The Double Outrigger

Although there is no evidence to show that the double outrigger, one on each side of the vessel, was ever used in New Zealand waters, yet the Maori appears to know it traditionally. In the account of the migration by sea from the fatherland of the race, in times long passed away, is some curious information concerning the pre-parations made when a storm was approaching. In this narrative occurs the following: "Katahi ka kokiri i nga korewa o te whaka ki waho" ('Then the outriggers of the canoe were thrust out"). Here the plural form is distinctly used, and also the outrigger is mentioned as having been attached at sea, on the approach of rough weather. This would mean that the vessels were not very narrow craft, but of sufficient beam to enable them to be used without an outrigger in calm weather. The account goes on to say that the hokai (booms or spars connecting the outrigger with the canoe) and the huapae were then lashed on, the latter being poles arranged on the booms parallel to the canoe, and lashed to the booms. Reference to the double outrigger is also noted in the traditionary account of the "Takitumu" canoe.

In his paper on the canoes of the Torres Strait area Professor Haddon gives some account of double outrigger canoes, as also several illustrations. This type is shown to have been used among the isles of Torres Strait and also on the Queensland coast—indeed, they appear to be still in use. The illustrations show two modes of attaching the booms to the canoe. In one method they are secured on the top of the sides of the vessel; in the other they are passed through holes in the upper parts of the sides. "Canoes with a double or single outrigger are confined to the Indo-Pacific area. .. In Africa they are confined to the east coast from Zanzibar to Mom-basa … they occur also in South India, the Maldives, and Ceylon. They are found all over Indonesia and Oceania, and in North Queensland…. The double outrigger with two booms occurs in East Africa." This writer also notes the double outrigger in Indonesia, but states that "The double outrigger is at present almost entirely absent from Oceania except in the Nissan Islands." (The term "Oceania" presumably is applied to Micronesia, Polynesia, and Melanesia, or a part of the latter.) (See fig. 5, p. 40.)

To again quote Professor Haddon: "Dr. G. Brown states that the beautiful carvel-built sailing-canoes of the Samoan Islands had an outrigger on both sides. Frederici also says that the double out-rigger no doubt occurred in the Marquesas at the time of the Mendana expedition. L. Choris figures a canoe from Easter Island with a double outrigger."

We thus see the double outrigger located in Polynesia, Torres Strait, Queensland, Indonesia, and the east coast of Africa. Further evidence is, however, desirable concerning its use within the Poly-nesian area.

The above writer remarks that in some places the double outrigger has been abandoned for the single, and that where the outrigger is not used in Indonesia such craft have been replaced by plank-built boats that need no such attachment.

It appears probable that the double outrigger originated in Indonesia or southern India.

An illustration of a north Queensland single-outrigger canoe taken from Roth shows sixteen booms arranged in pairs. The vessel is a very rude-looking craft as compared with the Maori sea-going canoe.

Most of the illustrations show the float to be attached to the booms by means of short sticks. The direct attachment of the float to the end of the boom is noted in the Nissan Isles and Easter Island.

H. Hamilton, photo

The East Indian sama as a name for the float seems to be the Maori ama (an outrigger); Tonga, hama (an outrigger); Rotuma, sama (an outrigger).

On the Australian coast the outrigger was used in the north only, hence it seems probable that it was derived from the islands to the northward.

The word korewa, used as a name for the outrigger by the Takitumu folk of the east coast of the North Island of New Zealand, is evidently related to korewa (drifting about, adrift), to karewa (a buoy), and to rewa (to float). The better-known Maori term ama (outrigger) is widely distributed throughout the Pacific. It is applied to the outrigger at Samoa, Tahiti, the Marquesas and Paumotu page 41Isles, at Mangareva and Futuna. At Tonga it becomes harna, at Rotu-ma sama, at Fiji thama. At Rarotonga the smaller vessel of a double canoe was styled the ama, and the larger one the katea. In New Zealand we have also the form amatiatia, and this denotes the "peg-ged ama," an allusion to the method of attaching the float to the booms. The short intermediates were the tia, and this word was also employed as a verb, hence the expression "Ka kawea te waka ki te moana tiatia ai," as met with in the story of Rata.

Colenso gives three applications of the term ama—"1, outrigger; 2, the platform on a double canoe; 3, the covered fore part of a canoe." But then he also has ahikuku and ahipaipa in his entertaining but somewhat abruptly ending lexicon!

Professor Tylor has told us that the outrigger was used in ancient Europe, but within historic times the west coast of India seems to have marked its western range limit in northern latitudes. It has been said that natives of Uganda employ the outrigger on Lake Victoria Nyanza: this may need corroboration.

A tradition collected by Mr. John White contains the following: "Hine-tu-a-hoanga was the chief of a great tribe at Hawaiki, and this tribe was numerous, and possessed many outrigger canoes by which they could sail on the ocean to the islands of the Hawaikian sea."

The following account of an old canoe found in the South Island is of much interest, for it describes what is probably the lone sur-vivor of the old-time outrigger canoes of New Zealand:—

The Henley Canoe.—This is one of the most interesting objects in the Dominion Museum collection, on account of its peculiar form and its undoubted age, it being a relic of the stone-age culture of the Maori people. The canoe is 22 ft. 10 in. in length, and carries a width of 16 in. practically throughout—that is, to within a short distance of the ends, the same being an unusual feature. It would be classed as a tiwai, or river-canoe, owing to its small size and lack of top-strakes. From the situation in which it was found it is evident that it was used for fishing in the shallow waters of Waipori and Waihola Lakes, and the swamps and streams about there. It is a very singular fact that the widest part of the hull is not at the top, not the distance between the two gunwales, but at a point much lower down. The angles from which the sides tumble in are quite sharply defined, and are about midway down the sides. One side is much broken away, but the other, though of irregular outline, is apparently as it was when the craft was in use; a portion of the gunwale certainly page 42

H. Hamilton, photo

presents a dressed surface. The abnormal feature of the cross-section continues throughout the length of the vessel, and is one that is otherwise unknown in connection with Maori forms. [See fig. 8, p. 43.] Considering the position in which the canoe was found, we may assume that its age might well be represented by centuries, knowing as we do that such rude forms have been discovered beneath the surface in lands that have long supported an advanced civilization. The bottom of the vessel is neither rounded nor yet sharp, but presents a flattened surface about 3 in. wide. Depth of hold in middle of vessel, 16 in. On the side that appears intact, or nearly so, two holes, 3 in. apart, pierce the upper part near the middle. Towards one end of the same side appear two single holes, far apart; towards the other end are three single holes, also far apart, These may have been connected with the securing of thwarts, or an outrigger. These holes have not been bored, but have been chipped or chiselled out roughly with a small stone tool, the work having been done from both sides. The holes are most ragged and unsightly—very different in appearance to those made with a stone pointed drill. The bite of the tools used is clearly seen in many of these holes, as also on the inner surfaces of the canoe. The log was a knotty one, and difficult to work in some parts on that account; some extra-hard knot cores have been left projecting, as being too hard to be reduced by the stone tools employed. The marks of the tools em-ployed, however, show clearly that such stone implements were serviceable in hewing solid timber, and that their use was by no means confined to the chipping-off of fire-charred surfaces. Some of the cuts are broad and bold as if the adze had been used with a swing. In some places the adzing has been done across the grain, in the usual way, but the bottom part of the interior has been dressed with the grain, the narrowness of the hold being responsible for this change.

It seems probable that the sides of this vessel became warped, or con-tracted, after its extraction from the swamp. Possibly also in attaching the iron brace-bands that hold it together the sides were drawn in too much, for the narrowness of the hull across the top is remarkable. Thus, page 43in the half of the canoe having its two sides fairly well intact, the width from the top of one side to that of the other is but 10 in. at one place and 13 in. the rest of the way. Unless it was wider than this originally it is difficult to imagine how the inner sides of the hull can have been hewn across the grain, as they assuredly have been. The inward-trending upper part of the sides shows a flat exterior surface, 10 in. to 12 in. wide, from the sharply defined longitudinal ridge, below which the sides curve down-ward to the flat keel; at both ends this flat keel, of about 3 in. in width, merges in a sharp cutwater.

Apart from later fractures and splitting, there are three old cracks of somewhat formidable dimensions, and which have been patched-sewn, as it were, by the old-time owners of the vessel. All that remains of such work is seen in the rows of roughly chiselled holes, one row on either side of each split. These holes are pierced right through the hull to the outside, as is done in securing a top-strake, and the lashings that passed through them probably gripped and confined two battens placed so as to cover the split, or possibly only one in the inside. There is no evidence to show that the lashings were countersunk on the outer side of the hull, as was done by the more modern Maori.

The canoe, carrying, as it does, practically the same width throughout, except at its extremities, and being narrow withal, conveys the impression that it must necessarily have been crank and liable to capsize, unless page 44indeed it was provided with an outrigger, or formed part of a double canoe, or was very much ballasted. (Very light canoes were suitable for the lower Taieri district, where flat-bottomed punts are used now.)

The singular form of this canoe endows it with much interest, for it is certainly unique, a type that is unknown to us. As to its age, that might be represented by one century or ten, when we consider the conditions under which it has been preserved. It reminds one of certain extremely narrow outrigger canoes of Melanesia, in which the hold is so narrow that an occupant has to place one foot in front of the other. (See fig. 9.)

Some of the caulking-material extracted from the holes in the hull apparently consists of grass and raupo.

Beattie, photo

The exhibit is marked as an "Ancient canoe from Otago. Fragments of an old canoe of peculiar shape, dug out of swampy ground at Henley, on the Taieri, in Otago…. Another canoe was found near by, but this soon perished, being constructed of different wood…. The timber looks like totara.

[The canoe was rescued by Mr. John Stephenson, one of the oldest residents in the Taieri Plain, when digging a ditch in the Henley Estate, of which he was manager, probably about 1895. Several small objects of wood were found with it, but these perished. The Henley Estate is reclaimed swamp on which extensive drainage-works have been executed, out of which numerous ancient implements and other objects have been dug. The canoe was found beneath the surface entirely buried under ages of accumulated silt. A glance at the plain from the neighbouring hills shows that it is largely self-reclaimed; that this process has been going on for ages; that the two lakes are mere pools remaining after the silting-up of a large area. The special interest of this canoe lies in this fact: it must have taken an immense time to bury it up by the slow process of silting up. It is an excellent example of undoubted neolithic work, showing (a) the vigorous cuts made by a stone adze properly wielded, (b) the extreme difficulty of dealing with a knot, (c) the absolute inefficiency of the tools of the period page 45in dealing with holes as compared with the clean work of the greenstone drill. These indications seem to me to point to the conclusion that the canoe belonged to the Waitaha, or some other very early occupants of the district. The smallness of the sinkers found in undoubted Waitaha refuse-heaps convinced me long ago that they were not a seafaring people, and I should expect to find them using small river-canoes. When I first knew that district there were still to be seen in the Taieri River small fishing-canoes, one of which I think is in the Otago Museum; the type is very different from this.]

The matter given in brackets was contributed by Sir Frederick Chapman, the former owner of this canoe. The Waitaha folk alluded to were early occupants of the South Island. Although, as observed above, several knots have been left protruding, yet others have been reduced by adzing, one yet showing clean cuts. The bottom part of the interior has evidently been adzed with the grain, but the sides of the interior have certainly been dressed downwards—i.e., across the grain at the narrower parts. Possibly the tree was a hollow one, which might account for the peculiar form of the interior of the canoe.

Illustrations of a canoe of Vanikoro (Queen Charlotte Islands, north of New Hebrides) show a cross-section of hull much resembling that of the above-described craft. The hold resembles a long, narrow slit, so pronounced is the inward trend of the sides of the hull. The bottom is much rounded, and the vessel would be useless without an outrigger. This is shown in D'Urville's plates, who terms the craft a "small pirogue." The cross-section of a canoe of the New Hebrides shown in Edge Partington's Ethnographic Album cf the Pacific also shows a marked resemblance to the Henley canoe. It is singular that this Melanesian form is the nearest known approach to the disinterred South Island canoe that we have described. It seems highly improbable that the latter vessel would be of any service without an outrigger, so crank is it, and the holes pierced through the upper part of the sides may have been for the purpose of securing the booms. A top-strake would be superfluous with the inward-trending sides of the canoe.

An illustration of small outrigger canoes of the New Hebrides in The Savage South Seas (p. 66) shows two rude narrow dugouts much resembling the Henley canoe described above. In these craft the hold is too narrow to admit a man's body, hence the paddlers are sitting upon short planks laid across the dugout. The rough boom poles are lashed to both gunwales. The upper parts of the sides show the same inward trend seen in the Henley canoe. In both these forms more of the log utilized than in the making of the Maori dugout hull. In the Henley type the upper part of the log, page 46above the centre, was hollowed out and formed part of the dugout, but little being lost in the preliminary flattening process; whereas in the Maori type nearly half the log must have been chipped off and discarded in that process.