~ Sustainable Seafaring from Oceania. History, Design, and Relevance ~
November 10, 2013
Plank lashing, Samoan style
Figure 230.—Flange lashing with continuous loop technique:
a, a coconut leaflet midrib is pinched through to half its thickness at (1) and the lower end split back by slightly bending it; b, the thin end of the braid (2) is put through the split (1) which is closed by straightening the midrib. The long end (3) is threaded through the paired hole and the braid gently drawn through. c, Inside view showing keel flange (4) and stern piece flange (5) fitted together with holes (6) coinciding. The midrib leaflet is discarded and the thin end of the braid (2) is passed through under one of the plies of the braid at the point (7) to form a loop. The point (7) is selected so that the length of braid between it and the end (8) is long enough to complete the lashing turns, but in the figure the length is much reduced. The thin end (2), after passing through the braid, is doubled back and passed through a ply on its standing part (9) to fix the working loop. The end of the braid (8) is crossed above the middle of the hole, held in position with the left thumb and the far side of the loop (10) is pulled to draw the slack through the hole. d, The end of the loop (7) has been drawn through the hole and the part of the slack beyond it (11) is pulled until all the slack is through the hole and the braid in the hole is taut against the held end (8); e, the taut braid is brought back over the flanges and over the short end (8) to make the first lashing turn (1) which is held down on the near flange with the left thumb. Besides the first turn, the continuous loop is also through the hole and pulling on its far end (10) will draw the loop junction (7) through the hole as well as the slack (13) which is now on the near side; f, both the loop junction (7) and the slack (13) have been drawn through to the far side. The first turn has been drawn taut over the end (8) which fixes the commencement of the lashing. g, Each succeeding turn is made by manipulating the loop in the same manner as the first turn—5 or 6 turns are sufficient to form a secure lashing. Before the last turn (14) is drawn taut, the continuous loop (10) is unfastened by withdrawing the thin end of the braid end (2) and (7). h, The unloosened braid end (2) is passed through under the last turn (14) which is drawn taut from the far end of the hole (10). The end of the braid (2) is drawn taut under the last turn (14) and jerked down towards the hole so that actual crossing (1.5) under the last turn is moved down into the hole. k, The end is cut off close in under the far edge of the hole. The last turn (14) fixes the end of the braid and finishes the lashing.
(from 9/12/12 entry, this blog)
July 26, 2013
May 24, 2013
Marshallese canoes today
A great video on modern Marshallese culture. Check out the cute kids dancing at 38:50 into it!
http://vimeo.com/31752506
http://vimeo.com/user6709087/marshallese-canoes-today#t=2261
December 29, 2012
More Micronesia - found at Eric Metzgar's Triton Films site. Starting with Photo Galleries, Micronesian Tour 2000:
Here: http://www.tritonfilms.com/phototour2000.htm
and here: http://www.tritonfilms.com/bechiyal.htm
All about the meeting house here at Dr. Felicia R. Beardsley's Micronesian Diary:
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| Bechiyal Village Meeting House in Maap, Yap |
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| Interior with Chief John Tamag and David Lewis
|
and here: http://www.tritonfilms.com/bechiyal.htm
All about the meeting house here at Dr. Felicia R. Beardsley's Micronesian Diary:
September 24, 2012
Voyaging photos from Eric Metzgar
Voyages documented by Eric Metzgar of Triton Films:
http://tritonfilms.com/photogalleries.html
Especially here - the Yap to Guam voyage of 2010:
http://tritonfilms.com/ytnsvoyagingexpedition.html
"In April 2010, two voyaging canoes led by traditional navigators and guided by the stars sailed across hundreds of miles of open ocean from Lamotrek in the central Caroline Islands to Guam in the Mariana Islands. It was the first time in over a 100 years that such a voyage had been made. Two canoes, the Simion Hokulea and the Mathow Maram were selected by the Yap Traditional Navigation Society to make the historic expedition.
On April 14, the Simion Hokulea and Mathow Maram were loaded aboard the MV Caroline Voyager in Yap and transported to Lamotrek, a distance of approximately 600 miles. On April 26, the two canoes left Lamotrek and sailed across the 430-mile Metawaliwoal Sea to Guam.
This historic voyage, which was also for the purpose of training Yap Traditional Navigation Society (YTNS) students in the use of traditional navigational skills, was under the command of master navigator Ali Haleyalur from Lamotrek. Haleyalur captained the 33-year old Simion Hokulea canoe which was originally carved and owned by the renowned master navigator Mau Piailug. Master canoe builder Chief Bruno Tharngan from Yap captained the Mathow Maram, a canoe of his own construction patterned after the popow design common throughout the Caroline Islands.
There were a total of 23 crew members involved in the voyage from Lamotrek to Guam. The Simion Hokulea crew was made of up eleven students, Captain Ali Haleyalur, and myself, Eric Metzgar, whose purpose was to document the voyage for the YTNS archives. The members of the Mathow Maram crew were made up of ten students, Captain Bruno Tharngan, and Leo Racheilug, Chief of Satawal and a master navigator, appointed by Ali Haleyalur to assist Chief Tharngan with the navigation of the Mathow Maram.
After arrival in Guam four days later on April 30, the YTNS sailors were sponsored by the Traditions About Seafaring Islands (TASI) organization at their Sahwan Tasi Fache Mwan canoe house in Paseo de Susana. TASI was our generous host for two weeks until May 13, when both canoes departed Guam and sailed for Yap."
And here, a link to the Yap Traditional Navigation Society site:
http://www.visityap.com/todo_tns5.html
Photo Gallery #4, the BBC Film Shoot in Guam:
http://tritonfilms.com/bbcfilmshootinyap.html
contains a couple of shots of sailing downwing "cross-rigged".
http://tritonfilms.com/photogalleries.html
Especially here - the Yap to Guam voyage of 2010:
http://tritonfilms.com/ytnsvoyagingexpedition.html
"In April 2010, two voyaging canoes led by traditional navigators and guided by the stars sailed across hundreds of miles of open ocean from Lamotrek in the central Caroline Islands to Guam in the Mariana Islands. It was the first time in over a 100 years that such a voyage had been made. Two canoes, the Simion Hokulea and the Mathow Maram were selected by the Yap Traditional Navigation Society to make the historic expedition.
On April 14, the Simion Hokulea and Mathow Maram were loaded aboard the MV Caroline Voyager in Yap and transported to Lamotrek, a distance of approximately 600 miles. On April 26, the two canoes left Lamotrek and sailed across the 430-mile Metawaliwoal Sea to Guam.
This historic voyage, which was also for the purpose of training Yap Traditional Navigation Society (YTNS) students in the use of traditional navigational skills, was under the command of master navigator Ali Haleyalur from Lamotrek. Haleyalur captained the 33-year old Simion Hokulea canoe which was originally carved and owned by the renowned master navigator Mau Piailug. Master canoe builder Chief Bruno Tharngan from Yap captained the Mathow Maram, a canoe of his own construction patterned after the popow design common throughout the Caroline Islands.
There were a total of 23 crew members involved in the voyage from Lamotrek to Guam. The Simion Hokulea crew was made of up eleven students, Captain Ali Haleyalur, and myself, Eric Metzgar, whose purpose was to document the voyage for the YTNS archives. The members of the Mathow Maram crew were made up of ten students, Captain Bruno Tharngan, and Leo Racheilug, Chief of Satawal and a master navigator, appointed by Ali Haleyalur to assist Chief Tharngan with the navigation of the Mathow Maram.
After arrival in Guam four days later on April 30, the YTNS sailors were sponsored by the Traditions About Seafaring Islands (TASI) organization at their Sahwan Tasi Fache Mwan canoe house in Paseo de Susana. TASI was our generous host for two weeks until May 13, when both canoes departed Guam and sailed for Yap."
And here, a link to the Yap Traditional Navigation Society site:
http://www.visityap.com/todo_tns5.html
Photo Gallery #4, the BBC Film Shoot in Guam:
http://tritonfilms.com/bbcfilmshootinyap.html
contains a couple of shots of sailing downwing "cross-rigged".
September 15, 2012
Our blue canoe
Here:
http://pacificvoyagers.org/
move-your-paddle-silently-through-the-water
Our blue canoe trailer:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UR_nk7ZEKcE
Our blue canoe trailer 2:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iKbIeBfF4eo
Pacific voyagers:
http://www.pacificvoyagers.com/about-project/movie/
http://pacificvoyagers.org/
move-your-paddle-silently-through-the-water
Our blue canoe trailer:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UR_nk7ZEKcE
Our blue canoe trailer 2:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iKbIeBfF4eo
Pacific voyagers:
http://www.pacificvoyagers.com/about-project/movie/
September 12, 2012
More sennit - and Google search results
Mine for more at Google under "sennet for canoe lashings":
https://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=tea+time+magazine&rlz=1R2ADRA_enUS410&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.r_qf.&biw=800&bih=468&wrapid=tlif134746967615610&um=1&ie=UTF-8&tbm=isch&source=og&sa=N&tab=wi&ei=csFQUOWXAanm0gGiuoGoBg#um=1&hl=en&rlz=1R2ADRA_enUS410&tbm=isch&sa=1&q=sennit+for+canoe+lashings&oq=sennit+for+canoe+lashings&gs_l=img.3...164266.168329.0.168532.19.16.0.0.0.0.766.3047.2j8j2j1j6-1.14.0...0.0...1c.1.VJTVXFQeDOk&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.r_qf.&fp=ab51e9909ad7f373&biw=800&bih=468
3 Ply Braided Sennit
From what I can tell, some sennit is laid and some is braided. Usually we see the laid type but here is an NZETC article on Samoan technique showing the braided type and 3 illustrations:
http://nzetc.victoria.ac.nz/tm/scholarly/tei-BucSamo-t1-body1-d4-d4-d7.html
Figure 1 shows the regular sequence
This figure shows one "add-on" sequence
Final figure is another "add-on" sequence
From what I'm gleaning in a quick read this braiding type is good for everyday purposes but is not as good as laid sennit.
http://nzetc.victoria.ac.nz/tm/scholarly/tei-BucSamo-t1-body1-d4-d4-d7.html
Figure 1 shows the regular sequence
This figure shows one "add-on" sequence
Final figure is another "add-on" sequence
From what I'm gleaning in a quick read this braiding type is good for everyday purposes but is not as good as laid sennit.
August 21, 2012
Iconography and... the crab-claw sails in Oceania
From an article here at Proafile:
http://proafile.com/magazine/article/der-kanu-mann
In 1900-1930, one in twenty of all postcards of Fiji featured canoes and a famous large Samoan ‘alia (double-hulled voyaging canoe) photographed by AJ Tattersall and constructed as a gift for the German Kaiser at the turn of the century, and subsequently left to rot on a Samoan beach, featured consistently in magazine articles, books, reports and encyclopedia about Samoa. ~Iconography and identity – the appropriation of crab-claw sails in Oceania
The above document found here:
http://eprints.qut.edu.au/536/1/Quanchi_Oceania.pdf
Some excerpted here:
Abstract
Art, photography and graphic images of Oceanic sails are scattered across the last four hundred years of visual history in Oceania. The crab-claw or inverted triangular shaped sail, initially depicted in ethnographic and technical drawings, historical tableaux, etchings, photographs, postcards and illustrated books and magazines, took on a new meaning in western imaging when stamps, letterheads, logo and advertisements displaced earlier methods of representing Oceania. The soaring sail, shown detached from the double-hulled canoe or outrigger, lost its association with long-distance voyaging when stylized, graphic art and computer-generated sail images began to play a symbolic role and national entities, movements, organizations and institutions sought to assert Oceanic identities, cultural unity and political relationships. What began as a visual record of maritime achievement became an evolving iconography of appropriation and commodification serving a range of sovereignty, political and regional campaigns.
The distinctive, inverted sail in Oceania, catalogued according to regional differences as crab-claw, lateen, boomsprit, spritsail or two-boom triangular sail1 became an icon and artistic and commercial commodity in Oceania as its striking and simple form was appropriated in a sequence of differing iconographic uses.2 In these appropriations the sail lost its ethnographic connection to actual long distance voyaging, canoe construction, navigation and associated maritime cultural practices.
The visual transition from early twentieth century ethnographic photographs of canoes under sail to a stylized twenty-first century icon is exemplified by the graphic rendering of a crab-claw sail, often detached from its double-hulled or outrigger canoe, as the central motif in the logo of the Northern Marianas College, the Secretariat of the Pacific community (SPC), the 2000 Festival of Pacific Arts, the 2000 Pacific Peoples Partnership conference, the Outrigger Hotel chain, Province Sud
(Southern Province) in New Caledonia, the 2000 Pacific Festival of Arts, the 2003 Fiji Wesleyan Conference, the Pacific Islands Political Studies Association and the Sociétés d’Études Mélanésiennes. Artistic representations of sails appear on the flag of French Polynesia, on-line home pages, advertisements for banks, book publishers, Fiji coffee, newspapers and the covers of monographs, annual reports, conference
papers and national and regional surveys...
http://proafile.com/magazine/article/der-kanu-mann
In 1900-1930, one in twenty of all postcards of Fiji featured canoes and a famous large Samoan ‘alia (double-hulled voyaging canoe) photographed by AJ Tattersall and constructed as a gift for the German Kaiser at the turn of the century, and subsequently left to rot on a Samoan beach, featured consistently in magazine articles, books, reports and encyclopedia about Samoa. ~Iconography and identity – the appropriation of crab-claw sails in Oceania
The above document found here:
http://eprints.qut.edu.au/536/1/Quanchi_Oceania.pdf
Some excerpted here:
Iconography and identity
– the appropriation of crab-claw sails in Oceania.
Abstract
Art, photography and graphic images of Oceanic sails are scattered across the last four hundred years of visual history in Oceania. The crab-claw or inverted triangular shaped sail, initially depicted in ethnographic and technical drawings, historical tableaux, etchings, photographs, postcards and illustrated books and magazines, took on a new meaning in western imaging when stamps, letterheads, logo and advertisements displaced earlier methods of representing Oceania. The soaring sail, shown detached from the double-hulled canoe or outrigger, lost its association with long-distance voyaging when stylized, graphic art and computer-generated sail images began to play a symbolic role and national entities, movements, organizations and institutions sought to assert Oceanic identities, cultural unity and political relationships. What began as a visual record of maritime achievement became an evolving iconography of appropriation and commodification serving a range of sovereignty, political and regional campaigns.
The distinctive, inverted sail in Oceania, catalogued according to regional differences as crab-claw, lateen, boomsprit, spritsail or two-boom triangular sail1 became an icon and artistic and commercial commodity in Oceania as its striking and simple form was appropriated in a sequence of differing iconographic uses.2 In these appropriations the sail lost its ethnographic connection to actual long distance voyaging, canoe construction, navigation and associated maritime cultural practices.
The visual transition from early twentieth century ethnographic photographs of canoes under sail to a stylized twenty-first century icon is exemplified by the graphic rendering of a crab-claw sail, often detached from its double-hulled or outrigger canoe, as the central motif in the logo of the Northern Marianas College, the Secretariat of the Pacific community (SPC), the 2000 Festival of Pacific Arts, the 2000 Pacific Peoples Partnership conference, the Outrigger Hotel chain, Province Sud
(Southern Province) in New Caledonia, the 2000 Pacific Festival of Arts, the 2003 Fiji Wesleyan Conference, the Pacific Islands Political Studies Association and the Sociétés d’Études Mélanésiennes. Artistic representations of sails appear on the flag of French Polynesia, on-line home pages, advertisements for banks, book publishers, Fiji coffee, newspapers and the covers of monographs, annual reports, conference
papers and national and regional surveys...
August 16, 2012
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