The deck

Posted on September 30, 2007

When ever I work on a model, especially a Polynesian type one, it always puzzles me how the ancient Hawaiian or Marquesan, those seem to be the one who did build the longest voyaging canoes, constructed the deck of their canoes, in particular the planking of the deck. Old black and white photos like those in the volumes of Hadden & Hornell do not reveal much. The all inspiring paintings by Herb Kawainui Kane show most voyaging canoes covered with very long and well sawn planks lashed onto the beams of the canoe. I am not one to say that the Hawaiian or the Marquesans may not have known how to cut logs of wood into planks. After all the Egyptiens and the Incas knew how to build huge pyramids thousands of years ago and we still have not yet figured out how they could move the huge rocks needed to build those monuments. My doubt is more about availibility of material rather than whether the Polynesians were able to split logs into planks, which in my opinion they actually were capable of doing. To follow.