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.
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.