyages.