Outrigger Ships

Outrigger boats are various watercraft featuring one or more lateral support floats known as outriggers, which are fastened to one or both sides of the main hull. They can range from small dugout canoes to large plank-built vessels. Outrigger boats can also vary in their configuration, from the ancestral double-hull configuration (catamarans), to single-outrigger vessels prevalent in the Pacific Islands and Madagascar, to the double-outrigger vessels (trimarans) prevalent in Island Southeast Asia. They are traditionally fitted with Austronesian sails, like the crab claw sails and tanja sails, but in modern times are often fitted with petrol engines.

Unlike a single-hulled vessel, an outrigger or double-hull vessel generates stability as a result of the distance between its hulls rather than due to the shape of each individual hull. As such, the hulls of outrigger or double-hull boats are typically longer, narrower and more hydrodynamically efficient than those of single-hull vessels. Compared to other types of canoes, smaller outrigger canoes can be quite fast, yet are also capable of being paddled and sailed in rougher water. This paddling technique, however, differs greatly from kayaking or rowing. The paddle, or blade, used by the paddler is single sided, with either a straight or a double-bend shaft.

These vessels were the first true ocean-going ships, and are an important part of the Austronesian heritage. They were the vessels that enabled the Austronesian expansion from Taiwan into the islands of both the Indian and Pacific Ocean from around 3000 BC. They comprise the bulk of traditional boats in Island Southeast Asia, Island Melanesia, Micronesia, Polynesia, and Madagascar. They have spread to other cultures Austronesians came into contact with, notably in Sri Lanka and southern India as well as in the coast of East Africa. In modern times, outrigger vessels are used in the sport of sailing. Catamaran and trimaran configurations are also widely used for high speed craft.

History

Outrigger boats were originally developed by the Austronesian-speaking peoples of the islands of Southeast Asia for sea travel. It is believed that the use of outriggers may have been initially caused by the need for stability on small watercraft after the invention of crab claw sails some time around 1500 BCE.

Outrigger boats were essential in the transportation of Austronesians both eastward to Polynesia and New Zealand and westward across the Indian Ocean as far as Madagascar during the Austronesian migration period. The Austronesian peoples ( Malagasy, Maritime Southeast Asian, Micronesian, Melanesian, Native Taiwanese, and Polynesian peoples) continue to be the primary users of the outrigger boats.

The simplest form of all ancestral Austronesian boats had five parts. The bottom part consists of single piece of hollowed-out log. At the sides were two planks, and two horseshoe-shaped wood pieces formed the prow and stern. These were "sewn" together with dowels and lashings. They had no central rudders but were instead steered using an oar on one side. The ancestral rig was the mastless triangular crab claw sail which had two booms that could be tilted to the wind. These were built in the double-canoe configuration or had a single outrigger on the windward side. In Island Southeast Asia, these developed into double outriggers on each side that provided greater stability. The triangular crab claw sails also later developed into square or rectangular tanja sails, which like crab claw sails, had booms spanning the upper and lower edges. Fixed masts also developed later in both Southeast Asia (usually as bipod or tripod masts) and Oceania.

Early researchers like Heine-Geldern (1932) and Hornell (1943) once believed that catamarans evolved from outrigger boats, but modern authors specializing in Austronesian cultures like Doran (1981) and Mahdi (1988) now believe it to be the opposite.

Two canoes bound together developed directly from minimal raft technologies of two logs tied together. Over time, the double-hulled canoe form developed into the asymmetric double canoe, where one hull is smaller than the other. Eventually the smaller hull became the prototype outrigger, giving way to the single outrigger canoe, which diverged into the reversible single outrigger canoe in Oceania. Finally, the single outrigger types developed into the double outrigger canoe (or trimarans).

This would also explain why older Austronesian populations in Island Southeast Asia tend to favor double outrigger boats, as it keeps the boats stable when tacking. But they still have small regions where catamarans and single-outrigger boats are still used. In contrast, more distant outlying descendant populations in Micronesia, Polynesia, Madagascar, and the Comoros retained the double-hull and the single outrigger boat types, for the technology of double outriggers never reached them (exceptions being western Melanesia). To deal with the problem of the instability of the boat when the outrigger faces leeward when tacking, they instead developed the shunting technique in sailing, in conjunction with reversible single-outriggers.

When Magellan's ships first encountered the Chamorros of the Mariana Islands in 1521, Antonio Pigafetta recorded that the Chamorros' sailboats far surpassed Magellan's in speed and maneuverability. Similarly, the Spanish priest Francisco Combés, describing the large ''karakoa'' outrigger warships of the Visayan Islands in the Philippines, remarked:

Outrigger fishing canoes are also used among certain non-Austronesian groups, such as the Sinhalese in Sri Lanka, where they are known as ''oruwa'', as well as among some groups in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands. They can also be found in East Africa (e.g., the '' ungalawa'' of Tanzania).

The acquisition of the catamaran and outrigger boat technology by the non-Austronesian peoples in Sri Lanka and southern India is the result of very early Austronesian contact with the region, including the Maldives and Laccadive Islands. This is estimated to have occurred around 1000 to 600 BCE and onwards. This may have possibly included limited colonization that have since been assimilated. This is still evident in Sri Lankan and South Indian languages. For example, Tamil ''paṭavu'', Telugu ''paḍava'', and Kannada ''paḍahu'', all meaning "ship", are all derived from Proto-Hesperonesian ''*padaw'', "sailboat", with Austronesian cognates like Javanese ''perahu'', Kadazan ''padau'', Maranao ''padaw'', Cebuano ''paráw'', Samoan ''folau'', Hawaiian ''halau'', and Māori ''wharau''.

The technology has persisted into the modern age. Outrigger boats can be quite large fishing or transport vessels. In the Philippines, outrigger boats (called ''bangka'' or ''paraw'') are often fitted with petrol engines. The links between seafaring and outrigger boats in the Philippines extend through to political life, in which the smallest political unit in the country is still called "barangay" after the historical ''balangay'' outrigger boats used in the original migrations of the first Austronesian peoples across the archipelago and beyond. The Polynesian Voyaging Society has two double-hull sailing catamarans, '' Hokulea'' and '' Hawaiiloa'', and sails them between various islands in the Pacific using traditional Polynesian navigation methods without instruments. The ''Hikianalia'' and ''Alingano Maisu'' are other extant double-hulled voyaging canoes.

Terminology and linguistics

The German linguist Otto Dempwolff (1934-1938) originally reconstructed the Proto-Austronesian word for "boat" as *waŋkaŋ, and included the reflexes for both *baŋkaʔ and *waŋkaʔ as its descendants. However modern linguists like Robert Blust generally reject this. Mahdi (2016) instead reconstructs four words for "boat" in the Austronesian languages, all ultimately derived from the monosyllabic protoforms *Cu and *baŋ. They are:
:a) *qaCu - cognates include Squliq-Atayal ''qasuʔ'', Pazeh ''ʔasuʔ'', and Bunun ''hatoʔ''
:b) *qabaŋ - cognates include Kanakanavu ''abaŋɯ'', Oponohu-Rukai ''havaŋu'', Siraya ''avang'', Gaddang ''ʔabaŋ'', Tiruray ''ʔawaŋ'', Iranun ''awaŋ'', Mentawai ''abak'', and Moken ''kabaŋ''
:c) *baŋkaʔ - cognates include Kavalan ''baŋka'', Tagalog ''baŋkaʔ'', Tausug ''baŋkaʔ'', Mori and Muna ''baŋka'', and Sumbawa ''baŋka''
:d) *waŋkaʔ' - cognates include Manggarai and Rembong ''waŋka'', Tobati ''wăgě'', Yabem ''waŋ'', Suau ''waga'', Fijian ''waqa'', Tongan ''vaka'', and Hawaiian ''waa''; Tahitian and Samoan ''vaa''

Instead of being cognates, the protoforms *baŋkaʔ and *waŋkaʔ are believed to be doublets. The protoforms *qabaŋ and *baŋkaʔ are composites with a common precursor, with the ''*qa-'' and ''-*ka'' positioned differently. Only *qaCu and *qabaŋ can be traced back to Proto-Austronesian, with the rest being later developments.

The outrigger float is called the '' ama'' in many Polynesian languages (compare Hawaiian ''ama'', Māori ''ama'', and Samoan ''ama'', all meaning 'outrigger float'), realisations of Proto-Malayo-Polynesian *saRman 'outrigger float'. Similar terms also exist in other Malayo-Polynesian languages, such as Pohnpeian ''dahm'', Yapese ''thaam'', Ambonese Malay ''semang'', all meaning 'outrigger float', as well as Chamorro ''sakman'' meaning ' large canoe.' The outrigger boom—spars connecting the ''ama'' to the main hull (or the two hulls in a double-hull canoe)—are called '' iako'' in Hawaiian and ''kiato'' in Māori (with similar words in other Polynesian languages), ultimately from Proto-Oceanic *kiajo or its doublet

HOME


Content is Copyleft
Website design, code, and AI is Copyrighted (c) 2014-2017 by Stephen Payne


Consider donating to Wikimedia



As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases