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Paddles

Paddles (hoe) are made of coconut wood and are characterized by long narrow blades which end in fairly sharp points.

An average length is about 65 inches, of which the blade takes up 31 inches or slightly less than half the total length. Some paddles have shorter blades with correspondingly longer handles.

The handle is round in section, cut off square at the top, and of fairly even diameter (about 1.2 inches) throughout its length. Approaching the blade, it flattens out slightly on the front so as to merge with the anterior front surface of the thin blade. This causes the handle to project on the back of the blade, down the middle line of which it extends as a raised rib gradually diminishing in width and depth until it ends 6 inches to 7.5 inches from the upper edge of the blade. In the typical paddle the rib is transversely convex, but in some inlaid paddles it is quadrangular in section to provide a flat surface upon which pearl shell discs are inlaid. (See pl. 8, A.)

The blade is ovate, the broad end junctioning with the handle. In most paddles, the blade forms a clean-cut obtuse angle with the handle, but in a few the blade slopes gradually upward to the handle without any sharp angle. The average width at the widest part is slightly more than 5 inches, but some may be less. In all blades the nearness of the greatest width to the handle junction is characteristic. From the greatest width the sides of the blade slope evenly down to the point, which is thus long and narrow.

The front of the blade is slightly concave longitudinally and slightly convex transversely, though some appear fairly flat. The back, marked by the handle rib in its upper part, is slightly convex longitudinally and flat or slightly convex transversely. The thickness is greatest in the middle line, whence it thins out toward the side edges. The blade thins off generally at the lower end but the actual point is reinforced on the back by thickening it to form a back projection extending upward for from 0.5 inch to 1.3 inches in the middle line.

Some paddles are inlaid with round or triangular pieces of pearl shell set on the front of the blade near the handle junction and may extend to the lower part of the handle itself. Inlay may also be applied to the handle rib on the back. (See pl. 8, A.)

A paddle in Bernice P. Bishop Museum (C. 523) wrongly attributed to Manihiki by its donor is described in the legend of plate 8, A, 5.

Steering paddle used with double canoes (fig. 70):

This paddle was shaped more like an oar than a paddle. The model paddle has a long somewhat narrow blade with a blunt end, a curved notch near the blade shoulder on one side and a hole through the opposite shoulder to carry a short rope. The notch was rested on a horizontal spar across the stern, and the rope was tied in a loop around the spar to secure the paddle and allow movement in steering. In some model page 158 canoes supporting spars were attached to both canoes at each end. The steering paddle was lashed to the middle of the aft spar and the handle manipulated from the rear of the platform between the canoes. In other models the spar was attached across the stern of each individual canoe and projected on the outward side to give support to the steering paddle. The double canoe was then steered from the stern of the canoe which was bow on. A full-sized steering paddle, said to have been used in the double canoe voyages between the atolls, was preserved in Rakahanga. The old men insisted that it was the original type and not modeled on a European steer oar. The model steering paddles have followed its shape.