James Hornell (1865 – February 1949) was an English zoologist and seafaring ethnographer . He was a cousin of Edward Atkinson Hornel , a Scottish painter.
47-710: A coracle is a small, rounded, lightweight boat of the sort traditionally used in Wales , and also in parts of the western parts of Ireland , particularly the River Boyne , and in Scotland , particularly the River Spey . The word is also used for similar boats found in India , Vietnam , Iraq , and Tibet . The word coracle is an English spelling of the original Welsh cwrwgl , cognate with Irish and Scottish Gaelic currach , and
94-978: A boat is a vessel small enough to be carried aboard a ship. Boats vary in proportion and construction methods with their intended purpose, available materials, or local traditions. Canoes have been used since prehistoric times and remain in use throughout the world for transportation, fishing, and sport. Fishing boats vary widely in style partly to match local conditions. Pleasure craft used in recreational boating include ski boats, pontoon boats , and sailboats . House boats may be used for vacationing or long-term residence. Lighters are used to move cargo to and from large ships unable to get close to shore. Lifeboats have rescue and safety functions. Boats can be propelled by manpower (e.g. rowboats and paddle boats ), wind (e.g. sailboats ), and inboard / outboard motors (including gasoline , diesel , and electric ). The earliest watercraft are considered to have been rafts . These would have been used for voyages such as
141-484: A boat's hull and covered over with cement. Reinforced with bulkheads and other internal structures it is strong but heavy, easily repaired, and, if sealed properly, will not leak or corrode. As the forests of Britain and Europe continued to be over-harvested to supply the keels of larger wooden boats, and the Bessemer process ( patented in 1855) cheapened the cost of steel, steel ships and boats began to be more common. By
188-642: A coracle, but it often lacked an internal wooden framework, relying entirely on the stiffness of the hide to stay afloat. Thus it could be carried about on horseback and deployed when there was a river to cross. Boat A boat is a watercraft of a large range of types and sizes, but generally smaller than a ship , which is distinguished by its larger size or capacity, its shape, or its ability to carry boats. Small boats are typically used on inland waterways such as rivers and lakes , or in protected coastal areas. However, some boats (such as whaleboats ) were intended for offshore use. In modern naval terms,
235-409: A framework with animal skins, could be equally as old as logboats, but such a structure is much less likely to survive in an archaeological context. Plank-built boats are considered, in most cases, to have developed from the logboat. There are examples of logboats that have been expanded: by deforming the hull under the influence of heat, by raising up the sides with added planks, or by splitting down
282-433: A modern context, empty oil drums). The key difference between a raft and a boat is that the former is a "flow through" structure, with waves able to pass up through it. Consequently, except for short river crossings, a raft is not a practical means of transport in colder regions of the world as the users would be at risk of hypothermia . Today that climatic limitation restricts rafts to between 40° north and 40° south, with, in
329-401: A skilled person, they hardly disturb the water or the fish, and they can be easily manoeuvred with one arm, while the other arm tends to the net; two coracles to a net. The coracle is propelled by means of a broad-bladed paddle , which traditionally varies in design between different rivers. It is used in a sculling action, the blade describing a figure-of-eight pattern in the water. The paddle
376-410: Is a modern construction method, using wood as the structural component. In one cold molding process, very thin strips of wood are layered over a form. Each layer is coated with resin, followed by another directionally alternating layer laid on top. Subsequent layers may be stapled or otherwise mechanically fastened to the previous, or weighted or vacuum bagged to provide compression and stabilization until
423-536: Is also known as "GRP" (glass-reinforced plastic) in the UK, and "FRP" (for fiber-reinforced plastic) in the US. Fiberglass boats are strong and do not rust, corrode, or rot. Instead, they are susceptible to structural degradation from sunlight and extremes in temperature over their lifespan. Fiberglass structures can be made stiffer with sandwich panels, where the fiberglass encloses a lightweight core such as balsa or foam. Cold molding
470-533: Is recorded in English text as early as the sixteenth century. Other historical English spellings include corougle , corracle , curricle and coricle . The structure is made of a framework of split and interwoven willow rods, tied with willow bark. The outer layer was originally an animal skin such as horse or bullock hide (corium), with a thin layer of tar to waterproof it; today replaced by tarred calico , canvas , or fibreglass . The Vietnamese/Asian version of
517-544: Is tailored to the local river conditions. In general there is one design per river, but this is not always the case. The Teifi coracle, for instance, is flat-bottomed, as it is designed to negotiate shallow rapids, common on the river in the summer, while the Carmarthen coracle is rounder and deeper, because it is used in tidal waters on the Tywi , where there are no rapids. Teifi coracles are made from locally harvested wood: willow for
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#1732883816345564-490: Is the main, and in some cases only, structural component of a boat. It provides both capacity and buoyancy . The keel is a boat's "backbone", a lengthwise structural member to which the perpendicular frames are fixed. On some boats, a deck covers the hull, in part or whole. While a ship often has several decks, a boat is unlikely to have more than one. Above the deck are often lifelines connected to stanchions , bulwarks perhaps topped by gunnels , or some combination of
611-486: Is used towards the front of the coracle, pulling the boat forward, with the paddler facing in the direction of travel. The Welsh Coracle is intended to be carried on the back; Welsh saying is Llwyth dyn ei gorwgl (load of a man is his coracle). Designed for use in swiftly flowing streams, the coracle has been in use in the British Isles for millennia, having been noted by Julius Caesar in his invasion of Britain in
658-613: The Baltic , the Plimsoll line was introduced to prevent overloading. Since 1998 all new leisure boats and barges built in Europe between 2.5m and 24m must comply with the EU 's Recreational Craft Directive (RCD). The Directive establishes four categories that permit the allowable wind and wave conditions for vessels in each class: Europe is the main producer of recreational boats (the second production in
705-561: The Indian Ocean world and east Asia , making records of indigenous watercraft, sailing on Junks and Sampans , and as a member of an expedition to the south seas made many records of the watercraft of Polynesia . Further travels brought encounters with watercraft of northern India, the Mediterranean , the Nile , Uganda , Madagascar , Iraq , and northern Europe. Hornell in the 1930s became
752-563: The Mesopotamian god Enki to Atra-Hasis on how to build a round "ark". The tablet is about 2,250 years older than previously discovered accounts of flood myths , none of which contain such details. These instructions depict a vessel that is today known as a quffa ( قفة ), or Iraqi coracle. Many scholars believe that the basket that baby Moses was cast adrift in on the Nile (in Exodus 2:3)
799-555: The Tigris and Euphrates rivers since at least the 9th century BC. They share details with the myriad types of coracle used across Eurasia . Modern quffas can be up to 18 feet (5.5 m) in diameter and carry four to five tons. Modern quffas are of similar size and construction as their ancient counterparts, with both being made from woven bundles of reeds or basketry waterproofed with bitumen . The Vietnamese battle coracle, called thúng chai or thuyền thúng , dated back to
846-458: The birch bark canoe , the animal hide-covered kayak and coracle and the dugout canoe made from a single log. By the mid-19th century, some boats had been built with iron or steel frames but still planked in wood. In 1855 ferro-cement boat construction was patented by the French, who coined the name "ferciment". This is a system by which a steel or iron wire framework is built in the shape of
893-401: The 10th century, is traditionally believed to have been created by a general named Tran Ung Long to be used in battles. However, thuyen thung were probably strongly developed during the French colonial period when the colonialists imposed high taxes on seafaring, local fishermen built coracles to avoid the regulations on boats. The pelota of South and Central America was a hide vessel similar to
940-401: The 1920s, but it was not until the mid-20th century that aluminium gained widespread popularity. Though much more expensive than steel, aluminum alloys exist that do not corrode in salt water, allowing a similar load carrying capacity to steel at much less weight. Around the mid-1960s, boats made of fiberglass (aka "glass fiber") became popular, especially for recreational boats. Fiberglass
987-400: The 1930s boats built entirely of steel from frames to plating were seen replacing wooden boats in many industrial uses and fishing fleets. Private recreational boats of steel remain uncommon. In 1895 WH Mullins produced steel boats of galvanized iron and by 1930 became the world's largest producer of pleasure boats. Mullins also offered boats in aluminum from 1895 through 1899 and once again in
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#17328838163451034-645: The Curraghs of Ireland (The Society for Nautical Research, 1938) containing drawings, diagrams and construction details gleaned from regular makers. Coracles are now seen regularly only in tourist areas of West Wales, and irregularly in Shropshire on the River Severn. A public house in Sundorne , Shrewsbury called "The Coracle" has a pub sign featuring a man using a coracle on a river. The Welsh rivers Teifi and Tywi are
1081-558: The Hogenakkal are of two types, which differ mainly in size. The smaller ones are about 6.2 feet (1.9 metres) in diameter, and are used primarily for fishing. The larger ones, which measure up to 8.4 feet (2.6 metres) in diameter, are used for tourists. Indian coracles are either saucer or bowl shaped and circular, with the greatest diameter across the mouth. The circular coracles in Iraq are very similar, but they have convexly curved sides, and thus
1128-408: The US could have been copied from coracles introduced by Prince Madog in the 12th century. For many years until 1979, Shrewsbury coracle maker Fred Davies achieved some notability amongst football fans; he would sit in his coracle during Shrewsbury Town FC home matches at Gay Meadow , and retrieve stray balls from the River Severn. Although Davies died in 1994, his story is still associated with
1175-441: The balance above and below the surface equal. Boats have a natural or designed level of buoyancy. Exceeding it will cause the boat first to ride lower in the water, second to take on water more readily than when properly loaded, and ultimately, if overloaded by any combination of structure, cargo, and water, sink. As commercial vessels must be correctly loaded to be safe, and as the sea becomes less buoyant in brackish areas such as
1222-438: The bottom is further reinforced with the addition of more bamboo sticks, making the boat's base sturdy. Once the bottom is structurally sound, the lowest points of the sides are defined by a circumferential band of three flat strips of bamboo woven into the existing lattice. The sides of the boat are then made with 20 to 30 adjacent strips of bamboo. Finally this framework is again strengthened by lightweight bamboo, making sure that
1269-404: The bottom is tarred in order to make them waterproof. In modern times, a sheet of LDPE plastic is often embedded between two layers of bamboo. Coracles are steered and propelled using a single paddle from the front of the boat in the direction of travel, making them unique. The boats are made primarily from bamboo. The first step in construction is a basic framework woven from bamboo sticks. Then
1316-421: The club. The design of the coracle makes it an unstable craft. Because it sits "on" the water, rather than "in" it, the vessel can easily be carried by currents and the wind. The Coracle Society has published guidelines for safely using coracles. The oldest instructions yet found for construction of a coracle are contained in precise directions on a four-thousand-year-old cuneiform tablet supposedly dictated by
1363-464: The coracle is made of interwoven bamboo and made water proof by using resin and coconut oil. Oval in shape and very similar to half a walnut shell, the coracle has a keel -less flat bottom to evenly spread the load across the structure and to reduce the required depth of water; often to only a few inches. This structure helps to make the boat more maneuverable and less likely to snag when used on narrow and/or shallow slow-running waterways. Each coracle
1410-444: The government decided to begin revoking the licences of commercial fisher families on the death of the main licensees. It took some years for this plan to be completed but eventually led to a more significant decline in the number of craft. In the 1920s and 30s James Hornell visited hundreds of rivers in the British Isles to talk with remaining coracle makers and users. He documented the tradition in his book British Coracles and
1457-473: The laths (body of the boat), hazel for the weave ( Y bleth in Welsh.) Tywi coracles have been made from sawn ash for a long time. The working boats tend to be made from fibreglass these days. Teifi coracles use no nails, relying on the interweaving of the laths for structural coherence, whilst the Carmarthen ones use copper nails and no interweaving. They are an effective fishing vessel because, when powered by
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1504-732: The mercy of the most violent weather. They were once much in use in the Western Isles of Scotland, and are still found in Wales. The framework [in Gaelic] is called crannghail , a word now used in Uist to signify a frail boat. The currachs in the River Spey were particularly similar to Welsh coracles. Other related craft include: Indian coracles ( Tamil : பரிசல் parisal ; Kannada : ಹರಗೋಲು , ತೆಪ್ಪ , aragōlu , tep , 'crab') are commonly found on
1551-484: The mid first century BC, and used in his military campaigns in Spain . Remains interpreted as a possible coracle were found in an Early Bronze Age grave at Barns Farm near Dalgety Bay , and others have been described, from Corbridge and from near North Ferriby . Where coracle fishing is performed by two coraclers the net is stretched across the river between the two coracles. The coraclers will paddle one handed, dragging
1598-402: The middle and adding a central plank to make it wider. (Some of these methods have been in quite recent use – there is no simple developmental sequence). The earliest known plank-built boats are from the Nile, dating to the third millennium BC. Outside Egypt, the next earliest are from England. The Ferriby boats are dated to the early part of the second millennium BC and the end of
1645-585: The most common places to find coracles in Wales. On the Teifi they are most frequently seen between Cenarth , and Cilgerran and the village of Llechryd . In 1974, a Welsh coracle piloted by Bernard Thomas (c. 1923–2014) of Llechryd crossed the English Channel to France in 13 + 1 ⁄ 2 hours. The journey was undertaken to support a claim that Bull Boats of the Mandan Indians of North Dakota in
1692-432: The mouth is not the widest part. Indian coracles are on average about 7.3 feet (2.24 metres) in diameter, but can still hold eight people at a time. Other kinds of coracles usually can only hold one person. Indian coracles, and coracles in general, are made of bamboo and take about a day to build, given all the necessary materials. The bottoms of the boats are covered in hides , sometimes with sheets of plastic, or sometimes
1739-405: The net in the other, and draw the net downstream. When a fish is caught, each hauls up an end of the net until the two boats are brought to touch, and the fish is then secured, using a priest (or knocker – a small block of wood) to stun the fish. A new tax was introduced in 1863 on the commercial capture of migratory fish in Wales; this led to a decline in the number of coracles. During the 1930s,
1786-731: The past, similar boundaries that have moved as the world's climate has varied. The earliest boats may have been either dugouts or hide boats. The oldest recovered boat in the world, the Pesse canoe , found in the Netherlands , is a dugout made from the hollowed tree trunk of a Pinus sylvestris that was constructed somewhere between 8200 and 7600 BC. This canoe is exhibited in the Drents Museum in Assen, Netherlands. Other very old dugout boats have also been recovered. Hide boats, made from covering
1833-477: The pearl fisheries. Staying there for six years, Hornell published a number of papers on the pearling industry. While there he was elected a Fellow of the Linnean Society for his work on marine worms. After working for several more years in India , organizing the fisheries of Madras , he retired, and thus began his next career as an ethnographer of seafarming and maritime life. He traveled extensively around
1880-406: The resin sets. An alternative process uses thin sheets of plywood shaped over a disposable male mold, and coated with epoxy. The most common means of boat propulsion are as follows: A boat displaces its weight in water, regardless whether it is made of wood, steel, fiberglass, or even concrete. If weight is added to the boat, the volume of the hull drawn below the waterline will increase to keep
1927-642: The rivers Kaveri and Tungabhadra in Southern India . Coracles are light, bowl-shaped boats with a frame of woven grasses, reeds or saplings covered with hides. Indian coracles are considered to have been in existence since prehistoric times, and are a major tourist attraction at the Hogenakkal falls on the Kaveri river. Although these boats were originally designed for general transport, they have recently been used mostly for giving tourists rides. The coracles found in
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1974-492: The settlement of Australia sometime between 50,000 and 60,000 years ago. A boat differs from a raft by obtaining its buoyancy by having most of its structure exclude water with a waterproof layer, e.g. the planks of a wooden hull, the hide covering (or tarred canvas) of a currach . In contrast, a raft is buoyant because it joins components that are themselves buoyant, for example, logs, bamboo poles, bundles of reeds, floats (such as inflated hides, sealed pottery containers or, in
2021-479: The sides are not heavier than the base. The boats had earlier been waterproofed by using hides of animals, but these days plastic sheets are used for this purpose as they are cheaper as well as easily available. The waterproofing is further enhanced by a layer of tar, a feature which is common in most contemporary coracles. Iraqi coracles , called quffa or kuphar ( Arabic : قفة ), have been used as ferries , lighters , fishing vessels, and water taxis on
2068-715: The third millennium. Plank-built boats require a level of woodworking technology that was first available in the neolithic with more complex versions only becoming achievable in the Bronze Age . Boats can be categorized by their means of propulsion. These divide into: A number of large vessels are usually referred to as boats. Submarines are a prime example. Other types of large vessels which are traditionally called boats include Great Lakes freighters , riverboats , and ferryboats . Though large enough to carry their own boats and heavy cargo, these vessels are designed for operation on inland or protected coastal waters. The hull
2115-518: The two. A cabin may protrude above the deck forward, aft, along the centerline, or cover much of the length of the boat. Vertical structures dividing the internal spaces are known as bulkheads . The forward end of a boat is called the bow , the aft end the stern . Facing forward the right side is referred to as starboard and the left side as port . Until the mid-19th century, most boats were made of natural materials, primarily wood, although bark and animal skins were also used. Early boats include
2162-507: The world is located in Poland). European brands are known all over the world - in fact, these are the brands that created RCD and set the standard for shipyards around the world. James Hornell As a zoologist Hornell published a number of papers on marine organisms working most notably with his father in law Joseph Sinel in Jersey, and in 1900 traveled to Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) to report on
2209-517: Was in fact a coracle or quffa, based on the similarity of that passage to Neo-Assyrian legends depicting infants cast adrift on rivers in quffas . The Irish curach (also currach or curragh ) is a similar, but larger, vessel still in use today. Curachs were also used in the west of Scotland: The curach or boat of leather and wicker may seem to moderns a very unsafe vehicle, to trust to tempestuous seas, yet our forefathers fearlessly committed themselves in these slight vehicles to
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