Kakap is a narrow river or coastal boat used for fishing in

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Indonesia Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania between the Indian and Pacific oceans. It consists of over 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, Java, Sulawesi, and parts of Borneo and New Guine ...

, and

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. They are also sometimes used as auxiliary vessels to larger warships for piracy and coastal raids.

Etymology

The name "''kakap''" comes from Malay word meaning "spy", "scout", "lookout". Thus, the name means "type of boat used for scouting".

Description

Kakap resemble

pangajava Penjajap, also pangajava and pangayaw, were native outrigger warships used by several Austronesian people, Austronesian ethnic groups in maritime Southeast Asia. They were typically very long and narrow, and were very fast. They are mentioned as be ...

but are smaller and lighter. It also uses a mast and rectangular ''

tanja Tanja ( sr, Тања) is a feminine given name. It may refer to: Mononyms *''Tanja'' (born 1983), Russian-Estonian singer, also known as Tanja Mihhailova Given name *Tanja Andrejeva (born 1978), Macedonian handball player * Tanja Bogosavljević ...

'' sail. The boards and planks on the hull are not nailed with iron nail, but are attached using a wooden

dowel A dowel is a cylindrical rod, usually made of wood, plastic, or metal. In its original manufactured form, a dowel is called a ''dowel rod''. Dowel rods are often cut into short lengths called dowel pins. Dowels are commonly used as structural ...

technique and reinforced with

rattan Rattan, also spelled ratan, is the name for roughly 600 species of Old World climbing palms belonging to subfamily Calamoideae. The greatest diversity of rattan palm species and genera are in the closed-canopy old-growth tropical forests of ...

bonds. Larger kakap is able to reach eight meters in length and able to carry 8–10 crews. The kakap jeram's hull is planked and built with frames, made by ''meranti'' (

dipterocarp Dipterocarpaceae is a family of 16 genera and about 695 known species of mainly tropical lowland rainforest trees. The family name, from the type genus ''Dipterocarpus'', is derived from Greek (''di'' = two, ''pteron'' = wing and ''karpos'' = fru ...

) wood. It has carved figurehead and ornamented sternpost. A washstrake made of bamboo splits sewn together with bamboo withies, and held in position by lashings. A heavy beam is fitted forward and used for winding the anchor cable and bitting it. The steering gear consist of a paddle held on the quarter on a stout upright and held at the neck by a rattan lashing. It has 1 mast with junk sail. Average length of mast is 13 ft (4 m). The length of a kakap jeram is about 13 ft (4 m), the width is 7 ft (2.1 m), with 3 ft (91 cm) depth. It has a freeboard of 1 ft (30 cm) and crew of 3 men.

Role

In Selangor coast, kakap is used as fishing boat, precisely under the name kakap Jeram. Jeram is the name of big fishing village in the Kuala Selangor district. Its name can be interpreted as "Jeram scouter". For piracy activities, kakap does not sail alone and often accompanies penjajap and is used as an observer in piracy activities. If merchant ships encountered this boat, a penjajap or lanong must be hiding around the waters. Kakap is also suitable to be used to go along the beach and sail to the river estuary. If attacked, kakap can land easily on the beach or riverbank to make it easier for the crew to escape to the mangrove or palm forest area while carrying the boat with them.

Sea people The Sea Peoples are a hypothesized seafaring confederation that attacked ancient Egypt and other regions in the East Mediterranean prior to and during the Late Bronze Age collapse (1200–900 BCE).. Quote: "First coined in 1881 by the Fren ...

use kakap which can contain 20 people used for piracy activities at sea.

References

{{Indonesian traditional vessels Indonesian inventions Boats of Indonesia Military boats Austronesian ships Sailboat types

Etymology

Description

Role

See also

References