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.
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.
Figure 169
Umiak, West Coast of Alaska, King Island, 1886. Taken off umiak at Mariner's Museum.
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.