Canoes of the Ellice Group

Funafuti, in the Ellice Group, formerly possessed seagoing canoes, and remains of such vessels have been seen on Fakaafu. Mr. Hedley, quoting Lister, gives the following account of Fakaafu canoes in Memoirs of the Australian Museum, III, Part 4: "The canoes of the present time are built just like those of Samoa, having a single outrigger. Owing to the scarcity of large trees on the island the body of the canoe is built of several pieces, each separately hollowed, and these are laced together with a sinnet. Often there are as many as four distinct pieces along the bottom, and the sides are built up with additional pieces to the required height. Each piece is accurately shaped so that it will fit in among the neighbouring ones, and the joints are caulked with resin. The bow and stern are covered in for a short distance, and on their upper surfaces a number of small pyramidal projections are left in the middle line, to which white shells of Cypraea ovula are attached for ornament. The upper surface of the stern-piece is not horizontal, but slopes obliquely downwards to the end. The canoes hold seven or eight people."

These canoes are propelled by sail and paddle. Mr. Hedley remarks that "The sail was formerly of palm or pandanus mats. It is hoisted after the ordinary Polynesian method, upon two converging masts, stepped upon the thwarts or gunwale and steadied by a page 301backstay. At each tack the masts and sail are unshipped, and carried round bodily end for end; the craft therefore never goes about. Under sail they can travel seven or eight miles an hour easily; they lie close to the wind, but for want of a keel make rapid leeway…. The paddlers sit on the thwarts, paddling chiefly on the starboard side, as the outrigger impedes them on the port…. The paddle … is plunged vertically into the water, and withdrawn after a short fore-and-aft stroke. A course is kept by all without any particular steering. To turn sharply, the paddle is struck into the water by the aftermost man, as far away as he can reach, and pulled through the water towards him. When in sufficiently shoal water the paddle is always exchanged for the pole, a method of progression which is likewise preferred by the Papuans. For an anchor, a block of coral is made fast to the painter. These canoes draw about six inches, and weight about a hundredweight and a half. … A worn-out canoe cuts up into handy troughs or coffins."

One of these canoes measured by Mr. Hedley was 23½ft. in length, 1¼ ft. in greatest breadth, and 1 ft. 5 in. in greatest depth. page 302Another was 29 ft. long, 1⅓ ft. wide, and 1 10/12 ft. deep, with 20 ft. of open hull space, and outrigger float 12ft. long and 4 ft. distant from the canoe-hull. The hull was very thin, hewed down to about ¾ in. in thickness. The lashings were from 4 in. to 10 in. apart, and self-contained, the cord not carried on to the next pair of holes. The three outrigger booms were 3 ft. apart and extended across the hull, serving as thwarts. Each boom is a small trunk with part of a branch left on, and the end of this downward-trending branch base was lashed between two pegs driven into the float. In many groups the boom is a straight pole connected with the float by means of longer pegs fixed in the latter. The float is a round, straight log about 6 in. in diameter and pointed at both ends. "In use," says the above-mentioned writer, "it swims awash; when the canoe is heeled gradually over, a capsize occurs the instant the float is lifted clear of the water." In the Funafuti canoe three or more longitudinal spars on the booms form a platform for carrying gear on, but it is never occupied by persons.

Of the canoes of the Tokelau (or Union) Group we have the briefest of accounts in volume 1 of the Journal of the Polynesian Society: "Their canoes are of the outrigger type, the same as seen in Fiji. They are built up of very thin coconut slabs, cut down by the axe or adze and sewn together. Sometimes they are dugouts made of drift timber."

The natives of this group, however, constructed large seagoing craft in former times, and made voyages to the Samoan, Tongan, and Fijian Groups.