Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
but are regularly built of planks running from end to end, and so accurately fitted that it is
often difficult to find a place where a knife-blade can be inserted between the joints. The
larger ones are from 20 to 30 tons burthen, and are finished ready for sea without a nail or
particle of iron being used, and with no other tools than axe, adze, and auger. These vessels
are handsome to look at, good sailers, and admirable sea-boats, and will make long voyages
with perfect safety, traversing the whole Archipelago from New Guinea to Singapore in seas
which, as every one who has sailed much in them can testify, are not so smooth and tempest
free as word-painting travellers love to represent them.
The forests of Ké produce magnificent timber, tall, straight, and durable, of various qual-
ities, some of which are said to be superior to the best Indian teak. To make each pair of
planks used in the construction of the larger boats an entire tree is consumed. It is felled, of-
ten miles away from the shore, cut across to the proper length, and then hewn longitudinally
into two equal portions. Each of these forms a plank by cutting down with the axe to a uni-
form thickness of three or four inches, leaving at first a solid block at each end to prevent
splitting. Along the centre of each plank a series of projecting pieces are left, standing up
three or four inches, about the same width, and a foot long; these are of great importance in
the construction of the vessel. When a sufficient number of planks have been made, they are
laboriously dragged through the forest by three or four men each to the beach, where the
boat is to be built. A foundation piece, broad in the middle and rising considerably at each
end, is first laid on blocks and properly shored up. The edges of this are worked true and
smooth with the adze, and a plank, properly curved and tapering at each end, is held firmly
up against it, while a line is struck along it which allows it to be cut so as to fit exactly. A
series of auger holes, about as large as one's finger, are then bored along the opposite edges,
and pins of very hard wood are fitted to these, so that the two planks are held firmly, and can
be driven into the closest contact; and difficult as this seems to do without any other aid than
rude practical skill in forming each edge to the true corresponding curves, and in boring the
holes so as exactly to match both in position and direction, yet so well is it done that the best
European shipwright cannot produce sounder or closer-fitting joints. The boat is built up in
this way by fitting plank to plank till the proper height and width are obtained. We have now
a skin held together entirely by the hardwood pins connecting the edges of the planks, very
strong and elastic, but having nothing but the adhesion of these pins to prevent the planks
gaping. In the smaller boats seats, in the larger ones cross-beams, are now fixed. They are
sprung into slight notches cut to receive them, and are further secured to the projecting
pieces of the plank below by a strong lashing of rattan. Ribs are now formed of single pieces
of tough wood chosen and trimmed so as exactly to fit on to the projections from each
