Canoes of Marquesas Group

In the account of Mendana's voyage is the following brief note on canoes of the Marquesas, as seen in 1595: "The natives of the Marquesas had large sailing-canoes neatly constructed: a single tree formed the keel, prow, and stern, to which the planks were strongly fastened, and likewise to each other, with cords made from the coconut rind. One of the canoes had between thirty and forty rowers. The tools with which the natives wrought were made of shells and the bones of fishes."

When Mendana's vessels neared the coast of Magdalena Island, of the above group, about seventy canoes put off to inspect the ships. These canoes contained from three to ten persons each.

Forster makes few remarks on the canoes of the Marquesas. Of fifteen seen near the ship he writes: "Some were double, and contained fifteen men; others, on the contrary, were small, and had from three to seven men…. Their canoes were thin, and formed of boards slightly sewed together, and their paddles were made like those of Tahiti, with a knob at the end." Again, he writes: "Their canoes were likewise very similar to those of Tahiti, but of no great size. The heads [prows] had commonly some flat upright piece, on page 324which the human face was coarsely carved; and their sails were made of mats, triangular, and very broad at the top. The paddles which they used were made of a heavy hard wood, short, but sharp-pointed, and with a knob at the upper end."

Anent the canoes of the Marquesas, Porter, the American voyager, wrote early in last century: "These vessels are generally about forty feet in length, thirteen inches wide, and eighteen inches deep. They are formed of many pieces of the breadfruit-tree, cut into the form of planks, and sewed together with the fibres of the outside shell of the coconut. The seams are covered inside and out with strips of bamboo, sewed to the edge of each plank, to keep in a stuffing of oakum…. The keel consists of one piece, which runs the whole length, is hollowed out in the form of a canoe, and seems to stiffen the whole vessel and keep it straight. Three pieces of thin plank, placed in the manner of partitions, divide the interior into four parts, and perform the office of timbers to keep the vessel from separating or closing together. Outriggers from the bow, middle, and stern, with a long piece of light wood secured to the extremity of each, keep them from upsetting, which, from their narrowness, would frequently happen were it not for this contrivance. The ornamental part consists of a flat prow, which projects about two feet, and is rudely carved on the upper surface to represent the head of some animal. Sometimes there is attached to it a small board, supported by a rudely carved figure of a man. From the stern is a slender projection of six or eight feet in length, and in the form of a sleigh runner. Their paddles are very neatly made of a hard black wood, highly polished. Their handles are slender, the blades of an oval form, broadest toward the lower part, and terminating in a point like a hawk's bill. They were all without sails, and did not appear to be managed with much skill or dexterity. At some of the coves I page 325observed the frames of boats of a different construction set up, shorter and wider than the canoes, and in shape somewhat similar to the common whaleboat; but I saw no such vessel in use among those who visited the ship."

This was at Adams Island, or Rooahooga [?], as Porter terms it; while, in writing of Madison's Island, or Nukuhiva, he remarks: "The war-canoes of this island differ not much from those already described…. They are larger, more splendid, and highly ornamented, but the construction is the same. They are about fifty feet in length, two feet in width, and of a proportionate depth; they are formed of many pieces…. These canoes are owned only among the wealthy and respectable families, and are rarely used but for the purposes of war, or for pleasure, or when the chief persons of one tribe make a visit to another. In such cases they are richly ornamented with locks of human hair intermixed with bunches of gray beard, strung from the stem projection to the place raised for the steersman … The chief is seated on an elevation in the middle of the canoe, and a person fancifully dressed in the bow, which has the additional ornaments of pearl-shells strung on coconut branches raised in the fore part of the canoe. She is worked altogether by paddles, and those who use them are placed two on a seat…. They are not, however, so fleet as might be expected, as our whale-boats could beat them with great ease."

Apparently these were either inferior canoes or inferior paddlers. A whaleboat would stand a poor chance of beating "with great ease" a good canoe well paddled.

Porter continues: "Their fishing-canoes are vessels of a larger and fuller construction, many of them being six feet in width, and page 326of an equal depth. They are managed with paddles more resembling an oar, and are, in some measure, used as such, but in a perpendicular position, the fulcrum resting on the outriggers projecting from each side…. The canoes used for the purpose of navigating from one island to another—a navigation very common—are similar in their construction to the larger kind of fishing-canoes, and are called 'double' canoes, and are furnished with a triangular sail made of a mat, similar to that generally called a 'shoulder-of-mutton' sail, but placed in an inverted position, the hypothenuse forming the foot of the sail, to which is secured a boom. These are also worked during a calm with paddles, and appear capable of resisting the sea for a long time. The canoes formed for the sole purpose of going in search of new lands are of a still larger construction, and are rigged in the same manner. They use also occasionally a kind of catamaran, which they construct in a few minutes, and a kind of surf-board similar to that of the natives of the Sandwich Islands."

The pieces termed "partitions" seem to have had the bracing effect of knees or ribs, though differing in form, and illustrate another step in the evolution of the built-up frame boat. It would be of interest to ascertain what evidence there is in the Pacific as to any change, if any, from carvel-built to clinker-built frame boats. The use of paddles as oars is, unfortunately, not clearly described, nor is there any assurance that it was a pre-European usage, though presumably it was so. This practice, reported from the Marquesas, Atiu, and the Chatham Isles, calls for some inquiry. A similar report from the west coast of the South Island of New Zealand has not been corroborated by any reliable evidence.

The Marquesas canoe-sail depicted in Cook's Voyages is of the same form as that used by the Maori, and rigged in the same manner, with mast and boom or sprit.