The dalca or piragua is a type of

canoe A canoe is a lightweight, narrow watercraft, water vessel, typically pointed at both ends and open on top, propelled by one or more seated or kneeling paddlers facing the direction of travel and using paddles. In British English, the term ' ...

employed by the Chonos, a nomadic indigenous people of southern Chile, and

Huilliche The Huilliche (), Huiliche or Huilliche-Mapuche are the southern partiality of the Mapuche macroethnic group in Chile and Argentina. Located in the Zona Sur, they inhabit both Futahuillimapu ("great land of the south") and, as the Cunco or Ve ...

people living in Chiloé archipelago. It was a light boat and ideal for navigating local waterways, including between islands of the

Chiloé Archipelago The Chiloé Archipelago (, , ) is a group of islands lying off the coast of Chile, in the Los Lagos Region. It is separated from mainland Chile by the Chacao Channel in the north, the Sea of Chiloé in the east and the Gulf of Corcovado in the s ...

, through the

Chacao Channel The Chacao Channel () is located in Los Lagos Region, Chile and separates Chiloé Island from mainland Chile. The channel is about 40 km long and 4 km wide and connects the Pacific Ocean and Gulf of Ancud. The channel was created during the Quat ...

to mainland Chile, and along the coast of the Gulf of Penas. Spanish chronicles called it best-suited for those waters, far superior to ships of the ''conquistadore''s. The dalca was essential for many activities in

including the logging of alerce wood, the Circular Mission system, and the various expeditions to Nahuel Huapi Lake and the channels of Patagonia. By 1886 dalcas had been replaced by other boat types and were not longer in use in Chiloé. According to archaeologist José Miguel Ramírez, only full non-reconstructed dalcas remaining were collected by Swedish explorer Carl Skottsberg and are at the Museum of Ethnography,

Stockholm Stockholm (; ) is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in Sweden by population, most populous city of Sweden, as well as the List of urban areas in the Nordic countries, largest urban area in the Nordic countries. Approximately ...

and the

Museum of World Culture The National Museum of World Culture opened in Gothenburg, Sweden, in 2004. It is a part of the public authority Swedish National Museums of World Cultures and builds on the collections of the former Göteborgs Etnografiska Museum that closed d ...

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References

* Garcia, Jose (1889). "Travel Diary i navigation made by Father José Garcia of the Company of Jesus from its mission of Cailã n, in Chiloe, toward the south, in the years 1766-1767 ". * ''Hydrographic Yearbook of the Chilean Navy''. Took 14 Valparaiso : Hydrographic Institute of the Chilean Navy. pp. 3–42. * Cárdenas, Renato. Dante Montiel and Catherine Hall (1991). ''The Chono and the regattas of Chiloé''. Santiago, Chile: Olimpho. * Edwards, Clinton R (1965) "Aboriginal Watercraft on the Pacific Coast of South America." University of California Press, Berkeley and Los Angeles. {{Chiloe Archipelago Canoes Mapuche culture Indigenous culture of the Southern Cone Chiloé Archipelago Aysén Region Maritime history of Chile

See also

References

Further reading