“The bending willow into barks they twine,
Then line the work with spoils of slaughtered kine.
…
On such to neighbouring Gaul, allured by gain,
The bolder Britons cross the swelling main.”
Pliny says:—“Even now, in the British channel, they (the boats) are made of osiers, covered with hides sewn together.” Solinus, describing the rough sea between Britain and Ireland, says that the natives “sail in ships made of osiers, which they surround with a covering of hides.” Adamnan, in his life of St. Columba, refers to a voyage made in a curach by St. Cormac. The curach is said to be still in use on the Severn,[77] and on some parts of the coast of Ireland, in shape and build similar to those of thousands of years ago; at the same time it may be affirmed that few persons of the present generation could declare they have seen the true curach, that term having been now transferred to boats covered with coarse tarred canvas, and which differ widely both in form and method of construction from their ancient prototype. The curach seen by W. F. Wakeman in use on the river Boyne so late as the year 1848 is thus described by him:—A regular frame of willow ribs, generally laid in pairs, and extending along the sides and floor, formed the skeleton of the future boat, which was in the form of the bowl of a spoon, a little broader towards one end than the other; about eight feet in length, but very nearly circular. The extremities of the ribs for a depth of about eighteen inches from what would now be called the gunwale, were set in a very thick, strong, and closely-woven band of wicker-work, above which the ends of the rods slightly projected. Midships was a thwart of ash or oak pierced with four holes, two near either end, through which were rove thongs, composed of twisted osiers connecting the seat, or thwart, with various portions of the above mentioned band, so as to bind the work together. The frame was then covered over on the outside with skin, untanned, of the horse or cow; and the result was the completion of a boat well adapted for the requirements of fishermen.[78] The raw hide of a newly slain animal, properly extended presented a ready means of constructing a boat, and became to the early inhabitants of the British Islands what the birch-tree bark is to the American Indian. In the sculptures from Nineveh a similar use of the hide is observed, as a means of crossing rivers, but the application is less ingenious, being merely a skin inflated with air like what is called on some parts of the Irish coast a “stookey,” and with which, not unfrequently, fishermen, so late as the year 1860, floated their nets and lines; the skin of a dog or any other animal served the purpose.[79]
Plate V.
Curach, as used on the Boyne, 1848.