Galu-canoe of Uvea

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Anatol
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Galu-canoe of Uvea

Post by Anatol » Fri Mar 01, 2019 8:07 pm

Hadfield gives the following information about canoe-making in the Loyalty Islands :”The only available tools for canoe-making were small stone axes and adzes, which were made by the canoe-maker himself. Many of the canoes, especially those of Uvea, had a mast fore and aft ; and in order to " bout ship", it was necessary to move the sails by lifting them bodily over from one side to the other . . . Lashings and wooden pegs held these frail barks together and the sails in their places. The sail consisted of two or three parts of a mattress, sewn together with a needle made from a wing of a flying fox ...” On the Uvea сanoe, the old sail is a typical Melanesian sail, triangular, a plait pandanus sail, with a yard parallel to the mast and an oblique gaff sail boom, joined together as a “V” at their lower end. "The shape of this," says Mr. Stokes, "may be said to have resembled an attenuated arrow-head with the haft removed and the tips of the thin barbs contracted. The sail was provided with a sprit and a boom of equal length, the sprit being about twice the height of the mast, and having the lower end stepped in a chock on the deck near the foot of the mast. The sailing-canoes were double, and sometimes treble, and carried two or more sails. The shape of this sail held with little variation among the islands to the eastward almost as far as Fiji, and then became merged into the triangular sail of the Fijians. A large stone was used for anchor, and the bailer was either a miniature canoe or a large shell. The paddles and rudder were shaped like the paddle of a Canadian canoe, with long or short handles, and made of hard wood . Small canoes were paddled by men sitting. On the larger ones men stood, using the sides of the canoe as the fulcrum. Erskine refers to large double canoes at Uvea.“ …resembling those of Fiji, but of much clumsier construction, and coarser workmanship. A platform or deck was built over the two bodies, and a rail or balustrade ran along one side . . . They were rowed in a clumsy manner, without rowlocks, by large paddles; another of which was used as a scull, to steer the vessel, the exertions of the people being great, and the speed small." The distinction of the northern people of Uvea from those of the southern part, Jai, and from the other islands is evident in their canoe tenns. Ray gives the following: Lifu canoe-“he”; Jai (southern part of Uvea ) canoe-“hu”;Uvea canoe- galu (vaka). Ray says. "Uvea is properly only the name of the Polynesian people on the north part of Uvea, who are said to have come from Uvea or Wallis Island, north of Tonga, between Samoa and Fiji." Lambert says that it is beyond doubt that a considerable group of Uveans came in canoes about 100 years ago to this archipelago. They were stranded on one of the Loyalty Islands, to which they gave the name of their former country. Halgan Island is known today only as Uvea. This colony of the yellow Polynesian race mixed with the original race. Figures created by Aldo Cherini.
New Caledonia1987;90f;SG808. Source:A. Haddon, John. Hornell: Canoes of Oceania.1937.Volume II. http://nzetc.victoria.ac.nz/tm/scholarl ... d3-d5.html. http://www.philateliemarine.fr/phil_mar_e/canoes.htm
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