Saturday, 29 December 2012
If one does not want to waste wood that could be used if not chopped into little pieces or burned in order to hollow out a log for a boat then planks would seem the way to go and a solution tried in Britain with sewn-plank boats.
Existing examples such as the Dover and the Ferriby Bronze Age Boats are built with heavy planks and their being over fiifty feet in length suggests that this was the solution chosen to deal with the problem of building a skin covered boat as long. Of course two separate traditions might have existed in Britain and if this were so then we might expect the possibility of finding smaller sewn-plank boats or canoes.
Existing examples such as the Dover and the Ferriby Bronze Age Boats are built with heavy planks and their being over fiifty feet in length suggests that this was the solution chosen to deal with the problem of building a skin covered boat as long. Of course two separate traditions might have existed in Britain and if this were so then we might expect the possibility of finding smaller sewn-plank boats or canoes.
As well as skin wood is an obvious material for making a useable hole in the water. At its simplest a single log can be combined into a raft or even bundled brushwood can serve. To add cargo capacity to the single log then wood can be replaced by space to create the monoxylon, dugout or logboat.
I might return to the logboat but in the next post I want to look at what you do with planks, possibly where full-size logs for a logboat are not available.
I might return to the logboat but in the next post I want to look at what you do with planks, possibly where full-size logs for a logboat are not available.
Thoughts on ancient boats
Just remembered I created this blog a bit back and it seems a handy place to jot down odd thoughts on the construction and usage of boats.
One challenge for Britain is the contrast between the reputed use of large skin boats and that of the heavyweight sewn boats in the Bronze Age and maybe earlier and later.
No question that a large skin boat such as a currach or an umiak can be extremely sea-kindly and appears relatively easy to build given available materials. However it may be that such a vessel longer than about thirty feet develops real challenges in terms of stiffness that have to be countered by increasing the strength and rigidity of the gunwales and stringers almost exponentionally.
A small skin covered coracle or currach such as the Boyne can derive stiffness from the shrinking of a rawhide onto its frame, not something than can happening with a tanned, leather, skin covering.
One challenge for Britain is the contrast between the reputed use of large skin boats and that of the heavyweight sewn boats in the Bronze Age and maybe earlier and later.
No question that a large skin boat such as a currach or an umiak can be extremely sea-kindly and appears relatively easy to build given available materials. However it may be that such a vessel longer than about thirty feet develops real challenges in terms of stiffness that have to be countered by increasing the strength and rigidity of the gunwales and stringers almost exponentionally.
A small skin covered coracle or currach such as the Boyne can derive stiffness from the shrinking of a rawhide onto its frame, not something than can happening with a tanned, leather, skin covering.
Sunday, 10 May 2009
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