Dug Out Canoes

Hello All,
I thought I would write an article about something we take for granted out here but you guys at home probably find it interesting that people still carve out wooden boats and use them everyday for transport of goods, people and just having fun.
Vanuatu was the first place I really saw these wooden canoes used as a daily necessity. The other island groups used them more as an icon to the ancestor's or just for show or a race on a holiday. Like you see in the photo this dug out has an outrigger. This was prominent in Vanuatu as in other Island groups. If you notice the pointy keel, this doesn't allow the canoe to be stable on its own it has to have an outrigger. Buy the way this is a picture of a carving that Rafal did in the coarse of our trip through the Solomons. He did this with a pocket knife and some of my power tools onboard, pretty good huh? They gave this to me right before they left as a gift for sharing my boat with them in my travels. I am very proud to have it onboard. If you also notice the shell with the string attached, that is an anchor, most use a piece of coral. They take these boats out to the reef and go spear fishing with them. Speaking of reefs, these are not outside boats. They use them mostly in protected waters. The modern age has allowed the locals to travel between Islands of great distance by modern ferry boat but it is still nice to see tradition alive and well.

When we arrived in the Solomons I was very surprised to see the canoes without outriggers. There hull design is a hundred years over the other Island groups. There boats are still made of wood but have a more flat bottom which allows more stability, very much like the canoes we use in America. I have given this some thought and my observation is, Solomons have bigger trees to allow for a wider boat, sounds good anyway.
The facts about a dugout canoe are, they last 10 years if pulled out of the water after every use. It takes 3 Island weeks to build one from scratch. I say Island weeks because you have to know how these guys roll, they are a work of art and what's funny is, most islanders that own one bought it from a boat carver, hence not everyone can carve a boat out here. Dug out shipwrites have cornered the market.

Dugouts of the Solomons in the WWII war effort:
That may sound a little funny to someone that has been on a 500 ton destroyer but it's a fact, dug out canoes helped. I had 2 stories told to me while I was here. When we were in Mbili Passage we talked to a local that told us his grandfather was forced to take 2 Japanese soldiers from one Island to another in the cover of darkness in a canoe. The canoes are very stealthy and can come up to you and be there before you know it, I know because they do it to me all the time to say hello, I about have heart failure when they knock on the hull, anyway, his grandfather heard that Japanese don't always know how to swim, he took a chance and after getting off the beach a little ways he wobbled the canoe twice and all 3 ended up in the water. He came back to the village by himself. There is another story more famous and involves our former President. When Kennedy was marooned on Kasolo Island AKA Kennedy Island he sent a message on a green coconut to be transported by dugout for a rescue. The unique thing about sending a message that way is when you mark the coconut the message won't show up on the skin for several days. When it ripens it is plain as day. This protected a lot of the locals from being killed sending messages for the American command. What's funny is Kennedy didn't believe the locals when told this and as they say the rest is history. Kennedy had the Coconut sealed in a round case and used it as a paper weight in the oval office during his presidency.

Even though I see outboard motors fly in and out of here attached to there fiber glass boats, transporting stuffs and peoples to villages, I still see dugouts doing the same. They are here to stay for the near future, as it should be.


PEACE