Canoes of Nine, or Savage Island

Forster says of the canoes of Niue (June, 1774): "They were very nearly of the same structure with those of Tonga-tapu, and had some carving, but were not so neatly wrought. They were single, and had strong outriggers."

The Niue folk term a ship foulua, or tonga (meaning "foreign"), but the former name was at one time applied to a canoe. These islanders have long ceased to make ocean-going vessels, their fishing-canoes being from 12 ft. to 25 ft. long, and about 1½ ft. or 2 ft. deep. They are fitted with an outrigger, called hama. The natives state that their ancestors used sea-going double canoes, known as vaka hai-ua.

An account of the making of the Niue canoe, with the native names of all parts, its ornamentation, uses, &c, has been published in Museum Bulletin No. 3. It is the work of Te Rangi-hiroa, M.B., Ch.B., and is one of the best accounts of the making of a Polynesian canoe that has yet appeared. From it we learn that modern canoes of Niue are small fishing-craft, holding from one to four men. The top-strakes are called oa, the lashings of which do not appear on the outside. The top-strakes and some other parts may be adorned with simple designs, rectilinear, and resembling the taniko patterns seen on Maori cloaks. The outrigger (hama) is always on the left side of the hull, to which it is connected by two or more kiato, or booms. The inner ends of the booms are lashed to both top-strakes; their outer ends are connected with the outrigger by short thin pieces page 293called tutuki, three or four in number, their lower ends being inserted in holes in the hama and lashed. In some cases an intermediate fore-and-aft rod is lashed to the booms as a longitudinal spar. Within the hull U-shaped pieces of wood may be lashed to the sides to give strength and support to the top-strakes. This is not a Maori feature, but is found in the western Pacific, and represents another step in the evolution of the plank-built boat as known to us. The first form of the modern boat-knee is seen in the Maori tokai, which merely supports the floor; while the Niue form is an improved one, imparting stability to the sides of the vessel—the true function of the boat-knee. Apparently this feature was carried eastward from the western Pacific. In the Manihiki canoe we shall encounter a more curious mode of bracing the topsides, in which the U-shaped piece is reversed and projects above the gunwales. The removable knees of the Niue canoe are termed manu.

In his Journal of a Cruise among the Islands of the Western Pacific Captain Erskine makes the following remarks on the canoes of Niue, as seen in 1849: "These first-comers were soon succeeded by ten or a dozen more canoes, each containing four persons, and all of similar construction, from twenty to twenty-four feet long, made apparently of a single tree with raised wash-strakes, the fore and after parts covered over and handsomely carved. An outrigger, composed of one long spar, floating in the water parallel to the canoe, and supported by three transverse ones, forming a platform, on which lay their spears and other implements, projected on one side, making it necessary for them, in this instance, to come on the weather side of the ship. This contrivance, common to most of the canoes of the Pacific, must not be confounded with that of a spar projecting to windward when under sail to enable a man to ballast the canoe with the weight of his body (although we afterwards saw that plan sometimes in operation among the Navigators Islands), but is one absolutely necessary to enable the narrow vessel to maintain its equilibrium in the smoothest water. Their paddles were short, concave in blades, and beautifully shaped like a plantain-leaf."