The deck

Posted on September 30, 2007

That the Polynesians were capable to make wood planks is a fact they demonstrated very early on by adding a plank of wood on both sides of their canoe to make them more sea worthy and prevent waves splashing in. Those planks are called wash-strakes or gunnels, or also rims. In most instances, the Hawaiian used Ahakea wood for those wash-strakes. But fishing canoes like the Opelu type canoe were relatively small, maybe no more than 20 feet in lenght.  This compares very badly with the lenght of ocean going voyaging canoes or those King Kamehameha war canoes , which were anything between 60 to 90 feet long. Its at this point that I have a contention regarding “nice cut planks of wood” forming the deck of those vessels. Also, lets look at the choice of tools available to ancient Polynesian people, a choice that has been well documented. To follow.