The Bark Canoes and Skin Boats of North America 47

The Bark Canoes and Skin Boats of North America 47

Among the various tribes of Eskimo known to have employed the umiak

in the last century, the form of the hull varied a good deal, as

did its dimensions. In general its form was something like that of

the lumberman's "drive boat," except that most umiaks had a slight

~V~-bottom and were quite different from it in the shape of the

bow and stern. The size of the umiak does not seem to have been

established by a set of measurements as distinct as that used in the

building of kayaks, but rather as the result of utilizing material

available locally, with due regard to the intended use of the craft for

relatively heavy transport. Such matters as the flare of the sides,

rake and shape of bow and stern, and width varied from tribe to tribe.

The Asiatic and Alaskan umiaks were usually rather sharp-ended, with

little spread to the gunwales at bow and stern; one of the Asiatic

types has the gunwales brought round in a full curve at the ends of the

boat. In the East the umiaks have rather upright bows and sterns and

the gunwales are often rather wide apart to form square ends to the

hull. Some of the western umiaks were navigated with paddles only; with

others, before the appearance of the Russians in the area, both oar and

sail may have been used. In the East the umiaks were being paddled,

rowed, and sailed when white men reached the Arctic in the 17th century.

 

The Greenland umiak frame is much heavier and more rigid than the

Alaskan. In comparing eastern and western umiaks the frame of the

eastern umiak seems to be somewhat better finished, but the models

of the western umiak are undoubtedly the better. The eastern umiak

is not intended for use in hunting but is primarily a cargo carrier;

its use has been confined to women and its chief employment is moving

the family and household effects from one hunting ground to another.

While it is highly probable that this condition is the result of the

disappearance of whaling in this region, the use of the umiak as a

hunting boat ceased so long ago that the eastern umiak model may have

degenerated to a great degree. It has been otherwise in the western

Arctic where the use of the umiak in hunting has continued and the

boats have been managed, to a very great extent, by the men. As a

result, the boats are held in greater respect by their builders and

the better models have survived. The tribal distinctions between the

western umiaks are therefore more marked than in the east; including

Siberia, at least three basic models and a very large variety of tribal

variations, are to be found, as can be proved by existing models. In

the east only two basic and distinct umiak models are known to have

existed, the Baffin Island type used on both the north side and on the

Labrador side of Hudson Strait, and the Greenland type. In the latter,

there were slight tribal distinctions it is true, but these were minor.

 

The Asiatic umiaks may be classed into two types, the Koryak type of

Eastern Siberia and the Chukchi model of the Siberian side of Bering

Strait. The Koryak umiaks illustrated by Jochelson show a highly

developed boat, rather lightly framed compared to boats on the American

side. In profile the bow has a long raking curve and the stern much

less; as a result the bottom is rather short compared to the length

over the gunwales. Viewed in plan, the gunwales are rounded in at bow

and stern to form almost a semicircle. At the bow the gunwales are bent

around a horizontal headboard tenoned over the stem head but at the

stern there is no headboard. The sheer is moderate and very graceful.

The flare of the sides is great and there appears to be a little ~V~

in the bottom transversely. There is also a slight fore-and-aft rocker

in the bottom. The construction is similar to that of the Alaskan

umiaks except that the Koryak umiaks have double-chine stringers and

also a double riser, or longitudinal stringer, halfway up the sides.

The riser is not backed with a continuous stringer, as is the chine;

instead three short rods are lashed inside the side frame members. The

side stringers do not reach bow and stern. The four thwarts are located

well aft, and between the first and second thwarts is a larger space

than between the others, for cargo. The boats are rowed, two oarsmen

to a thwart. The cover was formerly walrus hides split and scraped

thin but more recently the skin of the bearded seal has come into use.

A rectangular sail of deer skin is sometimes lashed to a yard and set

on a tripod mast about amidships. Two legs of the mast are secured to

the gunwale on one side, the remaining leg is lashed to the opposite

gunwale. Judging by the drawing made by Jochelson[3] this umiak is

perhaps the most graceful of all those known today.

 

[3] Reproduced in JAMES HORNELL, _Water Transport_ (Cambridge:

University Press, 1946), p. 160.

 

[Illustration: Figure 166

 

UMIAK COVERED WITH SPLIT WALRUS HIDE, Cape Prince of Wales, Alaska. The

framework can be seen through the translucent hide cover. (_Photo by

Henry B. Collins._)]

 

The Asiatic Chukchi umiak is somewhat similar to that used on the

American coast but with less beam in proportion to its length and less

flare to the sides. The skin cover is of bearded seal. Bogoras measured

an example and found her 35 feet 9 inches long, 4 feet 6 inches wide

amidships, 2 feet 6 inches wide on the bottom over the chines. (An

Alaskan umiak measured 34 feet 9 inches long, 8 feet 2 inches wide at

gunwales and 2 feet 8 inches over the chines.) The Chukchi also use a

very small hunting umiak, 15 to 18 feet long and having two or three

thwarts, much like the small hunting umiaks once used in the Aleutians.

The larger Chukchi umiaks have rectangular sails set on a pole mast;

some boats carry a square topsail. The sails are lashed to their yards

and the lower sail, or "course," is controlled by sheets and braces.

The topsail, when used, has braces only. The sails were formerly of

reindeer skins, but now drill is used. These umiaks were formerly

paddled, as indicated by their narrow beam, but since the advent of the

white man oars have come into use, and it is quite certain that the

topsail also is the result of white man's influence, if not the whole

rig.

 

In stormy weather some of these umiaks and also some of those in

Alaska employ weather cloths, 18 or 20 inches high above the gunwales,

raised on short stanchions lashed to the hull frames. The ends of the

stanchions are inserted in slits in the top of the weather cloth, and

in fair weather the cloths are folded down inside the gunwale out of

the way. Also in some of these Asiatic and Alaskan umiaks, inflated

floats, of seal skin, are lashed to the gunwales to prevent capsizing

in a heavy sea.

 

The Alaskan umiaks varied much in size but are rather similar in form.

The small hunting umiaks used by the Aleuts are about 18 feet long,

while the large cargo carrying umiaks range up to about 40 feet long,

so far as available records show. They are marked by heavily flared

sides and often have a rather strong sheer; a few, however, are rather

straight on the gunwales. Nearly all existing models and boats were

built since 1880; and no information is now available on the forms and

dimensions of earlier craft.

 

On page 184 is a drawing of a small umiak, used in walrus hunting, from

the Alaskan coast in the neighborhood of the Aleutians. In the U.S.

National Museum are the remains of a similar boat obtained in 1888 from

Northern Alaska. This type of small umiak is also employed in fishing

and is rather widely used as a passage boat for short voyages along

shore. These craft, propelled by paddles, are primarily fast, handy

hunting canoes rather than boats for migration or cargo-carrying. For

this reason they are quite sharp-ended and shallow. The construction of

this example will serve to illustrate the methods common to this type.

 

The umiak shown is 20 feet 8½ inches over the headboards, 4 feet 9½

inches extreme beam and 17⅜ inches depth--apparently an average-sized

boat of her class. The width of the bottom over the chine members

is 2 feet 7 inches. The keelson is rectangular in section and in two

pieces, hooked-scarphed together; each piece is shaped out of the

trunk of a small tree with the root knees employed to form the bow and

stern posts. The floor timbers are quite heavy and support the chine

members by having the floor ends tenoned into the chine pieces. At bow

and stern the chines are joined to the keelson in a notched scarph; at

these places the keelson is sided rather wide to give good bearing. It

is evident that this portion of the boat's structure is the first built

and forms a rigid bottom to the hull. The floor timbers are lashed to

the keelson by lacings of sinew, whalebone, or hide, passed through

holes bored in both, as indicated in the plan. The ends of the floors

are pegged where they tenon into the chines and the ends of the chines

are pegged to the keelson, but this was evidently not a universal

practice, as there are models showing lashings at floor ends and at

chine ends. The headboards are carved out of blocks in a ~T~-shape and

are stepped on top of the stem and stern posts and lashed. The fit is

extremely accurate. The bow headboard is narrower athwartship than the

stern headboard. The detail of the hook scarph in the drawing shows a

method of lashing that is widely used.

 

[Illustration: Figure 167

 

SMALL UMIAK FOR WALRUS HUNTING, west coast of Alaska, 1888-89.

Reconstructed from damaged umiak formerly in U.S. National Museum, and

from models.]

 

Because of the manner in which the keelson is cambered and the floor

fitted, the bottom of the covered hull shows in cross section a slight

~V~, reducing toward the bow and stern, that is typical of the Alaskan

umiak. The amount of deadrise seems to have been determined by the

manner of fitting the floor timbers and it helps the boat to run

straight under paddle and oars. In present day umiaks the amount of

~V~ in the bottom is slight; too much would make the boat difficult to

sledge overland without employing chocks to steady the hull. Perhaps in

the past, where sledging was not required, the deadrise was greater, as

indicated by some old models.

 

After the chines and floor are fitted to the keelson, the frames at

the thwarts are made and set up at the desired flare and height, being

held in place by temporary spreaders lashed or braced. These are

sometimes stiffened by thongs from frame head to keelson at each pair,

to steady the frame while the gunwale is being bent. As the lengths of

the thwarts are controlled by the fairing of the gunwales, the thwarts

are not fitted until after the latter are in place. As shown in the

figure above, the gunwales are round poles, slightly flattened on the

lower side at the headboards, where they are secured by lashings. In

building, the gunwales are shaped and secured by lashing them to those

side frames selected to shape the hull. The lashings that secure the

side frames to both gunwale and chine are passed through holes in each

member and are hove taut by means of a short lever with a hole bored

in it to take the end of the lashing, which is also wrapped around the

lever to give temporary purchase. The side frames have saddle notches

to bear on the chine and gunwale. All lashings in the frame, it will be

noted, pass through holes bored in the members and in some cases the

lashings are let in, so that the sinew is flush with the surfaces of

the members, to prevent the lashing from being damaged by chafing.

 

[Illustration: Figure 168

 

UMIAKS NEAR CAPE PRINCE OF WALES, ALASKA, showing walrus-hide cover

and lacing. Frame lashings are walrus-hide thongs. (_Photo by Henry B.

Collins._)]

 

With the gunwales faired, the remaining frames are then put in position

and lashed to the gunwales and chines. An outside batten is run along

each side and lashed by turns of sinew over the batten and around the

side frames, with the lashings let into each member to prevent slipping

and chafing. The batten is lashed at bow and stern in some umiaks, but

in many it is stopped just short of coming home on the posts. Next, the

short frames at bow and stern are put in place and the risers secured

inside the side frames, then, with the thwarts fitted and lashed to

the risers, and the ends of the gunwales are lashed together at bow

and stern, the boat is ready to be covered. When ready to cover, the

frame is stiffened by diagonal thong ties, each of which has one end

secured by turns around the gunwale, with the other end passed through

holes in the keelson and secured. These are commonly found in western

umiaks; the small umiak has but one pair placed amidships. The timber

used in such craft is fir, spruce, and willow, and is usually driftwood obtained at river-mouth.