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NATIONAL MARITIME MUSEUM

Greenwich, London SElO 9NF

THE OR PRAHU BOT: a western in an eastern setting

MARITIME MONOGRAPHS AND REPORTS No. 39 -1979 THE LAMBO OR PRAHU BOT:

A WESTERN SHIP IN AN EASTERN SETTING

by

G Adrian Horridge

Maritime Monographs and Reports

No. 39 -1979

Published by the Trustees of the National Maritime Museum et'vt>: Mu?ev ~c,,·ot"(;. ( ~ bl,·ofeca.. Ke.\viV\ bv"''"te gM !tiM. oo ~gq5

ISBN 0 905555 23 6 ISSN 0307-8590

© Crown Copyright 1979

Produced in by Her Majesty's Stationery Office, Reprographic Centre, Basildon CONTENTS

Page

Foreword ii

List of Illustrations iii

Introduction iv Acknowledgements IV

Historical Placing the !ambo as a type 4

A ship for civilized times 10 Hull shape 10 The counter stem 11 Fittings and gear 12

Building a lambo 16

An ill-adapted mixture 26

The turtle boats of Bali 28

Di scussion 32 The effectiveness of the lambo 32 The recent historical setting 33 The demographic significance 34 New trends in lambo design 34 Epilogue 35

Notes 38

References 40 FOREWORD

This monograph may most profitably be read after Professor Adrian Horridge' s work on the planked boats of the Moluccas, which has already been published as a Maritime Monograph. In this present paper Adrian Horridge describes the Indonesian /ambo which resembles the late 19th century gaff-rig cutters of Western Europe, and discusses the problems of adapting a foreign design to indigenous materials and traditional methods of construction. As in his earlier work he focuses attention on structural considerations and develops his concept of the 'stifr and 'flexible' types of ribs and frames. In addition, the author considers the social and demographic significance of the /ambo, which is now the dominant small trading vessel in , and he examines its prospects for the future.

Sean McGrail Chief Archaeologist National Maritime Museum, Greenwich.

ii LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

Page Page Fig 1. Modem map 1 Fig 32. Balinese turtle boat 28 Fig 2. Lambos in Ambon Harbour 2 Fig 33. Interior of turtle boat, A, Band C 30 Fig 3. Single masted lambo 2 Fig 34. Stem view of turtle boat 31 Fig 4. Two masted lambo 3 Fig 35. Counter stem of 3 Fig 5. Lowestoft drifter 1898 turtle boat 31 Fig Village of Panta Sero 5 6. Fig 36. Steaming planks over a fire 35 6 Fig 7. Lambo on beach Fig 37. New hull at Benoa 36 Fig 8. Small western boats 7 Fig 9. Boats at Batavia 1777 9 Fig 10. Lambo docking 11 Fig 11. Lambo 12 Fig 12. Head-on view 13 Fig 13. Jaws and tackle 14 Fig 14. fittings 14 Fig 15. Gear on 15 Fig 16. Saw pit 16 Fig 17. Clothes-peg timbers 17 Fig 18. Curved timbers 18 Fig 19. Adze 18 Fig 20. Floors inserted in shell 19 Fig 21. Bows of hull at Elat 20 Fig 22. Stem of hull at Elat 20 Fig 23. Bows of hull at Panta Sero 21 Fig 24. Side view of bows 22 Fig 25. Apron behind stem 22 Fig 26. Alternating ribs and floors 23 Fig 27. Hole for rudder 23 Fig 28. T·shaped timber 24 Fig 29. Stern view at Panta Sero 24 Fig 30. Aft-deck details 25 Fig 31. Split hull at Tajandu 27

iii INTRODUCTION

The lambo is an Indonesian version of a western small trading or of the nineteenth century. It was brought into use as a trader and was never a fishing boat. Outwardly it is a copy of the western rig, hull form and plank lines, but a closer look reveals that it is built as a shell of thick baulks of hard timber which are carved to shape and joined edge-to-edge by dowels. F loors and ribs are inserted later. The method of construction and the hard, stiff planks are ill-adapted to the hull shape and plank lines. Leaks are prevented by a mixture of lime and oil. The stages of construction of the lambo and its variant, the Balinese turtle boat, are described. A tradition of boatbuilding like that of medieval Europe has survived into the 20th century, with various degrees of craftmanship, in isolated islands of the far Eastern Archipelago. For an engineer the interesting feature is the mismatch between the design and the materials and methods of construction caused by fusion of different technologies. The lambo has spread, however, as the most generally popular small trading vessel in eastern Indonesia because the rig is handy, the rig and hull design give reasonable independence from the constant direc­ tions of the monsoon winds, and the design of the stern is suited for docking. Engineless boats, built in isolated boatyards with hand tools and grown timbers, have survived in Indonesia because they can be constructed and maintained with local materials and managed by a single family. The increase in numbers of these trading prahus is a result of rising population, more local trade and independence from official controls and charges. In addition, the lambo is the vehicle for the spread of the Butung people over water to form small trading and boatbuilding colonies in many widespread places in Indonesia. They are only the last of many groups who have spread hither and thither by boat.

Acknowledgements It is a pleasure to thank numerous correspondents who have been interested in this topic; among them I would like to mention Robert Blust, Dr F red Dunn, Prof J E Gordon, Robert Haine, Captain Brett Hilder, Dr A McCoy, Dr Sean McGrail, Commander Eric McKee, Dr Campbell MacKnight, Robert Langdon, Dr B A V Peacock and Prof W Scott. Thanks are due also to my assistant Chris Snoek who has made all the line drawings and to Tess Falconer and Pamela Coote for typing numerous drafts. This research was made possible because I was invited on two Expeditions which visited Banda. The USA Research Ship Alpha Helix took me there in 1975 and the Indonesian Research Ship Samudera took me again in 1977. I thank the organisations and people involved in those Expeditions for the parts they played.

iv HISTORICAL

The Dutch maritime ethnographer C Nooteboom tells how a man of the Mandar coast of Western Sulawesi (Celebes) moved temporarily to Ambon and married there. From his in-laws he obtained a boat of a type not yet used in Mandar and he introduced it when he returned home. In 1938 Nooteboom found several of these new boats under construction on the Mandar coast of Sulawesi. On his visit to Ende, far away in the island of Flores, in 1932-3, he had found the same design being introduced as 'the English model'. Both Mandar and Ende are relatively isolated areas where boats are an important item in local life. These places are shown on the map (Fig 1).

CHINA FORMOSA () '"HUNG-TbU Is . (Botel Tobogol

SOUTH EAST

ASIA PHILIPPINE SEA

F ig 1. Map s howing places mentioned in this paper.

1 Fig 2. Lambos drying their in Ambon harbour, Moluccas Is.

Fig 3. Lambo coming into Banda pool. The top of the is hois ted out on a topmas t which is haule d c lose to the mainmast to give a (Dutch torenzeil). Note the long booms on both sails, single bowsprit, the thin cut-away in this example somewhat resemblmg an Arabic , the e lliptical s tern carrying a toile t, and the long deckhouse extended by an awning. 2 Fig 4. A -rigged lambo leaving Banda pool. C learly this boat is not setting out on a long journey. Note the -, the lacing and the c ut of the sails, lack of and one running s tay.

..--,.-1 t ~ .__ ... I 1--+- ~ UII~ ' ~ ~--.... }_ .. iC- --: """'"'',.. "" -...!.' 1" 1 J!,.. l' ""- ~ ~ ,\ ...... a?'-...... ,.,, ...._ ... M ~ ...... ~ ..... 10' ..L L ~ M \ ~ Ill ~ ~\ Ill l 1 I 11l1I II' • • • • I . ,, ,. ... .•...... ,.. ·sn,"'· L.T.. .,.., J •r...

Fig 5. Plans of the 'Strive' from Sailing Drifters by Edgar Marc h, David and Charles, 1952. This differs from a lambo · in the deep heel, the cutaway s tern and the straight sides.

3 The design is now widespread and often called the lambo, lomboh or sometimes lambok. I first saw them in Ambon harbour (Fig 2) where they are called prahu bot. I was astonished at finding vessels (Figs 3 and 4) that to my eye looked like old gaff cutters of the south-east coast of England, for example, herring drifters of Lowestoft in 1890 as described in detail by Edgar March (Fig 5). In the 1930s G E P Collins, in his book East Monsoon, mentions the ]ambo as becoming popular in south-west Sulawesi in the neigh­ bourhood of Bira where the Bugis build their own style of prahu, the , but he specifically said that the local men could not build them. In his book Makassar Sailing, p 21, Collins says that many of the prahu masters of Bira would give up their cumbersome palaris if they could, to adopt ]ambos; and he mentions that two !ambos were started at nearby Marumasa. It should be said, however, that the principal vessel built in the Bira region today is quite different, whereas the !ambo has been taken up elsewhere. Nooteboom in 1947, .writing about the 1930s, noted that for a long time the island of Butung in south-east Sulawesi had been a centre of trade with of the ]ambo type; in fact Butung is only 3 days sail down­ wind from Ambon during the east monsoon from June to November and the Butungese are great travellers and shipbuilders. My interest deepened on the island of Banda, where I was working during 1975. The people of Banda are mostly descended from labourers brought by the Dutch to work the nutmeg plantations in the 17th and 18th centuries. The Dutch influence in everyday life is still obviously strong, but nowadays they all speak bahasa Indonesia and on Banda Neira they live in houses with floors on the ground. At the north end of Banda Neira, however, is the village of Panta Sero which is quite different from the rest of that island: here in 1975 the houses were all of poles and atap of plaited palm leaves, with bamboo floors well raised off the ground, with chickens hanging in baskets under the eaves, children running naked and the ground well swept around the houses (Fig 6). The people of this village speak bahasa Butung, although they did not know how long ago they migrated from Butung. This village on Banda Neira, like many Bugis and Butungese villages scattered around the Java Sea, had originally been a trade terminal, which became a place for land-hungry people to settle. The Butungese, being boatbuilders and maritime by inclination, brought their skills with them, but to them the lambo was a new model which did not originate in Butung. As mentioned above, there is historical evidence that the lambo was copied at Ambon or Banda, both places where western influences were strong.

Placing the !ambo as a type To an Englishman the !ambo (Figs 3, 4 and 7) resembles in its rig the old gaffers that still survive around our coasts, mostly now as pleasure , but some ·still at work like the oyster boats of the Helford River. Although the rig, for example, of the herring drifters of Lowestoft in 1890, was almost the final development of the engineless but still commercially viable small cutter at the end of the nineteenth century, vessels of this appearance had been common for a hundred years or more. It is my impression that the rig was adopted around the English coasts over the same period 1850-80 as elsewhere in the English-speaking world (Keble Chatterton, 1912; Moore, 1925, Chapter 6; Morris, 1927) but that the re st of the world did not follow the last developments of the (Warington Smyth, 1906). During the nineteenth century there was a progressive development away from the sprit and lugsail towards the gaff cutter in many parts of the English-speaking world. One driving force was undoubtedly shortage of labour and its high price. We find the development in Long Island Sound, for example (Fig 8E) the Carryaway sloop (Morris , 1927, p 82). The Hobart (Tasmania) fishing boats of the 1890s were exactly of this type. One still sailing with original rig is the Casilda (Andrews, 1976, p 77) (Fig 8A). Small boats with a vertical stem and long counter similar to the ]ambo were also common enough in English-speaking ports towards the end of the last century, but they would not be used for fishing with nets or trawls in open water. They are more characteristic of sheltered waters, small traders and pleasure boats. Examples are the New England sloop-rigged ·coasters, the Auckland mullet boats, or the Australian couta boats (Fig 8C) all of the same period at the end of the 1800s. One is to be seen in a photograph of Circular Quay in Sydney Harbour in 1878 (Edwardes, 1976, p 89). Other boats for special purposes resemble the lambo, for example the Swansea (Wales, UK) oyster boats of about 12 tons, built 1865 onwards, had a long low counter for ease in working the dredge, and the size of the boat was exactly right for operating two dredges with a crew of three (illustrated in March, 1970, vol 2, p 275). Larger, two masted , with a similar rig were common western trading vessels all over the world in the nineteenth century, sailing between ports where there was Americ an or European influence (Note 1).

4 Fig 6. At the north end of Banda Neira is the Butung k.ampong of Panta Sero which is distinct in house style and quite different from the rest of Banda Neira. The people here specialize in the construction of !ambos of 20-30 tons. Timber for boats is stacked under the houses, which stand back in a line a few metres from the beach.

Although possible predecessors, such as the Brixham trawlers, Morecambe Bay prawners, Devon gaff cutters, and small Harwich smacks (Fig 8B) are at first sight similar to the lambo, in detail they are not quite right. These boats had shorter counters, higher, straighter sides, more freeboard and better shaped hulls for dirty weather. They were usually designed to hold steady without responding to every wave when trawling or laying a net in a reasonable sea. They had a lot of inside ballast which also kept them upright, as the centre of buoyancy was well above the centre of gravity, and the hull shape was such that the buoyancy did not move forward or aft as the boat heeled. The bowsprit of the lambo, and the boomed or , is also derived from some other, perhaps earlier, source. Although the reasons are now not always obvious, each local boat style was usually selected for a good reason and every detail was significant, though not necessarily the best possible design for the job. The lambo rig could therefore have come from almost any western source but was successful because it was versatile and required a small crew. The lambo hull shape is adapted for sheltered water and is not a straight copy of a western open sea fishing boat or a pearling (Fig 8F). It could still, however, be a copy, but with lighter displacement which could make it faster for trading but (having no outside ballast on the keel) much less safe in a severe storm. In the Banda and Java Seas and among the islands, the lambo is safe enough, but in the Sea, the Arafura or the Bay of Bengal a storm would either shake the lambo to pieces or capsize it (Note 2). A more important point is that in the nineteenth century the boats of all the surrounding regions wer~ evolving more rapidly than those in Indonesia. All shapes and sizes of English traders were abundant along the north coast of Borra;!o into the Philippine Islands. Joseph Conrad's books bristle with and barks, schooners and proas, manned by sailors from the four winds. In Lord Jim, (Dent's edn, p 13) Conrad

5 I •

Fig 7. A locally-built !ambo in shallow water at the village of Panta Sero. In this case the triple bowsprit is lighter than that shown in Fig II, the gaff is longer than the boom (as also is the mizzen gafO. The structure hanging over the stern is the standard small-boat toilet of Indonesia. The masts are single but the boat is supported by poles tied on either side of them. One Dutch influence is the pattern of triangles, which also decorated some of the botters of the Zuvder Zee.

notes that Europeans sailed in western style boats which were frequently owned by Chinese, Arab or half-caste owners. The small ship with its motley crew described in Conrad's Because of the Dollars is no fantasy. Conrad's novels reflect the real s ituation, that the inter-island trade outside the Java Sea was in non-Dutch hands and was concentrated through Sing~pore and Makassar, which was a free port from 1846 until early this century (Note 3). One example of direct western influence is outstanding and sufficiently close to provide a possible predecessor of the !ambo (Note 4), as follows: In the early 1860s Nicolas Loney, honorary Vice-consul and agent at the central Philippine port of Iloilo, faced the problem of bringing s ugar from the island of Negros to Iloilo for loading on to British and American schooners. To make the local more efficient, Loney remodelled it on the lines of the Brixham trawler which he knew from his native Devon. A lorcha (Note 5) is a Western hull with an eastern rig and the change that Loney made resulted in a rig very similar to the Brixham trawler with a single mast, for example as illustrated by Warington Smyth (1906). Brixham trawlers later added a small mizzen. The hulls of Loney's boats at Iloilo were rather flat on the bottom so that they could be loaded with bags of sugar on the beach at low tide, and were built of sawmill planks fixed on frames in the western style. Most of these boats were larger than the !ambo, in fact in hull and rig they were more like American coastal trading schooners in 1860-80 (Leavitt, 1970); see also Note 6. A survey of the models of the period in the museums in the Netherlands is compatible with the idea that the !ambo hull and rig spread into the Molucca Sea area from the region directly to the north. The problem is to demonstrate that this route rather than others was the one which actually led to the adoption of the !ambo in the Ambon/ Butung area by the early years of this century.

6 Fig 8. Western boats for comparison. A, Casilda, built 1907, at Hobart (Tasmania) in her original rig. B, Harwich in 1915. C, Cooma, a (barra)couta boat of Queenscliff, Australia, bui It 1911. 0, Goheba, built at Piru in Ceram before 1920 (from Seran, 1922). E, Carryaway sloop of Long Island Sound, USA. F, Mina, a pearling lugger built 1903,84 tons, 79 feet. (A after Andrews, 1976; B after Moore , 1925 ; C and F from Kerr, 1974).

While the lambo could have been a copy of many boats in the English-speaking world of 1890, it seems less likely to have been copied from the Dutch. The rig of the lambo, in detail, is not Dutch and hulls were quite different at home in Holland. The angled stempost, the triangular rather than rounded shape of the bows, the straight rather than incurved sides and the elliptical overhanging counter stern are not what mo~t Dutch boatbuilders of the late nineteenth century would produce. In a walk round the Zuyder Zee museum at Enkhuisen one sees s hips of that period with stubby bows of sharply bent oak or pine, rounded sides, flat bottoms and a great rudder stuck on the stern. The Dutch, however, presumably borrowed other designs, for other conditions, especially abroad. So how did the lambo become established in the centre of a Dutch colony in the Moluccas? I found what may be a false clue in a photograph of the beautiful anchorage beneath the volcano at Banda, taken on an Expedition in 1907-8 (Merton, 1911 ). In the picture are two lambos under sail and at anchor four vessels which are clearly two masted pearlers. The photographs is entitled 'pearl-fishing boats at Banda Neira'. In his book Makassar Sailing, p 37, G E P Collins also suggested in 1936 that the lambo style was copied from the pearling (Fig 8F). The intinerant pearlers were incomers to Eastern Indonesia of all nationalities, not particularly Dutch but mainly English and Australians, and the Australian Pearling Company was officially based in Singapore in the 1870s. The origin of the crews, too, is significant. In Western Australia, where diving suits were introduced in 1884, the local aboriginal divers had been replaced by men from Makassar. So we have a very likely route for the transmission of the te.ch­ nique of building and repairing a European-owned pearling lugger (Note 7).

7 Study of the Australian pearling boats, however, shows that only the small ones of 10-12 tons could be considered ancestral to the lambo. Most of the notable Australian boats were about 100 tons (range 50 to 360 tons) with two masts, ketch rig and bows; nor did they sail far north to the Moluccas. The smaller pearling boats are a much more likely model: at least four hundred were registered in Western Australia in 1905. The majority of these were 10-12 tons, 30-35 feet long, 11 feet beam, 4.5 feet deep. They were built by bending 1\4 inch jarrah planks on the frames. Stem, keel and sternposts were 12 inch x 5 inch jarrah; they were copper fastened, munz-metal sheathed and schooner or cutter-rigged with jib, and mainsail (Kerr, 1974). Under Australian law the indentured labour from abroad, having been employed as divers, were not allowed to build boats, but as part of their work they were expected to make repairs. As a result, many lost boats which had a legal existence because their registration papers had never been cancelled, were 'repaired' from nothing by imported carpenters. In living memory, in the port of Broome, these men were Japanese but in the 1880s when the Thursday Island grounds were first explored, the crews included men from Sulawesi (Note 7). Certainly the Broome luggers at the turn of the century were superficially similar to the lambo of the 1930s but there were major differences which rule them out as the prototype. First, the western boats were built by bending the planks round the frames, which would be totally foreign in concept and unsuited to the materials available in the Moluccas, where to overcome the boring molluscs the boats had to be built of local wood which would not bend over frames. Secondly, pearling luggers were designed to meet one over-riding consideration. When the divers were down it was essential that the boat did not jerk on the air pipes, and so the boat must not rise on every wave. Similarly a trawler is designed not to jump the trawl along. Although the shape of the counter and the low bulwark were similar, the pearling luggers were fundament­ ally different in hull shape from the lambo. The properly designed pearling lugger had a deep forefoot, a moderate sheer and almost vertical sides, so that they could be deeply loaded with shell, and drift without lurching up and down. The early 20th century pearling luggers were built with through-fastened stringers over heavy frames set at close centres. The keel was deeply sectioned and rebated to take the garboard strake. Strong deck beams were dovetailed into the heavy gunwales and both lodging and hanging knees were plentiful. Most pearling luggers were copper fastened throughout and fully sheathed. The mast steps were extremely strong; were solid steel rods, connected to the chain plates with many turns of through wooden dead eyes; screws were rarely used. There was an iron windlass for a strong anchor chain which was kept on deck to prevent rust. The later models had little or no bowsprit; there were always two masts to provide a versatile rig, and the deck was clear for work at sea. None of these features are found in the lambo, which may feel heavy in the water because the hull is heavy, but it is not a steady boat at sea, having light displacement, little ballast and, on many boats, some overhang all round. In construction method and hull design, the lambo is not a pearling lugger (Fig SF). Exactly how and when the lambo was introduced I am inclined to leave to a Netherlander to detail. My reasoning is that a great bulk of private letters and official records from Insulinde in the late nineteenth century exists in Holland, in Dutch handwriting. My present purpose is to point out that a search might be made. Small boats of obvious Dutch influence are to be seen in much older illustrations of eastern ports alongside boats that are obviously of more local design, as in Fig 8D. The so-called flybot, commonly reported from Indonesia in the nineteenth century, was in fact a bit like a lambo, but with a centreboard or leeboards, rounded bows and a different rig. Dutch harbour boats illustrated in old drawings always show some essentially Dutch features, such as a short gaff, a rig, leeboards or a Dutch style of hull. Most of these cannot be relied upon but they are indicative that Dutch boats were built locally. The question is when and why did the new design of the lambo become adopted by the local people, and the lambo has yet to be demonstrated to be Dutch in origin. There had been a long history of European influence and control of in the Indies. Sir Stamford Raffles in 1817 had noted that shipbuilding in Java is found only where there is western influence (Note 8). Presumably he referred to large yards building ships or large prahus. In 1837, G W Earl said that several shipbuilding companies in Java were run by English or Dutch managers. The carpenters would be local but clearly the designs were not. At many ports in the period 1880-1920 there must have been numerous local individuals, and perhaps local companies building boats. We can be confident that gaff cutters were built at Singapore for white men; indeed, one old Butungese sailor told me he thought the lambo design spread from there. In Indonesia, the local prahus of about 10 tons, available in ports but made in outlying boatyards in 1880-1920, would be the small prahu sopi of the east Moluccas, prahus

8 Fig 9. Boats in the Bay of Batavia to s how the dis tinc tion between the native boats and the Dutch one. From Middleton's Complele Sys1em of Geography 1797 . from Java and a variety of types from Sulawesi, the prahu kulis of the Kei Is or the leti-leti, a Madura design built in Sulawesi. These were all sharp at both ends, with pointed high prow and stern, and all carrying frames for s upporting the quarter rudders. These are all excellent boats for downwind trading, with square sail, s pritsail (very common on small boats in the main ports) or rig, but none of them would appear efficient at the s ide of a European design of that period, and all would be hopelessly inconvenient in having no deck, and with a square sail being able to sail only downwind. My theory is, therefore, that the local boatbuilders included skilful Butungese or Makassarese who were shown how to build handy cutters and for English customers in ports such as Singapore, and that they soon carried the design in their heads to their coastal home s. Whatever the exact nature of the introduction, by the 1920s the mobile Butungese had carried the design to Butung and had begun its spread eastwards to Kai, and south to the Lesser Sunda Is and to the Muslim village of Benoa on Bali, where the boats which catch the turtles to be eaten at Hindu funeral celebra­ tions are now derived from the Iambo design. The origin of the name lambo is obscure and in all of the names collected by westerners for boat styles in Indonesia there is an added complexity. The white man will naturally class the boats by their masts and rig but the Indones ian will provide names of boat types according to the hull, and usage of the same names differs from island to island. Most dictionaries trace the name lambo to a Javanese word lambu meaning simply 'boat' (Note 9). In my experience the word is not universal for this type of ship, and is applied locally with reservation, being perhaps derogatory. In the Kei Is the name used is arbor-bot, which sounds like English or Frisian rather than Dutch, and that name is understood at Ambon. When the wood used for the hull is of good quality, the proper name at Ambon is prahu bot. The name lambo is applied at Ambon when the wood is of poor quality. Nowadays the best timbers for marine work are hard to find, so it is understandable that the boats are mostly lambos. Certainly on Banda many of them are built of the Kanari tree (genus Canarium), which is the traditional shade tree, now being cut down from over the nutmeg groves, and it is not recommended for boats . ·

Q A SHIP FOR CIVILIZED TIMES

Hull shape The lambo is clearly a successful model in Indonesia today, and there are thousands of them in use as small traders throughout the Moluccas, Butung, and along the line of the Lesser Sunda Islands. First, the rig is more effective than the square sail which preceeded it on the boats of this size in these islands, and handier than the lateen sail which is still found locally on the Mandar coast of Sulawesi and in Madura. The gaff rig of a modern lambo is not so fast downwind as a square sail, and the lambo cannot sail as close to the wind as a prahu with a well-cut lateen, but it is more convenient for manoeuvring and tacking. This becomes more important as independence is sought from the dictates of the monsoons. A more interesting question is why the local merchants should change to a hull design which is totally different from that which evolved over centuries in the conditions around the Java Sea. The rounded keel, the flat bottom and the quarter rudders of the earlier designs were splendidly adapted to being run up a beach and lying dry at low tide, and they are the most practical design to build from short lengths of heavy, stilT timber. They are also safe to handle among coral reefs. Stoved-in bows and broken rudder are avoided if the keel curves gently into the stem and when the rudders lift over the coral heads, as happens in the old designs. The old banana shaped designs, with rounded bottoms, were also better for dragging up and down beaches, as was done regularly, for repairs and to prevent weed growth. Intimately connected with the adoption of the new hull style is the use of the fore-and-aft rig. Probably one of the reasons why the fore-and-aft rig took so long to develop in the west (almost 300 years from 1600 to 1900) is that very large stresses are exerted on a boat so rigged when sailing to windward. The tension exerted by the stays on the hull, and the compression on the mast, all concentrated at one place on the hull in a poor design, are much greater than the forces driving the boat; also the lateral forces on the keel and the force required on the tiller if the is not balanced, are greater than those borne by a square-rigged boat. Moreover, these forces are not readily assessed as the wind rises, as many yatchsmen have found to their surpri se. Lugsails and lateen sails are intermediate in the stresses they induce and these rigs precede fore-and-aft rigs in the historical sequence in many parts of the world. In Indonesia the choice of rig is determined by two needs of the small trader. First, he must be independent of the constant monsoon wind direction. Lugsails or lateen sails will serve as well as a galT rig. Secondly, he must operate with a small crew, in which case the galT rig, especially with a boom on the jib, has the advantage. My theory, based on observation of how the different types of boats are used, is that the fixed rudder, the deeper keel and the sharp bows of the lambo, while they are hydrodynamically more etTicient, become a nett advantage only when there is a jetty available and when the journey is to be made entirely in deep water. As that change occurred, there was also a shift from carrying men to carrying cargo. I believe that the same development of the same features could have taken place in the Mediterranean in classical times as a result of the development of harbours, charted routes and security on the sea. If you had to dash up the nearest creek or hide among the mangroves and reefs to escape pirates, you would not get far with a lambo hull. This amelioration of sailing conditions, which took place during the late nineteenth century in Indonesia, gave the advantage to the lambo hull over its varied predecessors. Comparable changes accompanied the extinction of the Viking ship in Europe. The next question is why choose a counter stern, which is clearly much more ditTicult to make, is a large conceptual change for the builder and local user, and not so strong or seaworthy as the older double­ enders of the Malay styles. In fact, for the first half of this century, the Iambo hull was built first with a sharp stern, the rudder was mounted on the sternpo st and then the counter was built out behind. As a result, the space on the counter was not properly sealed around the rudder stock and the cavity of the counter was effectively open to the sea. This design can still be found sometimes, in all areas of Indonesia. Subsequently the rudder tube was adopted. Even so, when there is a tube sealed into the hull, there is often a bulwark across the hull at this section, and the tube is not particularly well sealed. 10 The counter stern The convenience of having a counter as a place to sit, chat and sail the ship, is obvious. Indones ian prahus never have a cockpit as modern sailing boats do in cold climates. The afterdeck of a lambo is shaded by a canvas awning, the wind blows freely over the flus h deck, and the smells of the cargo or kitchen are forward, downwind. The technical advantage of the counter, however, is seen in docking. The usual way of bringing a lambo in to the jetty is to turn the boat round , at about 20 yards from the jetty, drop an anchor from the bows and then drift in stern first. The sails are dropped, the tiller, the toilet projecting over the stern, and the awning are removed. The stern is edged up to the jetty and tied, with the bows held off by the anchor hawser (Fig 10). This arrangement makes the hold accessible directly to the jetty and keeps the great fixed bowsprit out of the way. But, most significantly, the counter protects the rudder by keeping it off the jetty even when the stern rub s. At deep-water ports like Banda and Ambon one can see thi s operation every day. Although they have the compensation of being safer among reefs, the high stern, the complex rudder supports and the longer booms of the older styles are not nearly so convenient in port and they have to be anchored stern off, providing poor access to the jetty.

Fig 10. The technical advantage of the counter is seen in docking. A. The sails are dropped and the boat drifts in backwards. B. The tiller, the toilet a nd the awning are removed and the stern is edged up to the jetty. The counter protects the rudder and the hold is direc tly accessible from the s hore.

11 On the beach it is quite different. One finds lambos beached only where they have good access free from coral reefs at low tide; the rudder always has to be unshipped completely, while four or more strong poles are lashed to the mast and gunwales to hold the boat upright (Fig 7). The equivalent of the 'hard' in southern England, a stony beach which supports boats well, is often in Indones ia the site of a Muslim trading village that relies on its boats. Such a one is kampong Benoa, across a stretch of water from the docks at Benoa on the island of Bali. In contrast, earlier prahu types often get rougher berths.

Fittings and gear Details of the fittings and rigging of a lambo all bear strong marks of western influence, most being in fact the best copies that can be done with adze, parang, saw and augers using local hardwood, a few metal castings, wire and rope. One or two jibs are carried on a long bows prit, which is supported on each side by two planks running from the samson posts halfway between the s tem and the mast (Fig 11). Heavy crosspieces join these supports to form a catwalk from which the jib or anchor can be handled and from which the boat can be poled along in harbours or shallows. The reason for the numerous jibs on several modern Indonesian ship designs is that the clumsy sail plan can be adjusted with them to balance the he lm. For the same reason prahus with a lateen rig often have an additional small lateen placed far forward . A well balanced lambo on the other hand, can have a single large foresail laced to a heavy boom (Fig 12). The European

F ig II . A long bowsprit which i s supported on each side by a beam running to the end of the bow prit. This beam i s attached to the hull c lose by the samson posts , half-way between the stem and the mast: heavy c rosspieces fitted over the bowsprit join these beams to form a catwalk. Such a struc ture on western boats wou ld date from the end of the eighteenth century. 12 \

\ \

\

--

--

F ig 12. Head-on view of a !ambo unde r sail. Note the area cove red by the •lime/oil mixture , s tays, anchor s ty les, the foresail laced on the boom a nd the pla nking pa tte rn , a ll of which are comple te ly weste rn in origin. The hull s hape and plank lines are typical. predecessors often had loose-footed sails, but in the modern !ambo the mainsail is us ually laced to its boom, to the mas t, and to its gaff by di agonal lacing passed through eyelets or by the s ail rope. The large loose jaws are raised by a close to the mast (Fig 13). The angle of the gaff is adjusted by a separate line carried through two blocks near the masthe ad and then taken out to the s ide with the stays. Methods of setting the vary and almost always involve climbing up the mast and tying it on by hand . Battens are unknown. Large boats have a mizzen mast which is rigged in the same way as the mainmast. When there is a mi zzen mast the tackle of the ma ins ail is commonl y fixed to it (Fig 14) and the together with that of the mi zzen is held by the man at the helm. Like all boats in active service, the !ambo carries an assortme nt of gear, every scrap of whi ch mus t justify its existence (Fig 15). There are never any mechanical aids or electrical circuits . No naviga­ tional instruments or charts, no compass, clock, log or lead ; no fl ags, fl ares, life buoy or raft. The whole crew are as innocent of such complications as were the inshoremen of Europe in the las t century, (who, however, may have c arried a lead). Fog is very rare in Indonesia. If you are lost in the Java Sea, where islands are plentiful, you ask the way. Forward of the mast a ll boats carry a s ma ll unattached fireho.use, about a s quare, in which there is a fl at stone for a hearth and a few cooking pots. On deck there is always an e arthenware jar holding a few gallons of drinking water; probabl y a few more jars are stored be low. Often a few hens are tied by the leg to the anchor post forward and a s ma ll , square, gail y painted detachable toi let hangs out over the stern. A and plenty of spa re s pars are always carried.

13 Fig 13. The mainsail is laced by a continuous line; the jaws on gaff and boom are separately carved from a solid piece and attached to a bamboo pole: blocks are home-made and rigging is loose and a little rough.

Fig 14. Main sail s heet attached to the mizzen mast; jaws carved from the solid and fitted into the bamboo mizzen boom, lacing, boltrope, attachment of the tac k of the mizzen and c lew of the mainsail (both looking unsafe), running for the main mast, a nd the split bamboo s trips whic h protect the palm matting roof of the deckhouse. 14 Fig 15. Like all boats in use, the !ambo carries an assortment of gear, every scrap of which is kept in its place and must justify its existence. Note the adjusting screws and chains on the stays, the chair for pulling a man aloft (arrowed), the water pot, cooking pot, rolled sleeping mat, and poles with forked end for use as legs at low-water.

Under the palm mat roof of the deckhouse it is almost dark. A few mats on the floor are for sleeping on. An old suitcase or two hold the clothes of the crew, or of the wife and children if it is a family boat. Literally this is everything to be found on most boats; on trips from east to west a parrot or two are carried for sale at a higher price. A few dried octopuses, fish or shark's fins lie on the deckhouse roof and a paraffin pressure lamp is carried to attract fish at night, not under any circumstances as a navigation light.

15 BUILDING A LAMBO

Being s ited in out-of-the-way places where timber can still be obtained, boatyards are not easy to find in Indone s ia. Moreover, near ports and the centres of admini stration, which have now become populous and accessible, the local boatbuilding tradition has been swamped by western influences. So today one finds that old styles of local boats are built only in isolated places and even the specialists who build the modern lambos are far from the beaten track. The hull of a lambo is made of adzed logs, which we mu st call planks, that are carved to s hape and fixed edge-to-edge with wooden dowels half an inch diameter. Thin planks, for example to line the deck­ house roof, are cut in a sawpit under a shady tree near the boatyard (Fig 16). First a keel 6 to 8 inches wide and 8 to 10 inches deep is laid along the top of s upports or rollers which will eventually ease the

Fig 16. Planks are cut in a sawpit under a shady tree. This picture taken on Banda shows in the various stages from left to right, the modern economical western way of turning a log into planks by quarter sawing, and must have been learned from the Dutch. boat down the beach. Straight stem and stern post s are morticed at an angle at each end. The keel is usually of a s ingle piece; perhaps this lim its the size of the boat. The foot of the stem is often an angled piece of wood; the foot of the s ternpost is nowadays morticed into the top of a short extension of the keel. T he planks are never long enough to run the whole length of the boat, and when they are first fixed in place, edge-to-edge, by dowels, they are thicker than needed. The twist of the planks is formed by thinning down, in one part on one side and in another part on the other side. The method of twi sting or bending plank s by steaming them over a s low fire , exactly as was done in Europe , I have seen on ly in places where there is now a strong western influence. The hull is shaped as a she ll to about the turn of the bilge before the first floor timbers are fitted. 16 Fig 17. Heavy logs about a yard long, s haped like huge c lothes-pegs, hold the planks in position as they are made to fit c losely together by running a saw between them.

The fit of plank to plank is done by running a saw blade between them until light cannot be seen in the cracks. Timbers about a yard long, shaped like huge clothes-pegs, hold the plank in place during this operation (Fig 17). In the Kei Islands where the tradition is strong, and in Bali where the carpenters have the highest standards, the shell becomes a beautiful sculpture in wood, growing without plans as plank after plank is added. The dowels in the edges of the planks are fitted in the following way. First a row of holes is bored with an auger in the standing edge of the shell, then bits of fibre mixed with lime are pushed into these holes to act as markers. The next plank is then pressed into place and holes are bored into it where the white marks show. Wooden dowel s about half an inch diameter and 6 inches long are knocked into one side and the new plank is then fitted. In thi s way the added plank can be pushed nearly home because the dowels bend s ufficiently. Even though the two holes for each dowel are not exactly in the same line, the joint tightens up when the plank is finally driven home. A special wood is used for the dowels: in Sulawesi, Ambon, Banda and the Sunda Islands it is a red wood, formerly used as a source of dye, called sappang, Caesalpinia sappan L., which has been an article of trade to China for 1000 years and has long been known in the wes t, for example to Linnaeus. It is a small thorny tree of sand dunes and beach crests, used also for making fences. It is hard, straight-grained, fibrous, rot proof and so loaded with silica that it is resistant to the tropical marine borer Teredo, but many woods have these features and the special mechanical properties that make sappang the most suitable for treenails are unknown. Sappang is not always available. In Ambon many of the hulls are fixed together with dowels of the same wood as used for the planks. I've even found there the traditional local boat, the orembai, built of a poor wood, gupassar, with dowels of the same material. In the Kei Islands there is an even better wood for dowels, Mimusops elengi, which is a New Guinea genus. That these are the best woods for dowels was known to Rumphius (1741) in 1700 AD, and planks of boats were joined edge-to-edge by dowels before the western explorers arrived in this part of the world (Note 10). The ribs and floors are selected as required from a collection of convenient pieces of curved branches (Fig 18). The floor timbers are all sharply angled pieces of wood of 4 to 6 inches depth and mould, cut in the solid from a branching point on the tree. Large floor timbers are sometimes 4 feet long on each arm but it is evident that such large pieces at the appropriate angle are rare. The timbers and planks are all shaped with a small adze which is fixed on its shaft in the same way as a stone adze, although the blade is nowadays a piece of motor car spring steel of excellent quality (Fig 19). Floors are separated by about 3 feet on large hulls, with room for one or two ribs between (Fig 20). Nowadays in Ambon, and Kei, some of the floors are bolted down to the keel instead of being fixed down with treenails. The ribs also follow the curve from the keel to the bilge and then they follow the reversed bend round the side of the hull, which is usually built up to the final height before the ribs are inserted (Figs 21 & 22). There are no patterns or plans, and although the boats are all built in exactly the same way in a particular yard, with

17 I r

Fig 18. From a great collec tion of curved branches , the ribs and floors are laboriously carved to shape .

( I '

F ig 19.· All timbers and planks a re s ha ped with a small adze, wh ich is made from a piece of s tee l that is· mounted with rotan binding upon a wooden s haft in the same way as the mounting of a primitive stone adze.

18 Fig 20. View looking forward in the partially completed shell of a lambo at Panta Sero at the stage when the floors are being fitted. Only a few treenails have been inserted and partially driven in. Each floor is made of a single piece of wood. The planks are about 8 inches wide. little difference between islands, the hulls noticeably come out with small differences in shape. The bows range from a narrow form almost like an Arab dhow to a full rounded shape reminiscent of a Dutch , and the quality of the construction varies greatly (compare Figs 21, 22 & 23). The treenails which hold the ribs and floors to the shell are placed at every place where two pieces of wood cross each other, so that they are about 6 to 8 inches apart along the lines of the ribs and floors. The treenails, usually about 18 inches long when new, are s lightly tapered, about Y.z to~ inch in diameter, and are always made with a thick head to take the ha mmering. The holes for them a re bored right through, the treenails are knocked through from the inside, then the ends are eventually cut off flush and wedges are knocked in. Whereas dowels are indigenous, the treenails and everything they are used for appear to be western in origin. At the bows the timbers are curved in, not by bending them but by carving them to fit. To do this quickly, often quite short lengths of a yard or two are used near the stem, giving a weak appearance (Fig 24). At the bows the timbers of a lambo are always fixed with treenails to an apron which is set behind the stem (Fig 25); in fact the apron is the most recent of the mechanically significant structures to be introduced. When an apron is found in an Indonesian boat of an old style it is a sure sign that the builder has been influenced by the lambo design of the twentieth century. The pattern of alternating ribs and fl oors (Fig 26) is a western feature which was adopted long ago, quite independently of the apron, and is now found in the construction of most types of Indonesian prahu (Note 11).

19 Fig 21. The bows of a nearly complete hull at Elat, Kei Islands, with the builder, who said that this type of hull was new to Kei about 1920. Note the three large bolts , with hardwood washe rs , attaching apron to stem and three more holding down floors to the keel in the foreground.

Fig 22. Stern of the same hull. Notice the angle at which the planks come together on the unders ide of the counter, and the short lengths of rib, some of which is old timber. 20 Fig 23. Bows of a hull at Panta Sero, Banda, showing the excellent workman­ ship of fitted planks and the long lengths of ribs. Note that the apron has to be bolted to the stem because that attachment may be stressed in tension, in which case it is not adapted for assembly with treenails.

At the stern a hole is left behind the top of the sternpost, where the rudder tube will later be sealed into the hull (Fig 27). This is another place where the western design, combined with local methods and materials, leads to a weak feature. Short pieces of wood have to be fitted in around the rudder tube. Under the counter, planks of special shape have to be fixed upon inadequate supports. The planks above and behind the rudder tube are continued as a flat overhang. This part of the shell, in one example under construction at Panta Sero, carried a large T-shaped piece of timber (Fig 28) which was used to hold the two sides of the boat together as the counter was formed. In fact the T-shaped piece could have acted as a template, although I did not ascertain this. One curious detai I is that there is often a space left open above the heel of the keel as if for a propeller, as shown in Fig 34. So far I have never found a !ambo with an engine, but I suppose they live in hope. If the overhang of the transom is not joined across as it is built it will tend to separate into two halves during construction, as well as later. There is clearly a problem in fixing the ends of the planks whi~h come together at a small angle on the under side of the counter, leaving a seam down the midline. I have found at least three ways of dealing with this problem devised by Indonesian boatbuilders in various local yards in outlying areas. In one method, large floors are placed along the counter as a continuation of the floors on the keel (Fig 21). These floors are subsequently held at the correct spacing by a long timber near them (called gading like the ribs) on the midline of the counter. The final structure is

21 ,.. --

---

Fig 24. At the bows the timbers are curved in, not by bending them, but by carving additional pieces to fit. The short lengths make a weak structure, which is counteracted by the heavy ribs inside. Note the apron.

very heavy. The second method is to terminate the planks rather low down and finish the stern with a series of transverse pieces. This method is done particularly well at Panta Sero, Banda (Fig 29) . The third way to finish the stern is to alter the lines of the planks well forward from the stern and make a low flat counter as described below for the Balinese turtle boats. In addition, the Balinese insert a central timber which is rebated to take the ends of the planks, like a stempost, as is shown in Fig 34. Whatever the variant of the design, the planks at the stern end of the counter abut upon a very wide transom plank which lies horizontally and reaches from one side of the boat to the other. All ~ planks which reach this far are fixed firmly with treenails to the transom, and all planks meet it except those that end on the midline against their opposite partner. The deck, which is a Dutch introduction to this part of the world, is restricted to the bows and to parts aft of the deckhouse because the floor of the deck· house consists only of loose planks laid over a few beams. It is a feature of Indonesian prahus that where there are deck beams they do not participate in strengthening the hull, which agrees with the idea that they are a recent introduction. All prahus are built as stiff shells, into which the deck beams Fig 25. The timbers are always pinned to an apron which have not been integrated, except in a few modern is set behind the stem post. examples. Also, there are rarely any elbows supporting the deck beams and, except in Bali, stanchions are mere ly props that look temporary.

22 The deck is flush except for a low toe rail formed by the gunwales (Fig 30). When the shell is complete the tops of most of the ribs are cut off flush. Two projecting ribs are left on each side near the bows, two more for attach­ ment of the shrouds, and sometimes others for running back stays. Deck beams are then stretched across and fixed to the ribs with large treenails. A gunwale of thick timber is then carved to shape, fitted over the tops of the cut-off ribs, round the outside of projecting ribs, and fixed down with large treenails. The deck planks are fitted without much attention to strengthening the ship. Leaks in the de.ck are later sealed with resin or tar (Fig 30). The rudder blade together with its stock are cut from a single piece of hardwood, and the leaf is often strengthened with a short bar on each side, even before it cracks (Fig 30). The tiller is of western style. The rudder is supported on pintles (called pin) and gudgeons which are simple iron staples. The name used for Fig 26. Detail of ribs and floors alternating, as in much western gudgeon is zapatu, which is the Malay practice throughout the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. word for 'shoe' derived from the Portuguese, who introduced shoes to this part of the world. The word zapatu is probably taken from the Malay, not from the old Portuguese directly, because according to ROdling (1795) the old Portuguese for gudgeon was femeas do Ierne. The rudder tube is a hollowed-out trunk which is sealed into the deck and into the hole shown in Fig 27. The bore of the rudder tube is always much larger than the diameter of the stock. The rudder is unshipped by diving under the stern when the tide is in. There is never any outside ballast on a !ambo keel, and ballast inside is never very obvious, occasionally a few Fig 27. Having a counter stern means that the stock of the rudder must pass large stones may be found through the hull. The rudder stock is mounted on A which is attached to the end of the keel. The stempost B ends at the counter. Inside the hull wedged between the floors there is a bulkhead in front of A. The rudder tube wi II be mounted in the near the keel, but that is all. hole through which this bulkhead is visible. This is the same boat as Fig 35.

23 Fig 28. The T-shaped timber which is attached to the deadwood at the stern of a lambo in cons truction. This timber assists in forming the shape of the counter stern and in holding its two ha lves together. Note the treenails into the planks on both s ides, the c urves which have been carved into the planks , and the line of weakness down the centre.

Fig 29. Stern view of a lambo hull at Panta Sero, Banda, showing the shape, the exposed sternpost where the rudder will fit, the plank lines and the solid transom composed of three layers. Note the short lengths of the planks. Butungese names are as follows: I, sunti. 2, karindi. 3, sempe (very large inside the hull). 4, dopi or parku. 5, taju.

24 Fig 30. De ta ils on the aft-deck of a Butung lambo. There is no cockpit. The rudde r, with two iron pintles not collinear with the s tock, has been uns hipped. Although the rudder blade is cracked , it is formed of a single piece of wood. The rudder tube is a hollowed tree trunk which is bui lt into the deck a nd sealed into the hull jus t behind the s tempost. The blocks and the c leat are also cut from solid pieces of hardwood and there is no trace of paint.

The mas t is supported by a strong thwart, and s tands upon a short keelson which lies along three or four floors and ribs. The deck is supported on rather light cross pieces and often the central part of the s hip is not decked permanently but is covered by a thatched roof und er which the floor is movable for acce ss to the cargo. All boats have a deckhouse with a central ridge, strong planked wall s and several layers of thatch which are he ld down by layers of split bamboo. As a result the boom is set high on the mast and it is difficult to run the length of the boat on the outside of the deckhouse. A team of three or four s killed men can build a Ia mbo of 36 to 40 feet long and 20 tons capacity in a few months, if the wood is available . Often, however, half-built boats wait for timbers of the right shape or for finance. This can be disastrou s because the half-built hull changes shape as the wood dries and it may split so badly that large sections have to be remade.

25 AN ILL-ADAPTED MIXTURE

The change to building a western type of boat is a very large one for an Indonesian boatbuilder. His traditiOnal craft has two sharp ends with high upturned stem and stern posts. The planks were originally sewn edge-to-edge, but sometime before the Europeans arrived in the sixteenth century the sewing was already being replaced in centres of boatbuilding technology by fixing the planks edge-to­ edge with dowel s (Horridge, 1978). The shell of the hull was always built first, by carving the planks to fit: there were a standard number of planks and each was of traditional s hape determined by the intended shape of the final hull. At s tem and stern the planks were not bent round and pinned to an apron, as in western practice since the fourteenth century, but short pieces were carved to fill in the curve of the bows and stern. The plank pattern was s uitable for a sewn or dowelled shell. For a long time flexible ribs were lashed to projecting lugs carved on the planks, as described by Wallace (1869, p 421) for Kei Island prahus, and as can s till be seen today in the prahu belang of the Aru. Is. (Horridge, 1978). The mast was a tripod, the rudder was on the quarter and supported by a transverse bar of very traditional form . The Keel was derived from a dugout canoe, and stiff ribs and floors were western in origin. The hull s hape of the )ambo is clearly a copy of a western model, and the lines of the planks of a western boat have also been followed by the Indonesian boatbuilder, but the problems of design and building a s hell from short pieces of hard tree trunk carved to shape are quite different from thos e in fixing flexible planks on preformed frames. In fact the lambo holds together because the planks, ribs, and floors are so immensely stiff and heavy. As I have argued e lsewhere (Horridge, 1978), the Indones ian boat hull was traditionally held together by projecting lugs on the planks, lashed to flexible ribs. Copying western styles, larger boats were built and stiff ribs and floors were introduced, but with the local materials and method of construction the hull was little better than an inverted arch of blocks. The lambo hull has a shape which was designed for building with long, light planks. Inevitably, therefore, difficulties arise. At Tajandu, one of the outlying is lands of the Kei group, I found a Iambo hull nearly complete but it had split down the midline under the counter (Fig 31). The builder told me he had had so much difficulty trying to keep the two halves of the counter together that he s thinking of abandoning the whole boat and us ing the wood for another one. This, together with observations on old boats which come into the yards for a refit, has brought me to the opinion th at the keeled hull with a counter that has planks meet­ ing at an angle on the midline is almost too difficult to carve out of hardwood tree trunks and assemble entirely with wooden dowels, as they do. All the pieces of wood are immen sely heavy and short, and the plank lines are not adapted to the materials or to the method of construction. To make the point more clearly one has only to ask how the planks of a Iambo are cramped together to keep out the water as the boat works in a sea. It is essential th at the planks should not separate as the waves s tress the hull unevenly. In a European carvel-built boat the edges of the planks are cramped against each other so that they are always in compression around the hull. Primitive ways of achieving this in a planked boat are discussed by Horridge (1978). In a lambo the ribs and floors are fixed crossways in a shell that has been slowly drying out under a shelter of palm thatch for a few months. The treenails holding the ribs are driven home after the planks have been carved very carefully to fit against each other. There is no bast or caulking between them. When the lambo is launched the wood swell s. Even hardwood swells more across the grain than than along it , so that the seams will tend to close up and press against each other. The clamping effect is greater if the hull is reasonably dry inside. The Iambos are not caulked but the outside is covered by· a thick layer of a mixture of lime and vegetable oil which stays hard in sea-water. From the method of construction it follows that the ribs and fl oors must be immensely stiff and heavy. Because the she II is a lready stiff, th e ribs and floors would not share the loads on the hull if they were not even s tiffe r than the hull. If they were less numerous they wou ld not be adequate to cramp the planks together and they almost form a second shell within the planks.

26 Fig 31. The builder of this hull on Tajandu (Kei Is.) expec ted to have to abandon it because he found the stem too hard to shape. The counter s tem is not adapted to the eastern method of building by carving logs to s hape and fitting them edge-to-edge with dowels. The counter s tem is more readily made by bending planks over frames that have been cut from plans, and even the n can be a source of weakness in a rough sea.

27 THE TURTLE BOATS OF BALl

Although there is an international convention against the sale and slaughter of turtles, this is not adhered to by the Indonesians. One reason is that conservation cannot be enforced in isolated islands. In Bali the turtles are used as a s pecial dish at funerals. The turtles are caught on sandy cays and small islands to the north of Bali in boats which are specialized for the purpose. These are the most modern of the Indonesian prahus in general use that are built with hand tools in a native boatyard. The Balinese turtle boat, called there a lomboh Bali, is a lightly built gaff cutter 30 to 40 feet long, and 9 to 10 feet beam, characterized by low freeboard aft (Fig 32).

Fig 32. Balinese turtle boat at anchor off Benoa, Bali.

28 There is a central deckhouse which has a door at each end and no fixed floor. Usually this deckhouse has strong sides of large boards, and a light roof of woven palm held down by a layer of split bamboo. Under the deckhouse is a well, open to the hold, while fore and aft of this the deck is flush. The low freeboard aft is to enable the heavy turtles to be lifted from the sea, and they are carried in the hold in large numbers with some sea water. Apart from this specialization, the boat is built for a combination of speed and ability to sail close to the wind because essentially the trade must be independent of the monsoon winds . The rig is that of an old-fashioned Bermuda cutter with a large single jib. The long bowsprit consists of one, or sometimes three, squared poles, held down by a strong galvanized wire cable, with galvanized adjusting screws, fixed by an iron ring to the stem. The large single jib is laced to a flexible boom all along its foot and raised by slides which run along the fixed , and there is a lift for the jib boom. The bowsprit is attached to a strong cross beam which in turn is attached above the deck to samson posts about halfway between the bows and a mast, as a lightweight version of that shown in Figure 11 . Two or three wire stays on each side are fixed with hanks to projecting ends of ribs. The mast is raked back strongly and set on a keelson. The gaff is often as long as the boom. The mainsail is either triangular, in which case the gaff is raised until it is vertical, or alternatively the gaff is raised to an angle of about 60° to the mast, which is then thin at the top. There is a and a movable backstay that is hooked to a bar on each quarter. There is always a simple movable horse which fits in holes in the deck, a movable wooden toilet over the stern, a demountable central rudder fixed on iron pintles, a tiller and an awning (Fig 32). A glance at the construction shows that the workmanship is excellent. The carpenters at the boatyard at Benoa are highly skilled Balinese, although the boats are mostly operated by Muslim descendants of Bugis traders and the turtles sold through the Chinese dealers. The bows are built like any other ]ambo, with a European pattern of planking that is fixed with treenails to a broad apron on the stempost. At the stern, however, the lines are finer than those of a typical ]ambo and the problem of bursting open along the midline has been solved by two modifications of the standard western design. First, instead of narrowing as they run aft, the planks get wider, and this has such a profound effect on the plank lines that only two planks would meet on the midline on the underside of the counter. Four or even five of the planks end on the transom, which is a large strong baulk of timber that is fitted early in the process of construction. The other new feature is a timber down the centreline on the underside of the counter, to which the planks on either side are pinned in a rebated groove. Comparison of Figure 34 with Figure 29 will show the advance of the Balinese design over the Banda version. More dramatic is the comparison with the failure on the isolated island of Tajandu, at the north end of the Kai Islands, where the hull was split like the skin of a moulting dragonfly larva (Fig 31). The Tajandu builder was struggling alone with a design that was inappropriate to his materials and methods. He had built up the shell from the keel, carving the planks one by one, but as the wood had dried the shell had opened out. Without transverse supports in the counter, the stern had split and there was no traditional way available for holding the two sides of the counter together. The Butungese on Banda had a large group of men and they finished their stern by sledgehammer tactics, large timbers and numerous treenails. The Balinese builders build faster; they have a better design, choice of longer wood and a lighter construction, but a less seaworthy ship. The hull is built as a shell of carved baulks of Calophyllum inophyllum fixed together edge-to-edge with dowels. This is a reddish brown timber which grows near the sea. It makes excellent floors, ribs, etc. for boats and is suitable for planks but is rarely found in long lengths. In whole ships of the type were formerly made from it. The name in Malay is penaga, in Buginese pude, nyamplong in Sundanese and camplong in Balinese. A better timber when available is Lagerstroemia speciosa, called bongor raya in Malay, tangi in Balinese, rangoting in Mandar and known as jarul throughout India, where it is much used for making boats. This is a large tree with violet flowers and dark red wood, but even this is not so good as teak {jatt) for marine work. The Balinese high standard of craftmanship ensures that the planks are carefully carved to fit exactly, and the timber weJI selected. Inside, at first sight, we find a well built interior (Fig 33, A & B). Floors and ribs are of grown timber, cut to shape with an adze. A few of the floors may be separate, but usually they are scarf-joined to the ribs, making a continuous curve from one side of the boat to the other. This contrasts with North Sea practice, in which the floors end at a dead rising, alternating with ribs which end at the keel (Fig 33C). It is of interest to try to see the significance of the difference.

29 The structure in Figure 33C is designed so that stresses caused by crushing the boat or by irregular loading by waves at sea are distributed between adjacent floors and timbers through the elasticity of the planks. Basically it is a structure which spreads stresses around, and the ribs and floors take the strain because the planks are flexible. The European struc­ ture was designed around long, thin, flexible planks. Now we consider the effect of copying this pattern, or at B - least of putting ribs and floors c into a shell of carved hard­ wood. The outer shell is very stiff for two reasons: first, it is composed of thick baulks of carved hardwood; secondly, the shell is not flexible because it has double curvature, like an egg. If the floors and ribs are going to take up any of the loads from the shell they will have to be even stiffer than the shell. This is why floors and ribs in lambos and primi­ tive boats in general have to Fig 33. A and B. Interior of a Balinese turtle boat. C. Contrasting be thick baulks of hard wood. design from the Scottish East coast, modified from Edgar By better design, however, March's ( 1952) chapter on and zulus . The Balinese some more load can be taken design is less flexible and less capable of distributing s tresses, but may be be tter adapted to a stiff s he ll hull. into the ribs and floors when the shell is stressed. One example is by making the floors as long as possible, and from forked pieces of wood (Fig 21). Another way is shown in the Balinese boat in Figure 33B: by incorporating the stanchion in a triangular truss, the very stiff support so formed will draw to itself any load s caused by crushing the shell. The structure was almost certainly not designed with this in mind, and is not very desirable anyway in that stress concentrations are caused at the corners of the triangles, but at least the wood will give a return for its weight by bearing load, whereas the ribs and floors in a typical lambo seem to serve mainly to prevent the planks from separating from each other. Discussion of such points could be endless, but sufficient has been said to show that when the western hull is copied with an adze and hardwood, one cannot expect the design to remain structurally effective. A much more interesting question, which perhaps future designers will answer, is how to make the best use of these materials, and build a light-weight seaworthy sailing boat with fore-and-aft rig from carved pieces of hardwood held together without iron.

30 Fig 34. Ste m vie w of a Ba linese turtle boat on the s tocks with the lowe r transom being fitted. Note the pl ank lines (a s compared to F ig 30) and th e midline timber (as compared to Fig 28). The s ha rp break in the plank lines can a lso be seen on the left hand s ide of this hull. The in s ide of this hull is shown in F ig 33A.

Fig 35. Counte r stem of a Ba linese turtle boat seen from the s ide, showing the change in th e angle in the plank lines necessary to ach ieve a fl a t s te rn, and the s pace left for a propelle r. A and B a re al so seen in F ig 27.

31 DISCUSSION

The effectiveness of the lambo Comparison of the efficiency of the !ambo with western boats of the last century is hardly fair because the conditions of use, the materials, and the way of life of the sailors are totally different. A fast western boat, built lightly of pine on oak, does not survive more than a year in the tropical Indies unless sheathed or repeatedly coated with an effective antifouling paint. Already by the 1550s, the Portuguese had discovered that their own great would survive only 3 or 4 round trips to the Indies and they had copies built of teak under contracts to the local rulers of Goa. One of these, the Cinco Chagas, lasted 25 years (Boxer, 1959 , p.7). Prahus of all kinds for work in the remote islands are made of planks cut 2 inches or more thick from hardwoods that are heavily loaded with silica which wears down the cutting surface of the boring Teredo shell faster than the animal can replace it. The traditional anti­ fouling paints of lime and oil appear to work only because they are friable and regularly renewed; in fact they serve mainly to seal the leaks. The growth of weeds on the hull is treated by laboriously scraping whenever an opportunity presents itself, and by drying out at low tide. The !ambo is a weaker ship than the western equivalent, even of the eighteenth century. In northern Europe a 10 ton cutter or ketch might well be expected to survive a reasonably severe storm and to meet regularly with winds of force 7 or 8. It is my impression, having sailed in the Banda Sea, that the !ambo is a fair weather boat that survives only in these sheltered seas, must seek shelter in winds of more than about force 5, and that the canvas would be lost in anything more than a mild blow. In keeping with this, the weather of the Java and Banda Seas is for the most part predictable. The monsoons come in slowly and blow steadily, squalls are unusual and places for sheltering are to be found everywhere. In fact the problem is to avoid running aground, and a ship must be constructed so that it can be recovered after a pounding on a reef or after lying out on a sandbank at every low tide for a month in the tropical sun. To this end the !ambo is built lightly stressed. The stays flop idly slack; the mast and bowsprit largely support themselves. The hull is built like a bath tub, to hold a distributed load, and therefore there is an enormous difference for it between being afloat and lying ashore. In the first case the pressures are inward on the planks which are pushed together like stones of an arch, and in the second the cargo is bursting open the hull. Cross beams and deck are not strongly built, so the floors and ribs must be tremendously strong, and able to distribute loads. The only reason the loads are distributed without cracking open the seams seems to be that the planks fit closely and are cramped together by their own swelling, but even so these boats have to be regularly pumped at sea. Finally, the !ambo is more crudely built than a western boat of even the seventeenth century. Of )ambos differ in fini sh and in design, as I have shown. The western boat had long planks, an excellent rib design, long gunwales, supporting bulwarks and deck beams effectively fastened with elbows and stanchions. The !ambo has none of these, and also in the !ambo the mast is stepped on the keel so that the tension in the stays adds load to the shell of the hull. A mast stepped on a bulwark or arched deck beam avoids this. The !ambo holds together because the shell is so heavily built. Having progressive ly improved S\ructural advantages and a better design, the western boats could be made lighter, and in addition were made of less dense wood. The fore-and-aft rig was possi ble only because the carpenters improved their arrangements of timbers. Western hull shapes were also progressively improved, under the competition of having a peri shable cargo, or a race with the customs officers. The !ambo is simply a copy of the final western hull shape and external plank pattern, that has been copied by eye with no regard to the change to a less flexible, heavier timber and a totally different method of holding the boat together.

32 The recent historical setting The Dutch had boats built to their own designs at Onrust in Bay and Dutch boats were copied at Ambon, Batavia, Gresik and so on. Old illustrations or photographs of harbours in the Dutch Indies show numerous examples built along western lines. Travel accounts tell the same story, and even today one can find rotting hulls that resemble those to be found in Europe. They were made of machine-sawn planks that were bent around measured frames: some clinker, some carve! built. Small boats were held together with copper nails clenched over a washer on the inside. Clearly they were the result of Dutch management in an advanced economy. These boats were not adopted by native boatyards in remote islands mainly because components had to be purchased to build them and they offered no advantages over the traditional method of building. As Dutch rule brought safety, prosperity and increase in population, it became possible for small boat owners to make a living by bringing copra to Java and returning to the Moluccas with consumer goods. As it happened, it was mainly the Butungese who took up this trade, and evidently they found the !ambo a suitable vessel. In the Moluccas the !ambo became the universal small transport for peaceful purposes when harbours and jetties became available. Their increase was later than and independent of the increase in trade by the large Bugis prahus, called . In the nineteenth century the increase in the numbers of Bugis prahus, and the spread of the Bugis trading settlements, was connected with the rise of Singapore as a trading post, and the role of the Chinese, spreading with their shops throughout the East Indies. At that time the !ambo was unknown. In the twentieth century the Bugis pinisi have adopted the practice of making regular runs, with up to several hundred boats travelling on the same tracks, carrying timber between main ports and they have given the solitary wandering role to the !ambo. At places like Ambon, Banda, Ceram, Benoa on Bali, and Kei Is., !ambos leave every week for neighbouring islands carrying any local produce that will make a profit, and distributing small manufactured goods. Historically the growth in the number of both !ambos and pinisi coincides roughly with the growth in trade which followed the estab­ lishment in 1891 of the KPM (Koninklijke Paketvaart Maatschappij), the pacification of the outer islands beginning with the Lombok campaign in 1894, and the increase in the numbers of traders as the cash economy became organized in an era of peace and population increase. The wooden boats were indeed rele­ egated to the role of feeder vessels for the steamships, which meant that fewer long distance prahus but more small local ones were required. In contrast, during the depression of the thirties, as reported by Dick (1975), shipping by large Bugis prahu increased at Ujung Pandang (Makassar) because preference was given to the cheap but unreliable service by large, long distance prahu rather than the safer but more expensive KPM. Most of the lambo trade would not appear on the records because it was not in major ports. During the war, machine-sawn planks, power tools and marine accessories became unobtainable, and all Dutch shipping was either sunk or escaped. The Japanese applied pressure to native boatyards to increase the output of prahus but by the end of the war most of the inter-island trade had collapsed. After the war motorised shipping returned but services to small islands and isolated villages were not renewed. To quote Dick (1975) 'Smuggling and various forms of -legal trading, stimulated by foreign exchange regulations and political instability, also created many opportunities, especially after 1953 when the political situation in South Sulawesi deteriorated into anarchy.' Over the past 50 years the small prahu has had the advantage for local trade for many reasons: first, they could be built and maintained with local material s (except for rope). Secondly, they required no facilities such as fuel, radio service, port equipment or trained personnel. Thirdly they were unregulated: this independence from the bureaucracy probably contributed more than anything else to their success. Lambos usually have a number and are listed but their movements are free. There are still no port charges for small prahus although some cargoes carried are taxed, particularly copra and timber (see Dick, 1975). At present in the Moluccas, every coastal village is likely to have a !ambo of its own. With a population of 16,000, Banda is served by 14 to 20 !ambos. In summary, the !ambo had the advantage for trade in this century over other types of prahu because its rig makes it fairly independent of the seasonal turnaround of the monsoon winds, its counter and rudder design makes it convenient for loading at small ports, and its size is just sufficient for it to earn a living for the master and crew of two or three. It is restricted, however, to inter-island traffic in placid seas. The future of the !ambo in commerce depends on whether fuel and manufactured goods become available so that motorboats of similar size with diesel engines take over the trade, as they have done almost everywhere else in the world, for example among the Norwegian coastal islands. At present the signs are that the spread of engines will be slow in the remote islands of Indonesia.

33 The demographic significance of the lambo The village of Panta Sero is a living example of the success of the 'supertramp' style of colonization. The term was invented for seabirds. 'Supertramps specialize in rapid breeding and over­ water colonization, but they have paid the price for these adaptations and are excluded from most islands by competitors that feed more efficiently' (Diamond, 1974, p 804). This quotation refers to birds, and needs to be broadened to include seafarers and other tramps such as weeds, but Diamond and others have already seen the relevance to the life styles of particular groups of men (Diamond, 1977). A maritime people cannot compete inland with fixed agriculture and complex social systems that develop on large islands, but they can search out and quickly exploit new home sites by se&. The village of Panta Sero provides a model of how the gene pools, technological know-how and loan words spread haphazardly over a long period among the islands of the Indonesian Archipelago and out into the Pacific. In that the malaria mosquito avoids the seaside, there may also be a correlation between a high effective birthrate and living close to the sea. Several millenia ago the Austronesians were supertramps in that undeniably they developed a technology concerned with boats, fishing methods and seamanship and they established shoreline communities some of which later moved inland. Given the geography of the area, and the logistics of movement and warfare, this is the simplest way to explain the complex pattern of languages, cultures and races which lie to the East of the As ian mainland. A few boats will hold enough warriors to attack a village, but on the other side a few boats will hold enough of the people to allow them to escape elsewhere. More recently there has been an expansion of the Badjo people (the sea gypsies) by similar means (Sopher, 1965) but their technology and economic base was too weak to survive the impact of civilization. During the nineteenth century when their particular style of ship and trading was most successful the Bugis people established colonies at most of the seaports of Indonesia, by building out on piles near the harbours. My own very rough surveys made by questioning sailors at Ambon, Kei, Aru, Sulawesi, Bali and along the North coast of Java, suggest that with the development of the !ambo in the mid-twentieth century, the Butung people have already adopted the supertramp strategy. Preceding the expanding phase of the colonization by supertramps, an initial trigger is essential. This need not be an increase in food. In the case of the Bugis it was first the pressure at home, then later the policy of the Dutch (Note 12). For the Butung people the trigger may have been the reduced mortality as a result of modern medicine, or something quite different like the availability of rot-proof fishing equip­ ment. In the expansion phase the characteristic is rapid reproduction with survival, and the ability to build a colony with local materials. The village of Panta Sero illustrates both of these features. In the next stage, the colonists adapt themselves psychologically and culturally to their new home as the new territory becomes saturated, while density-dependent factors such as disease, nutrition, and cultural complexity tend to reduce the birthrate. Settlers become on average less adventurous, if only because life at home becomes more pleasant and the adventurous ones have left. Selection is now in the direction of conserving local resources. There is an advantage to communities which can cohere together, repel potential invaders, establish a cultural framework among themselves and their neighbours, and improve their techniques for exploitation of fisheries, agriculture and trade. This can be seen happening at Butung colonies today. New cement houses were built in 1977 at Panta Sero. In the final phase the colonists have specialized and found themselves predictable life styles, which become progressively more established in larger areas or stable habitats, for example by agricultural traditions. They move into and persist in areas that are less readily invaded when their origin of coastal settlements are threatened by new colonists. They become backward in comparison with new mobile groups, and ultimately they break up into isolated groups of settled peoples. Now, having the model before us, we can see that this could have been the way that communities have developed and diversified in the past all over Indonesia.

New trends in lambo design Some inevitable changes can be foreshadowed in construction methods and design of the )ambo. The progressive adoption of western methods will continue, step by step, but evolution of the )ambo will not follow the evolution of the modern sailing boat in the west because needs are different and because avail- able materials will lead in another direction. Some of the critical steps can already be found in Bali, "' where the )ambo design is most perfected for the utilization of the mechanical properties of hard, stiff baulks of wood.

34 The future trends in Indonesia are predictable from what has occurred at Singapore and in the where marine plywood, bronze bolts and other fittings have long been available. Everywhere in Indonesia, sawmill timber is coming into use. It only requires the setting up of one factory for plywood to become popular. Local timber is getting scarcer all the time at Ambon and Banda, but not yet in Kei, Aru, Ceram, Sumatra, etc. On the other hand, bolts, chain, copper nails, small , small petrol engine pumps and electric generators are at present expensive. After that phase , we may look forward to the day of the plastic prahu moulded to resemble a traditional boat. On the island of Bali I came across one stage in this process of change. A European caHed Philippe was having a 45ft boat built to his own design. Being knowledgeable about the islands, he had selected Bali as the place where craftsmen are more skilled, obedient and careful than elsewhere. He had imported from Borneo long planks of wood resembling teak. Philippe's design had an enormously strong, straight keel into which s traight stem and stern posts were morticed at each end with about 200 of rake. When I saw the shell it wa s up to the sixth plank. Workmen on the beach were bending planks in the old European fashion in the steam over a smouldering, damp fire (Fig 36) . This is not done in building a !ambo as described above. Planks were being fitted by the traditional method, with handsaw and huge clothes-pegs cut from heavy logs (Fig 17). The planks were fixed edge-to- A edge with dowels of sappang wood at close intervals, and fixed with large treenails to the stem and stern posts. Rather flat floors with a gentle curve were being shaped to the hull. The work­ manship was excellent. The strength of the final boat will depend very much on the des ign of the ribs, bulwarks and deck supports. Frankly, given the hull that is taking shape in Fig 37, plenty of fine timber and a few good carpenters, anybody with a reasonable knowledge of early twentieth century design, or with a set of plans, could produce a boat far in advance of the !ambos that are everywhere in sight of thi s boatyard. The local men, experienced in building B turtle boat s, will ensure that a boat e merges. The flat-bottomed hull will need an iron keel or leeboard s to grip the water. I don't know what was in Philippe's mind, but he will produce a vessel of which some features may become incorporated in local traditions and, if successful , may spread. The process of evolution of man was, in essence according to Darwin, no more complicated a process.

Epilogue At the beginning of his loving study of the North Sea herring drifters, Edgar March reminds us of the ir passing. F i g 36. Bending or twisting planks over a steaming fire. A 'These fleets have now sailed beyond Scene at Benoa in 1976. Wate r is thrown on burning the horizon of man's sight, never to coconut husks while heavy logs are hung on the two planks th at are being steamed. B. Illustration of an old return, and seem likely to vanish into Dutch method in whic h the pl ank i s under stress in a the gloaming of forgotten things unless framework and heat i s appl ied with a burning faggot. some record be made whilst it is still

35 F ig 37. Balinese carpenters at Benoa building a hull to the design of a Frenchman who has purchased long s traight planks from sawmills in Borneo. Neverthe less the hull is built by eye as a shell without plans. The planks are joined edge-to-edge with dowels to each othe r and to th e keel. Floors and stiff ribs will be added later to make the structure s hown in Fig 33, A and B.

possible to contact those who knew them.' Little did he know that in the far comers of the eastern isles there are s till numerous villages devoted to the craft of building wooden boats by techniques that would have seemed antiquated even to his eye. The !ambo is hi s same western boat, taken over into the context of an eastern maritime society so poor that only wood and handwork , aided by a few metal accessories, some rope and sail s, are available for building and maintaining it. The Iambo has spread in numbers and distribution over the past 50 years until it is now the ubiquitous small trading vessel of Eastern Indonesia, because it can be made locally and escapes bureaucratic regulation. Despite the fact than an idyllic transport system has been produced by a primitive cottage industry, I have tried to show how the imported hull design is ill-adapted to the hard, short timber and to the method of building. Copyin g the western hull shape and plank lines with short thick pieces of hardwood and joining them edge-to-edge with dowels, leads to problems and weaknesses in the construction. The rudder tube is

36 difficult to make watertight. The counter stern is difficult to build by first forming an edge-pinned shell, and we can expect changes in the design there. The modem lambo is heavy and slow but it has the virtue that it rots slowly. The availability of machine-sawn timber in long lengths, terylene sails, anti­ fouling paints and galvanized iron bolts and fittings may lead to lighter, stronger ships. The introduction of cheap engines and fuel will lead immediately to another round of modifications which may well cause the demise of the most modern eastern sailing prahu, the lambo.

37 NOTES

l. Fore and Aft. The story of the fore and aft rig by E Keble Chatterton, pub! Seeley Service and Co. (1912) is not so useful as Last Days of Mast and Sail by Sir Alan Moore, publ Oxford University Press 1925, also in reprint by David & Charles. There are many more recent works, eg, The Merchant Schooners by Basil Greenhill, revised 1968, particularly the section on little ships in vol 2, publ David & Charles, Newton Abbott, UK. Reprinted by HMSO 1978. 2. Tracks of storms, as published in Wind and Current Charts by the British Hydrography Office 1886 (see also Ocean Pas sages of the World), do not cross central Indonesia. Once the monsoon has set in, it is steady and predictable. Shore breezes are also reliable in Indonesia, and are always used by local fishing prahus.

3. The Dutch, particularly by the laws of 1818 onwards, deliberately restricted long distance trading by the Javanese in order to preserve their own monopoly. The effect, however, was not as they intended because they themselves were too weak to take up all the local trade (and they chose other professions). The result was that in Java, numerous so called 'Country Ships' were operated by English (until 1834) or Arab captains and companies, and the opportunities for trade throughout the Archipelago were seized by the Bugis based in South Sulawesi and Johore. 4. From an article 'Best friend of Iloilo' by Denny P Souza 1975, Port of Iloilo 120th Anniversary Secretariat. Yuhum Press, Iloilo, Philippines. 5. The lorcha originated at Macao where the Portuguese built fast boats of European hull but rig to outsail the local pirates. The name at least, spread to the Philippines. Not to be confused is the lancha, or lanchar, which 1890-1910 had a Malaysian hull, often with bow and stern platforms, and a schooner rig, sometimes with lugsails on both masts (Warington Smyth, 1906). 6. Dr A McCoy kindly brought these details to my attention and showed me records of the sales of boats at the port of Iloilo from the Philippine National Archives. The lorcha Pazita, length 70 feet, beam 16 feet, depth 5 ~ feet, built Pilar, Albay 1883, was sold for 3,300 pesos (Phil Natl Archives P 1589. 1884, page 3). Another one, 20 metres 50 em long, 4 m 66 em beam and 1 m 57 em depth, constructed in Albay, registered Jan 1884, fetched 3,400 pesos (approx 2 pesos · 1 US dollar in 1884). The owners were usually Chinese Christian meztizos. In the same period a small steel steamboat built at Hong Kong would cost up to 10 times the amount for a lorcha of the same tonnage. 7. Australian pearling captains recruited in Makassar in the 1870s (MacKnight, CC 1976, Voyage to Marege, Melbourne University Press, p 104). 8. Raffles (The History of Java, 1817, vol 1, pp 182-5 and 203), also Crawfurd, J A (History of the Indian Archipelago, Edinburgh 1820, vol 1, p 209) and Earl (The Eastern Seas, London 1837, pp 24 and 38) all noted that 'Javanese' shipping tended to adopt European rig. In contrast, the Bugis ships from the independent kingdom of Bone retained their square sai Is and traded largely through Singapore. 9. Lambo. None of the forms of the word appear in Matthes' Bugis and Makassarese Dictionaries (1859 & 1875), but the word later comes into Bugis as !ambo according to Pelvas (1874) in Archipe l, vol 10, p 29 (1975). 10. The case that dowels were used in the Indonesian area before 1500 AD for joining planks of boats edge-to-edge is argued by Horridge (1978) in a companion paper to this one. In the same work it is inferred that stiff floors and ribs fixed to the shell of the hull by treenails were introduced by the Portuguese and their successors. 11 . Evidence that stiff ribs and heavy curved floors were copied from the Portuguese and their successors after 1500 AD will be found in the companion paper to this one (Horridge, 1978). Also there will be found evidence that the copying process occurred first at centres of western influence, spreading successively from Malacca, Batavia and Ambon. The process started with the copying of Portuguese · boats before 1550 AD, but surviving examples of boats without stiff ribs and floors can be found even today in isolated places such as the Aru Is.

38 12. There were two periods of Bugis overseas colonization from south-west Sulawesi, the first in the late seventeenth century, particularly to Johore, as a result of civil wars at home. The second was in the nineteenth century as a result of trade and the rise of Singapore. Both expansions were made possible by the Bugis and Makassarese skill in building ships, but the conditions at the receiving end were totally different. For detailed history see Leonard Y. Andaya 1975. The Kingdom of Johor, 1641-1728, Oxford University Press.

39 REFERENCES

Andrews, G K. 1976. Veteran ships of Australia and . Reed. Sydney.

Boxer, CR. 1959. The tragic history of the sea. Cambridge University Press.

Chatterton, E Keble. 1912. Fore and Aft. London. Seeley Service. Collins, G E P. 1936. East monsoon. London. Jonathan Cape. pp 288.

Collins, G E P. 1937. Makassar sailing. London. Jon a than Cape. pp 256. Diamond, J M. 1974. Colonization of exploded volcanic islands by birds: the supertramp strategy. Science 184. pp 803-806.

Diamond, J M. 1977. Colonization cycles in man and beast. World Archaeology 8. pp 249-261. Dick, H W. 1975. Prahu shipping in Eastern Indonesia. Part I. Bull Indonesian Econ Studies 11. pp 69-107. Earl, G W. 1837. The eastern seas. London. Hallen & Co. p 461. Edwardes, A D. 1975. Sail in the South. Shipping photographs in the state library of South Australia. Text by R Parsons. Rigby, Australia.

Horridge, G A. 1978. The design of planked boats of the Moluccas. National Maritime Museum Monograph No. 38. Kerr, G J. 1974. Australian and New Zealand sai I traders. Lynton Publications. Blackwood. S. Australia. Leavitt, J F. 1970. Wake of the coasters. Marine Historical Association of USA. Wesleyan University Press. Middletown, Conn. USA. March, E. 1952. Sailing drifters. David and Charles. Newton Abbot. UK. March, E J. 1970. Inshore craft of Great Britain. David and Charles. Newton Abbot. Merton, H. 1911. Ergebnisse einer zoologischen Forschungsreise in den sadostlichen Molukken (Aru and Kei Inseln). Abhandl d. Senckenberg. Naturf Ges 33, pp 1-208. 4 plates. Moore, A. 1925. Last days of mast and sail. Oxford University Press. Morris, E P. 1927. The fore-and-aft rig in America. Newhaven. Yale University Press. Nooteboom, C. 1936. Vaartuigen van Ende. Tijdschrift voor lndische Taal-, Land-en Volkenkunde, 76, pp 97-126. Nooteboom, C. 1930. Vaartuigen van Mandar. Tijdschrift voor lndische Taal-, Land-en Volkenkunde, 80, pp 22-23. Nooteboom, C. 1947. The study of primitive sea-going craft as an ethnological problem. lnternat Arch of Ethnographie 45, pp 216-224. Rodling, J H. 1793. Allgemeines Worterbuch der Marine, in allen Europaeischen Seesprachen. pub! Nemnich, Hamburg. Reprint 1970 in 4 vols in Monumenta Nautica Historica Selecta. pub! Uitgeverij Graphic. Amsterdam. Rumphius, G E. 1741. See Rumphius memorial volume (Ed H C W DeWit). Uitgeveri en Drukkerij. Baarn. Holland 1959.

Seran (Ceram) 1922. Mededeelingin van het Bureau voor de Bestuurszaken der Buitenbezittingen Bewerkt door het Encyclopaedisch Bureau, vol 29 . pub! Kolff and Co Welterreden. pp 300. 125 plates. Searcy, A. 1907. In Australian Tropics. London, Kegan Paul. plate opp p 315.

40 Smyth, H Warington, 1906. Mast and sail in Europe and Asia. 2nd Ed 1929 Blackwood. Edinburgh. Sopher, DE. 1965. The sea nomads. Singapore. Swinfield, AN. 1974. Pearling luggers of the north. Australian Fisheries vol 33, No. 12, pp 3·5 and cover picture. Wallace, A R. 1869. The Malay Archipelago. MacMillan. London.

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Bas 50768 /70 500 10/ 78 TP 41 National Maritime Museum MARITIME MONOGRAPHS AND REPORTS No. 1 Aspects of the History of Wooden Shipbuilding (1970) 2Sp No. 2 The Opening of the Pacific- Image and Reality (1971) 2Sp No. 3 China Station 1859-1864; 1be Reminiscences or Walter White (1972) 30p No. 4 Plymouth's Ships of War, by Lieutenant-commander K V Bums, RN (1972) SOp ------~ No. S Problems or Ship Management and Operation 187Q-1900 (1972) 2Sp No. 6 Three Major Ancient Boat Finds in Britain (1972) 2Sp No. 7 The Irrawaddy Flotilla Company, by Captain H J Chubb (1973) SOp No. 8 Ctina and the Red Barbarians (1973) 2Sp No. 9 The Second World War in the Pacific - Plans and Reality (1974) 2Sp No. 10 The Birth of Navigational Science, by Dr E G Forbes (1974) 30p No. 11 The Building and Trials of a Replica of an Ancient Boat, the Gokstad Faering. Part I Building, by Sean McGrail; Part ll Trials, by Eric McKee (1974) 40p for 2 vols No. 12 Problems or Medicine at Sea (1974) 2Sp No. 13 The Cattewater Wreck, by Eric McKee, F H Ellis and Austin C Carpenter (1974) 2Sp No. 14 Inshore Fishing Craft or the Southern Baltic from Holstein to Curonia, by Wolfgang Rudolph (1974) 2Sp No. 15 The Boats of Men of War, by Coanander WE May RN (1975) 30p No. 16 Problems in the Conservation or Waterlogged Wood, edited by Andrew Oddy ( 1975) SOp No. 17 The Elizabethan Navy and the Armada of Spain, by D W Waters, FSA, and G P B Naish, FSA (1975) 3Sp No. 18 Navigation in the Days of Captain Cook, by the late Professor E G R Taylor (1975) 2Sp No. 19 Science and the Techniques of Navigation in the Renaissance, by D W Waters (1975). Reprint (1978) £1.00 No. 20 The Ship Registers of the Port or Rayle, by G Farr (1975) £2.50 No. 21 First Matthew Flinders Memorial Lecture, by Rear-Admiral G S Ritchie, CB, DSC, FRICS (1975) 2Sp No. 22 Shipbuilding in North Devon, by G Farr (1976) £1.05 No. 23 The North Ferriby Boats, a guide book, by E V Wright (1976) £2.00 No. 24 The Last Log or the Schooner Isabella, edited by C H Ward-Jackson (1976) £1.00 No. 2S 1be Westcotts and their Times, by Ian D Merry (1977) £4.00 No. 26 The Chinese Maritime Customs; an international service, 1854-1950, by B Foster Hall ( 1977) £1.00 No. 27 Shipbuilding in the Port of Bristol, by Grabame Farr (1977) £1.05 No. 28 Sundials on Walls, by C St J H Daniel (1978) £2.00 No. 29 Naval Policy between the Wars, by CaptainS W Roskill (1978) £1.00 No. 30 The English Coble, by H 0 Hill, edited by Eric McKee (1978) £2.50 No. 31 The Scottish Inshore Fishing Vessel, Design, Construction and Repair, by Alexander Noble (1978) £2.50 No. 32 The Hardanger Faering, by Owen H Wicksteed (1978) £1.50 No. 33 1be Load Line -a hallmark of safety, by Captain Neville Upham (1978) £2.50 No. 34 Boats of the Lisbon River, by Manuel Leitlo (1978) £3.00 No. 35 Sbip Portrait Painters, by C H Ward-Jackson (1978) £2.75 No. 36 Ingrid and other Studies (1978) £3.25 No. 37 Vice-Admiral TAB Spratt and the Development of Oceanography in the Mediterranean, 1841-1873, by Margaret Deacon (1978) £2.75 No. 38 The Design of Planked Boats of the Moluccas, by G Adrian Horridge (1978)

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