The Bark Canoes and Skin Boats of North America 48

The Bark Canoes and Skin Boats of North America 48

When this umiak was examined, the skin cover was in such a condition

that the number of hides used could not be determined, but it probably

is comprised of three sea-lion skins sewn together. New skin covers

are made by removing the hair and fat from the skins and then sewing

them together by the method illustrated on page 186, to obtain proper

dimensions. Green skins are generally preferred, since they stretch

into shape better than partly or wholly cured ones. Once stretched

to shape and cured, the cover can be readily removed and replaced,

without resewing. In fitting a new skin cover the skins are first

thoroughly soaked in seawater. The cover is then stretched over the

frame and worked taut by lacings. It is wide enough to reach from

gunwale to gunwale and a little down inside the boat on each side, and

is laced to the rising batten with turns of rope spaced 3 to 5 inches

apart amidships and closer together in the ends of the hull. At the

headboards the cover is laced around the gunwales and through holes

in the headboards, two independent lacings of two turns each being

used on each side. At the extreme bow and stern the cover is laced

to the gunwale lashings. Where the cover will not stretch smooth in

fitting, gores appear to have been cut out and the skin resewn. After

being laced, the cover is allowed to shrink until it becomes smooth

and tight, then it is heavily oiled and the seams rubbed with tallow

or blubber. This treatment is repeated at regular intervals. While the

boat is in service care is taken to dry out the skin cover once a day,

if possible.

 

[Illustration: Figure 169

 

UMIAK, WEST COAST OF ALASKA, King Island, 1886. Taken off umiak at

Mariner's Museum.]

 

[Illustration: Figure 170

 

MAKING THE BLIND SEAM: two stages of method used by the Eskimo to join

skins together. The edge of the skins are placed flesh side to flesh

side with one overlapping the other about 2 inches. Then, by means of

a thin needle and slender sinew, the skins are sewn together, with an

over-and-over stitch, care being taken not to penetrate through the

lower skin. When this is completed the skins are opened out and the

second seam made on the grain side to complete a double seam without

penetration of either skin. The width of the seam varies somewhat.]

 

The sequence of construction described is not followed universally;

sometimes spreaders are fixed between the gunwales, which are then

sheered by thongs to the keelson, after which the side frames are put

in and the side and rising battens, and finally the thwarts, are added.

Judging by the numerous models seen, the small hunting umiaks varied a

good deal in the rake and sweep of the bow and stern, even in the same

village. These hunting umiaks worked with kayaks in Aleutian walrus and

sea-lion hunting; a practice that seems to have once been common along

the Western Alaskan coast and among the islands.

 

[Illustration: Figure 171

 

NORTH ALASKAN WHALING UMIAK of about 1890. Drawn from damaged frame,

formerly in a private collection, now destroyed.]

 

The drawing on page 186 represents a large Alaskan umiak from King

Island. Two boats of this model, but with modern metal fastenings, are

in the Mariners' Museum, Newport News, Virginia, but the drawing shows

the methods of fastenings used in 1886. The plan is of a burdensome

model, such as is used for travel or other heavy cargo work. The boat

is 34 feet 2½ inches over the gunwales, 8 feet ½ inch extreme beam, 2

feet 3⅜ inches deep and 2 feet 10 inches beam on the bottom over the

chines. The construction follows the general plan of the small umiak

just described, except that another method of fitting the floor timbers

to the chines is employed. Due to the size and use of the umiak, two

side battens are employed with a single riser. The thwarts are not

notched over the frames, but instead fall between them. As diagonal

thong braces from gunwale to keelson would be ineffective in this

situation, two sets of wooden braces that resist not only tension but

also compression are used to take the thrust off the thwart lashings.

These brace-frames are staggered slightly to allow room to fit them at

the keelson. The drawing, which requires no additional explanation,

shows the plan of construction and the important lashings, and the

method of fitting oars with thong thole loops.

 

Boats such as these carried a square sail lashed to a yard, the mast

being stepped in a block on the keelson. No mast thwart is used;

instead stays and shrouds of hide rope supported the mast, a method

that made it easy to step or unstep the mast in a seaway. Early umiaks

in this area are said to have had mat sails; later ones used sails of

skin and drill. Modern umiaks of this class often have rudders hung on

iron pintles and gudgeons and the floors fastened to the keelson with

iron bolts or screws. The scarphs are also bolted, but the remaining

fastenings are lashings in the old style, to obtain flexibility in the

frame.

 

A North Alaskan whaling umiak, supposed to have been built about 1890,

is represented in the drawing of figure 171. The remains of the boat

were sufficient to permit reconstruction of the frame. This umiak is

about the size of, and in profile greatly resembles, a New Bedford

whaleboat. However, the model is that of the umiak, rather sharp-ended

and strongly sheered. The boat is 29 feet 4¾ inches over the

headboards, 5 feet 10½ inches extreme beam, and 2 feet 1¾ inches deep.

Umiaks of this model were used at Point Barrow and vicinity in offshore

whaling, and were also used for travel and cargo carrying. Paddles were

used in whaling, but in more recent times sail, oars, and outboard

engines have been employed. The boats of this class appear to have been

marked by a very graceful profile and strongly raking ends. Despite

the resemblances of this type of umiak to the whaleboat, it is highly

doubtful that its model was influenced by the white man's boat. In

fact, it might just as well be claimed that since the whaleboat appears

to have been first employed in the early Greenland whale fishery, the

latter had been influenced by the umiaks found in that area. However,

one might also point to the fact that the model of the early European

whaleboat is much like that of a Viking boat, from which will be seen

the danger in accepting chance similarities in form or detail as

evidence of relationship, particularly when it is not impossible that

similarities in use and other requirements have produced similar boat

types, the users never having come into contact.

 

[Illustration: Figure 172

 

BAFFIN ISLAND UMIAK. Drawn from model and detailed measurements of a

single boat.]

 

The whaling umiak has been much used in the western Arctic by explorers

and Arctic travellers, who regarded highly its lightness and strength,

and its ability to be easily driven. It is much wider than the Chukchi

umiak and has far more flare. From a study of models and numerous

photographs it can be said that the amount of fore-and-aft camber in

the bottom varies greatly between individual umiaks, some of which

are almost straight on the bottom. The light framework and elastic

construction often cause these umiaks to camber a good deal when

heavily loaded; when sledged, they are sometimes fitted amidships with

a support for a line from bow to stern, that forms a "hogging-brace,"

to prevent the boat from losing its camber. It is also apparent

that there is no standard practice in fitting floors to the chines;

Murdock[4] shows a rough sketch that indicates the floor ends are

often tenoned into the chines, as in the small umiak. Tree-nailing of

the floors and chines, and the keelson, is common, and sometimes both

treenails and lashings are used in scarphs. In some umiaks both the

single side batten and the riser are at the same height, but only the

riser has its ends secured to the posts, the side battens being cut

short and their ends lashed to the riser a few inches inside the posts.

 

[4] See bibliography.

 

The skin cover of the north Alaskan whaling umiak is made of bearded

seal or of walrus hide, which has to be split, because of its weight.

Occasionally polar-bear skins are used. Lashings of the frame are of

whalebone, sinew, and hide. The skins are treated with seal oil and

caribou fat, and when the whaling umiak is taken ashore it is usually

stored on a stage to keep dogs from destroying the skin cover. In

travelling, however, it is sometimes propped upside down on one edge

and used as a shelter. In winter the skin is removed and stored; when

it is necessary to be replaced on the frame, the skin cover is soaked

in sea water for three to five days, after which it is laced on in

the usual manner, dried, and then thoroughly oiled. Low, rather wide

sledges are sometimes built to carry the umiak overland, or on the

ice, but often the regular sledge is used. The boats cannot be sledged

against a strong gale because of their windage.

 

The north Alaskan umiak is usually propelled by paddles, like the

Chukchi umiak. These paddles range in length from about 50 to 76

inches, and as a rule have a rather long narrow blade, though a short

and wide blade is occasionally found, particularly at Kotzebue Sound

and Point Hope. Oars for the Alaskan umiaks range in length from 6 feet

3 inches to 8 feet 6 inches, and also have rather long narrow blades, 3

to 4 inches wide.

 

The three examples of Alaskan umiaks serve to show the features that

are most common in the area. However, models in the U.S. National

Museum suggest that there was a greater variety of form and appearance

in the past. One model shows the gunwale ends lengthened by pieces

shaped very much like the projecting gunwales of the Malay prah. Some

show extreme rake at the bow like that of the Koryak umiak but without

the rounded gunwale ends. It is impossible to estimate how far the

western Alaska umiak model has been affected by the early Russian

traders in this area, but it is quite certain that the use of oars can

be traced to this influence. The full-sized umiaks, and models and

photographs, from the Bering Strait area give no real clues to the

possible parentage or direction of spread of the Alaskan umiak types.

Occasional details in fittings or construction, such as the gunwale

extensions mentioned, seem to duplicate details in primitive Asiatic

craft, but the evidence is too scanty to allow a hypothesis based on

design and construction alone.

 

[Illustration: Figure 173

 

EAST GREENLAND UMIAK, drawn from measurements taken off by a U.S. Army

officer in 1945.]

 

No models or photographs have been found of the extinct types of umiaks

once used in the northern part of Hudson Bay and the sketches of early

explorers are too crude to allow useful discussion. From such slight

evidence it is impossible to say whether the umiaks in this area were

of the western or eastern type.

 

The drawing of a Baffin Island umiak on page 188 is based on measured

dimensions of a single boat and upon a small model in the U.S. National

Museum. This model conforms in most respects with the drawings and

sketches made by Boas.[5] The umiak is a small one, 24 feet 7¼ inches

long, 5 feet 8⅜ inches extreme beam, 3 feet 10 inches wide over the

chines, and 1 foot 10½ inches deep. These measurements show that the

bottom of this type of umiak is wider than that of western types. The

bottom is flat, and sheer and camber are both slight. The stem and

stern are practically upright and are not formed of knees; rather,

they are made by fitting the post into the keelson with an open tenon.

Instead of the carved block headboards seen in the Alaskan umiaks, the

Baffin Island boat has very wide headboards, and these are tenoned over

the posts as in the Asiatic Koryak umiaks. The details of the rest of

the framing are not dissimilar from those of the Alaskan umiaks, except

that the Baffin Island umiak does not employ any short frames in the

end of the hull. The framework is rather heavy and the square-ended

appearance of this class of umiak makes it appear more clumsy than is

actually the case. The side battens and risers stop short of the posts,

and the risers used in this umiak are notched into the side frames,

whereas in the Alaskan umiak only the lashings of the riser are let

into the frames. The Baffin Island umiaks carry a square sail lashed

to a yard, and the mast is placed right up in the eyes of the boat.

Boas shows that some of these umiaks have rudders hung on metal pintles

and gudgeons, a result of the influence of the white traders, whalers,

and sealers who had operated in these waters long before Boas made his

investigations. The umiak is rowed in the usual manner, using thong

loops as tholes, and is usually steered with an oar or long paddle.