Warships and their story

by R. A. Fletcher

DIAGRAM OF SHORTLAND ISLAND CANOE.

a, The keel. c, The timbers. d, The small, solid, wedge-shaped timber in bow, with ornament.

By permission of C. M. Woodford, Esq.. F.R.G.S., and the Royal Anthropological Institute of
Great Britain and Ireland.

WAR CANOE, TESTE ISLAND, NEW GUINEA.

From Photograph supplied by the Hon. J. E. Jenkins.

Unquestionably the most remarkable canoes to be found in the Pacific were those made in the Solomon Islands. Though destitute of metal tools, the islanders yet managed to design them with mathematical accuracy, to construct them to scale and in accordance with the designs, and to put them together with skill and precision. Such canoes were made by the Solomon Islanders as long ago as the sixteenth century, for de Mendaña, who visited the islands in 1568, has left a description of them. The canoes, he says, were constructed of planks, well made and light, and were crescent-shaped and capable of holding about thirty persons. Later explorers have recorded that the hull was formed of a dug-out, and that topsides were added. This type of canoe appears to be peculiar to the Melanesian inhabitants of the British Solomons.[11] For neatness and accuracy the Shortland Island canoes come first, but “for beauty of line and exterior decorations the large tomako or head-hunting canoe of the New Georgia group unquestionably excels.” The built canoes were cut with the aid only of stone implements, but now the natives use the plane iron, fitting it into the handle formerly used for the stone implement. In many canoes a central ridge is left along each plank to strengthen it, and a projecting boss is left at the places where the planks and timbers join. The timbers, or ribs, etc., are either naturally grown or shaped from the solid. The planks are properly seasoned in the building sheds, and when the canoe is being put together the various parts are accurately fitted and tied with strips of fibre through the holes in the bosses. The seams are caulked with a vegetable putty made from scraped nut kernel, which hardens in a few days. The canoes consist of garboard strakes, second, third, fourth, fifth, and gunwale strakes, stem and stern pieces, and the timbers or ribs. The last fine specimen of the head-hunting canoe of the New Georgia group was 44 feet over all, 4 feet 8 inches beam, and 2 feet 4 inches deep. The height of the bow, in addition, was 9 feet 7 inches, and that of the stern 10 feet 9 inches. All the Solomon Islands canoes are ornamented with shells. A white-painted arm on the side of the vessel has a sinister interpretation. It indicates that heads have been taken; if the arm points to the bows the victims were males; and if to the stern the collection taken up was of female heads. Both stem and stern-boards had human faces carved upon them, the idea being that the faces kept a good look-out in every direction. This was, no doubt, a pleasing fiction or a superstition; the natives placed more reliance upon their keenness of hearing and vision than upon the vigilance of the wooden faces to detect the approach of an enemy.

The Malay influence has been shown not only in the building of outrigger canoes, but in the popularity of piracy among the natives of the East Indies. Probably the Malays have been pirates ever since there has been commerce in those waters upon which to prey. It is certain that the earliest European vessels to wander into the distant Orient found the industry established, active, and prosperous. Steam navigation, improved firearms, and the electric telegraph have done much to curb the propensities of these merciless marauders, and the influence of noble men like Rajah Brooke of Sarawak has been of equal value. But they found it a hard lesson to learn that commerce must be respected and commercial vessels let alone; it was gradually accepted as inevitable that piratical exploits would be followed by the visit of a European gunboat which would blow every Malay proa and pirate to pieces at the first opportunity. This idiosyncrasy of the Western world had to be observed, but the pirate does not take kindly to the uninterrupted ways of peace, and whenever he can he indulges in his hereditary calling, though his victims may be only small native trading boats and junks.

HEAD-HUNTING CANOE FROM YSABEL.