NATIONAL MARITIME MUSEUM Greenwich, London SElO 9NF THE LAMBO OR PRAHU BOT: a western ship 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 England 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 Indonesia, 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 bowsprit 12 Fig 12. Head-on view 13 Fig 13. Jaws and tackle 14 Fig 14. Mast fittings 14 Fig 15. Gear on deck 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 sloop or cutter 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 sailing 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 (Taiwan) '"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 sails in Ambon harbour, Moluccas Is. Fig 3. Lambo coming into Banda pool. The top of the sail is hois ted out on a topmas t which is haule d c lose to the mainmast to give a Bermuda rig (Dutch torenzeil). Note the long booms on both sails, single bowsprit, the thin cut-away in this example somewhat resemblmg an Arabic dhow, the e lliptical s tern carrying a toile t, and the long deckhouse extended by an awning. 2 Fig 4. A ketch-rigged lambo leaving Banda pool. C learly this boat is not setting out on a long journey. Note the jib-boom, the lacing and the c ut of the sails, lack of reefing 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 palari, 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 ships 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.