The Bark Canoes and Skin Boats of North America 49

The Bark Canoes and Skin Boats of North America 49

The ends of the gunwales of the Baffin Island umiak are cut off a

little inside the forward edges of the headboards, making this the

only American type that does not have projecting gunwales at bow and

stern. The projection of the gunwales undoubtedly serve a practical

purpose in lifting the boat out of water, but obviously this is of

minor importance. Probably the real reason for these projections is

that they originally made building easier by providing space for a

retaining lashing when the gunwales were being bent. As the headboards

became wider and the spring of the gunwales, in plain view, became

less acute, less strain was put on the lashings of the gunwales at the

headboards, but by then the projecting gunwales and their retaining

lashings were being utilized in lashing on the skin covering at bow and

stern. Thus, beginning as a practical solution of a building problem,

the projecting gunwales may have eventually become a traditional tribal

feature of the umiak in many localities.

 

The drawing of an eastern Greenland umiak on page 189 was made from

measurements taken off during World War II and checked against

dimensions, photos, and descriptions of boats from the same territory.

In general design and in construction this umiak differs little from

umiaks of the southwest coast of the same island. The eastern Greenland

boats are, on the average, much smaller than those on the southwest

coast due to the more severe ice conditions met in the east. Some of

the Greenland umiaks have flat bottoms like the Baffin Island boats,

but the ~V~-bottom appears to be more common. The chief characteristics

of the Greenland umiaks are the slight rake in the bow and stern, the

moderate sheer and camber, and the conservative flare of the sides.

The drawing shows the important structural details seen in most of the

Greenland umiaks. The floor timbers are on edge instead of on the flat

as in Alaskan boats and this seems to be characteristic of all eastern

umiak construction, as is the arching of the underside of the floors.

Another common structural detail is the passing of the risers through

the side frames; in some, however, the risers lie in deep notches

fashioned in the inside of the frames. The eastern Greenland umiaks

generally have rather wide headboards and somewhat more projection

to the gunwales. Like the Baffin Island umiaks, the side battens and

risers of the Greenland boats are cut short of the posts, but the ends

of these members are commonly supported by frames placed very far fore

and aft, and often these frames form brace-supports to the headboard,

as in the drawing. The headboards of these umiaks are always tenoned

over the top of the posts. Some of the Greenland umiaks have curved

side frames which cause the side battens to form knuckles in the skin

cover. The eastern Greenland umiaks rarely if ever carry sail, but this

is common on the western and southwestern coasts, where a square-sail

on a yard is popular, with the mast usually well forward. Hans Egede in

1729[6] found Greenland umiaks fitted with sails of seal intestines and

also saw boats about 10 fathoms (60 feet) long; another early writer,

Crantz[6] states that umiaks were commonly 36, 48, and even 54 feet

long. In the larger umiaks two side battens were employed. The thongs

and brace-frames seen in many Alaskan umiaks do not seem to have been

used in eastern waters, the use of bracing-frames from stem or stern

post to the gunwales probably serving the purpose, but it is noticeable

that pictures of Greenland umiaks preserved in some European museums

show that the hulls have a tendency to twist not seen in Alaskan

boats. The old Greenland umiaks were built with lashed joints combined

with pegging, or treenailing. In recent times the use of pegging has

increased and iron fastenings are now quite common. Rigid fastenings

of the peg and metal types are used only in scarphs and in securing

the chines and keelson to the floors timbers, as in the modern Alaskan

umiaks.

 

[6] See bibliography.

 

 

_The Kayak_

 

The Eskimo hunting boat, the kayak, is more widely employed in the

Arctic than the umiak, and its variations in model, construction, and

appearance are more distinct and numerous. The kayak is a long, usually

narrow, decked canoe and is commonly very well finished. In Alaska a

few undecked skin-covered canoes, used in rivers, are built on kayak

proportions, but the model of these is quite different from that of the

Alaskan sea-kayaks; the river canoes are ~V~ or flat bottomed, much

like the Greenland kayaks. A similar kayak-type canoe, flat bottomed

but birch-bark covered, is used by the Yukon Indians. Undoubtedly a

number of such types once existed but most of these became extinct

before any attempt was made to preserve models or canoes in museums.

 

Few Eskimo tribes are without kayaks, only those living inland or where

the sea is rarely open are unacquainted with these hunting craft. In

very recent times some tribes have ceased to use kayaks, employing

purchased canoes instead. The kayaks of the Asiatic Eskimos, and those

from the Mackenzie to Hudson Bay, are now crudely built and of inferior

design. Both the Greenland and the Alaskan kayaks are highly developed.

The Greenland kayaks are undoubtedly given more intricate equipment in

the way of weapons and accessories than the Alaskan craft, but it would

be difficult to decide which is superior in construction and design.

 

[Illustration: Figure 174

 

FRAME OF KAYAK, Nunivak Island, Alaska, with young owner beneath.

(_Photo by Henry B. Collins._)]

 

The basic models used in Eskimo kayaks are the multi-chine, the

~V~-bottom and the flat bottom. The multi-chine models, except for the

river kayak-canoe just mentioned, which probably should be classed as

a true open canoe rather than a kayak, are employed throughout Alaskan

waters. The geographic boundaries of each basic hull form are rather

ill-defined. The multi-chine kayak appears as far eastward as the

northwest coast of Hudson's Bay. In this area, however, a ~V~-bottom

kayak, now extinct, seems to have been in use on Southampton Island.

A flat-bottom kayak, with the chines snied off much like a Japanese

sampan, is in use in Hudson Strait, along the shores of Baffin Island

and Labrador; a flat-bottom kayak shaped like a sharpie is used on

the northwest coast of northern Greenland; and a ~V~-bottom hull is

employed on the eastern, southwest, and south coasts of Greenland.

 

+-----------------------------------------------------------------+

| |

| According to the Danish classification of the coasts of |

| Greenland, "Polar" is north of Cape York, "Northern" is above |

| Disko Island, "Central" is from Frederikshaab to north of |

| Disko Bay, "Southern" is from Julianhaab to Cape Farvell, and |

| "East" is Angmagsalik and vicinity. |

| |

+-----------------------------------------------------------------+

 

There are variations in each of the basic models, of course, as the

tribal designs used vary a good deal. On the whole, the kayak is very

carefully built to meet the local conditions of hunting, sea, and

land or ice portaging. As a result, some types are far more seaworthy

than others and the weight of hull varies a great deal, even within

a basic model. The appearance of all the kayaks models, by tribal

classifications, show the influence of tradition and, in many cases

display, in either shape or decoration, a tribal totem or mark.

 

The basic requirements in nearly all kayaks are the same; to paddle

rapidly and easily, to work against strong wind and tide or heavy head

sea, to be maneuverable, and to be light enough to be readily lifted

from the water and carried. The low freeboard required makes decking

a necessity. In general, the kayak is designed to carry one paddler,

but in Alaska are kayaks that can carry two or three paddlers, each in

a manhole or cockpit, or a paddler and one or two passengers. It is

generally conceded that the kayak built to carry three in this fashion

is the result of Russian influence. Nunivak Island kayaks had large

manholes that carried two people back-to-back. Where it is desirable

to portage the kayak over ice or land for a great distance the boat

is very light and is capable of being carried like a large basket, by

inserting one arm under the decking at the manhole or cockpit, but

where such a requirement is not an important factor, the kayaks are

often rather large and heavy. In the majority of types, the degree of

seaworthiness obtained is very great. Some types are built very narrow

and sharp-ended; these usually require a skillful paddler. Others are

wide and more stable, requiring less skill to use. In areas where

severe weather is commonly met, the kayaks are usually very strong and

well-designed. Where ice or other conditions do not allow a heavy sea

to make up, the kayaks are often light, narrow and very low sided--more

like racing shells than working canoes. Most Alaskan kayaks come stern

to the wind when paddling stops, but most of the eastern craft come

head to the wind. Nearly every type has been developed by long periods

of trial and error, to produce the greatest efficiency in meeting the

conditions of use in a given locality. This has made the kayak a more

complicated and more developed instrument of the chase than is to be

found in any other form of hunting canoe, due in part, perhaps, to the

great craftsmanship of the Eskimo.

 

The construction of the kayak follows a basic plan. In all kayaks the

gunwales are the main strength members, longitudinally. A few designs

employ, in addition, a stiff keel member, but most have rather slender

and light longitudinal batten systems having little longitudinal

strength value, but which in combination with very light frames, give

transverse support to the skin cover. Even in the flat-bottom models,

the kayaks, unlike the umiaks, depend entirely upon the gunwales for

longitudinal strength. The frames are bent and in one piece from

gunwale to gunwale in all but a few flat-bottom kayaks, of the sampan

cross section; these employ bent frames. The longitudinal batten

systems show great variety. The eastern kayaks of the flat-bottom and

V-bottom models have three longitudinal battens (including the keel

or keelson) in addition to the heavy and often deep gunwale members;

these are supported at bow and stern either by stem and stern post

of shaped plank on edge as in the Greenland ~V~-bottom kayaks, or

by light extensions of the keelson and small end-blocks as in the

northern Greenland, Baffin Island, and Labrador types. The multi-chine

types of the western Arctic have from seven to eleven longitudinals

(including the keelson) in addition to the gunwales. In some of these

kayaks there are no stem and stern posts, the battens and keelson

coming together at a blunt point in small head blocks; but many types

have rather intricate stem-pieces, carved from blocks of wood, and

plank-on-edge stern posts. The Asiatic kayaks, curiously enough,

exhibit the construction of both eastern and western Arctic kayaks,

the crude, small Koryak kayak having a 3-batten ~V~-bottom, while the

Chukchi kayak is built like the kayaks on the east side of the Bering

Strait. The decking of kayaks is of very light construction; usually

there are two heavy thwarts to support the manhole and from one to

three light thwarts afore and abaft these. The Alaskan kayaks from

Kotzebue Sound southward have ridged decks supported by fore-and-aft

ridge-battens from the ends of the hull to the manhole. Elsewhere the

deck of the kayak is flat athwartship except at the manhole, where

there is some crown or ridging to increase the depth inside the boat,

particularly forward of the manhole. In the majority of these kayaks

short fore-and-aft battens are laid on the thwarts forward of the

manhole to support the skin cover in its sweep upward to the manhole.

The transverse frames do not come into contact with the skin cover,

to avoid transverse ridges being formed in it; and the longitudinal

battens which support the skin cover form longitudinal ridges, or chines, in it.