Alia,Kalia,Drua

[Anatol]

The АLIA of Samoa (Tonga–KALIA, Fiji-DRUA ) is generally acknowledged as the finest sailing vessel ever built in Oceania, a technologically superior design that resulted as a cross cultural collaboration between Viti, Tonga, Samoa and Micronesia with linkages extending to New Caledonia, Tokelau, Niue, Rotuma, Futuna and Uvea. It is arguably the greatest technological legacy of these cultures and a central icon and motif of central Oceania. The ndrua, kalia, and 'alia differed only in ornamentation and the carving at the ends of the hulls. The largest and swiftest of all sailing canoes, its design was an adaptation of the double-ender concept Tongans may have observed in Micronesia. The design spread throughout Tonga, and Samoa, reaching greatest size in Fiji where a ndrua was recorded at 118 feet.
Alden, (1870) borrowing from Anton (1840), describes drua as “a product of barbarian genius”, “fastest sailing boat in existence” and “capable of sailing nearer the wind than any European vessel”; Dodd, (1972) “the canoes of Tonga were, as far as we know, the largest of any built in Polynesia ... and their [Tongan] seamanship astonishing”; Clunie (1987) “[t]he massive drua or kalia made last century in Fiji is justly celebrated as the most remarkable voyaging canoe ever to ply the Pacific”; Hornell (1975) “Тhe Fijian double canoe (wangga ndrua) was the largest and finest sea-going vessel ever designed and built by the natives of Oceania before contact with Europeans”; Drua achieved great size (up to 118 feet) and had a cruising speed in excess of 10 knots. Thomson (1908, 292) gives the speed of the ndrua as “from 10 to 15 knots with the wind on the quarter”; Hornell (1975, 327) “These canoes [drua] with a wind on the quarter could attain under favourable conditions a speed of about 12 miles an hour”; Reported lengths:Drua- 12-37m;Kalia-15-27m;Alia-5,8-8,5m.
Aitutaki 1992г; 95с; SG634. Fiji 1977г; 4c; SG545. USA 2000;33c;SG? Tonga 1990;42s;SG1079.
Source;http://sailingforsustainability.org/pag ... kalia-аlia. http://www.herbkanestudio.com/gallery/c ... a_and_mic/

[aukepalmhof]

Niuafo'fo 2017 2.25 sg457, scott?