Canoes of Cook Islands

Of the canoes of central Polynesia F. J. Moss writes: "The canoe is a very frail affair, always with an outrigger, and varying only in shape and size. Neither nails nor metal fastenings are used. The planks are fitted very neatly…. Some of the canoes, though narrow, are of considerable depth, and the outrigger enables them to carry very large sails of the leg-of-mutton shape. With these they sail very close to the wind, but make great leeway." It should be made clear that the modern single canoes are here spoken of; double canoes, such as those of Atiu, were not, of course, fitted with outriggers. The model of a double canoe from the Cook Group shows two hulls with deep keels and having a small platform between them. One end of each canoe has a sharp-pointed, plain prow, while the other end has a vertical projection on it. But these ends of the two hulls do not point the same way: they are reversed. Model canoes, however, are not reliable illustrations, as a rule, not being made to scale. The pahi, or big double canoes of the Cook Group, were used in ocean voyages and inter-island trips in former times. Dr. Gill writes: 'The pai is the ship of the old heathen days—a large double canoe, decked, with masts and sails."

The following note, by W. Bonar, appeared in volume 10 of the Journal of the Polynesian Society: "On the island of Mauke, of the Cook Group, there is, or was ten or twelve years ago, when I was trading there, a very old and large canoe made of tamanu wood. It must be nearly sixty feet long, or perhaps more; it is one of the old sea-going canoes. It is in three pieces, with butt joints for sewing together. The larger canoe—for it is double—ten years ago (1890) was in fine condition, but the smaller, or outrigger canoe, was nearly decayed. I was told that the then chief's father was nearly lost in her, and, on getting back to Mauke, caused the canoe to be hauled up, and she has remained there ever since. … I believe it to be about the last of the old sea-going canoes." The editor of the Journal adds: "This canoe is a pahi, or old sea-going canoe of the Cook Group, such as the extraordinary voyages were made in by the ancestors of the Rarotongans. The late Te Pou, of Rarotonga, told us this was the last of the old pahir

A photograph of a fishing-canoe of Rarotonga shows the float to be connected with the canoe by means of two booms. One of these is straight and horizontal, and connected with the float by means of four or five short sticks lashed to the boom; the other is a curved pole attached directly to the float. The two Rarotongan canoes shown in page 287 page 288 figs. 146 and 147, at p. 287, however, show both booms pegged to the float.

When H.M. ship "Blonde" visited Mauke Isle early in the nineteenth century the commander saw some canoes of great length there: "Our path lay through a thick, shady wood, on the skirts of which, in a small open space, two handsome canoes were building. They were each eighty feet long, the lower part, as usual, of a single tree, hollowed out with great skill."

Of the canoes of Atiu we read in the account of Cook's third voyage: "About eight or ten canoes were here, all double ones—i.e., two single ones fastened together, as is usual throughout the whole extent of the Pacific Ocean, by rafters lashed across. They were about twenty feet long, about four feet deep, and the sides rounded with a plank raised upon them, which was fastened strongly by means of withes. Two of these canoes were most curiously stained or painted all over with black in numberless small figures, as squares, triangles, &c, and excelled by far anything of that kind I had ever seen at any other island in this ocean…. The paddles were about four feet long, nearly elliptical, but broader at the upper end than the middle."

Williams, in his Missionary Enterprises, speaks of having seen at Atiu Isle, Cook Group, "a large double canoe … in the centre of which, on an elevated stage, was seated the principal chief." This was about the year 1823.

The following account of the double canoes of the Cook Group was received in 1913 from Major J. T. Large, late British Resident on that island:

The Double Canoes (Vaka katea) of the Cook Islands. Atiu, Mauke, and Mitiaro (the two latter until recently belonging to the first-named by right of conquest) are the only islands in the group where the old-styJe large double canoes are still used, though now only for the nocturnal sport of scoop-netting flying-fish by torchlight. Formerly, before the advent of the European boat, these big double canoes were the ordinary means of transit from island to island, and carried crowds of warriors on their warlike expeditions, the canoes often returning to their own islands laden with the cooked bodies of the slain, and the wives and children of the latter as slaves for the conquerors. These canoes were fifty, sixty, and even as much as eighty feet long, made from the trunks of the tamanu. one of the largest, most durable, and suitable trees in these islands for the purpose. It required the full length of two trees to make an ordinary canoe, the bow length being called the aumi [cf. N.Z. haumi] and the stern length the noko. In the case of very big canoes it took three of the largest tamanu to form the canoe, the centre length being called the puke. The joinings (pouanga) are fitted with great nicety, as they have to be lashed together (a'au) with coconut-fibre (ka'a) laced through the hole (putaka). page 289each turn being hove taut with a lever. The keel of the canoe is called the takere, and the inside the riu. In the hollpwing-out of the latter, riblike projections are left at intervals to strengthen; the canoe; these are called vaitorea. The broad board or slab (always in one piece) covering in the bow (ei) of the canoe is called the utu-mua; it follows the curve of the bow, and projects upwards to a point called the raeutu, twelve or eighteen inches high, according to the size of the canoe, while the bow itself ends in a point projecting downwards, called the tara kokiri. Small ornamental carvings on the upper side of the former are called tapu. In like manner part of the stern (noko) is covered in with a slab called the utu-muri, which follows the sharp curve upwards of the stern. On its upper part is a curious ornamental carving (akatiki-tiki) shaped like two human ears joined together. The signification of this symbol appears to have been lost. The after end of the utu-mun is fastened to the muri vaka, a triangular-shaped piece of timber, four or five feet long, rising straight up from the point of the stern, to which its bottom end is lashed. The muri vaka of these canoes is identical with the New Zealand Maori rapa or taurapa. though it is not so elaborately carved and decorated—at least, not in these days.

Extending from the utu-mua to the utu-muri the topside (oa) are lashed on. These island canoes, unlike the waka of New Zealand, owing to their narrow beam in proportion to their size, will turn over unless secured to an outrigger or another canoe. In the case of single canoes, a stout sapling, or long piece of timber, three or four feet away from the canoe, forms the outrigger (ama). Secured to this are the ends of two cross-pieces (kiato), which rest on the topsides at right angles to the canoe, and, being securely lashed thereto, keep the canoe steady. But with the double canoes I am describing the left-hand canoe is called the ama, while the right-hand one, which is always the larger and better one, is called the katea. The two, which are two and a half or three feet apart, are connected by three or more cross-pieces (kiato) very securely lashed to the canoes. These cross-pieces also form the joists for the centre staging (ataata) extending over the two canoes, on which most of the occupants of the canoe sit or stand. In their old war or voyaging canoes this staging was walled in as a protection from the weather, while a portion was raised and ornamented as a place for the chiefs: it was then called ura.

The mast (tira) was stepped in the fore part of the staging and guyed; the sail (kie) being of matting. The double canoes are also propelled with long oars (oe), the thole-pins being fixed in stout beams lashed on to the ends of the kiato. The steer-oar is called the oe akatere [N.Z. Maori hoe whakatere], and the bailer tata.

In catching flying-fish (maroro) with the scoop-net (kupenga), the handle of which is called uata, and the hoop extending the net tutu, made fast to the end of the uata and secured with a cross-piece (Hare), the fish are attracted to the side of the canoe by the glare of the torch (rama). The torch is made of leaves of the coconut-palm tied together. The man who holds the torch is called the tangata turama; he stands on the fore part of the ataata, while the one who takes the scoop-net, the most expert man of the party, called the tangata tali, stands in front of him with a foot on the utu-mua of each canoe. The quickness of sight and dexterity of some of these men in scooping in the fish is wonderful. But far more are page 290caught at the limited spawning season in winter, though only during the three days of the month when the moon is in her first quarter. The flying-fish come up in shoals close to the edge of the reef to spawn. You will then see fifty or sixty of the small outriggers, one-man fishing-canoes, engaged in their capture. Quantities are cured for future use by being smoked on racks.

In the above description of the big double canoes of Atiu it will be seen that many of the parts and articles connected therewith are called by the same native names in these islands as those in use amongst the Maori of New Zealand, one of many links showing their common ancestry.

The above writer does not say that the oars used with a thole-pin represented a pre-European usage; presumably it is a modern one, borrowed from our boats.

Of the canoes of the Island of Mangaia we have a description that was also given by Major Large:—

When a piece of timber cannot be procured of sufficient length for a canoe, two or more pieces are joined; this join is called poinga, the foremost part of the hull being the aumi [cf. Maori haumi], and the aftermost part miri vaka. If it is found necessary to make the hull of more than two pieces, the part between any two joinings is called a moe. A small canoe hollowed out of a single log is called a vaka tavatai, but if composed of two or more pieces a canoe is called a vaka poinga. The top-strakes are called oa, the seats or thwarts are no'oanga.

The outrigger (ama) is connected with the hull by two cross-pieces (booms) called kiato and tito, the latter term being now obsolete. These kiato cross the hull, and, in large canoes, may project several feet on the opposite side. The left side of the canoe, next the outrigger, is called the oa i ama; the right side of the canoe isoa i katea.

The flat piece of wood covering the bow and forming a figure-head is the poki. The point of the poki, just over the cutwater, is called iu ariari. Returning inwards along the poki there is a crescent-shaped piece of wood called the uariri. Close by this crescent is a star-shaped piece called the maurua. Between the uariri and the maurua is a connecting-piece called the va'i karakia (the place of divination). In the centre of the star is a hole, and into this hole fits a stylet of wood about fifteen inches long, page 291 connected with a cord which also passes through the hole, and is prevented from coming out altogether by a knot on the lower side of the poki. The stylet is called the ui. The canoe is steered by keeping it in line with the ui and some object at a distance. Half-way along the outrigger side of the canoe is a projecting ledge; through this are bored seven holes large enough to receive the ui, or stylet. The names of these holes are te ra'iti (the east), ngaau (south-east), apatonga (south), rakiroa (south-west), opunga (west), akama [?akarua] (north-west), and apatokerau (north). When the sky was overcast, or the heavenly bodies were obscured, by placing the ai in the proper hole the direction of the cord from the star to the hole would enable the canoe to be kept on her course in the required direction. All canoes in the seas of that part were said to have been provided with this apparatus.

At the stern is a lofty carved stern-post called repe (Maori rapa), the top of which is barbed in a peculiar fashion called iara auini. From the loops or holes in the stern-post hung loops of rope. From these short loops stout ropes could be fastened to the foremost outrigger [boom?] (kiato aumi) on both sides. These were used in rough weather as life-lines. The lower life-line on the right side is called iva, that on the opposite side iviroa, the middle life-line on both sides maoraora, the uppermost lines vaatiia. There is ape [?pe'e-pehe] or song to the effect that a good captain prepares his life-lines when he sees bad weather approaching.

As with the Maori, the sail was called ra. It was made either from the leaf of the pandanus (rauara), or from pakoko, a native cloth made from the bark of the aoa and anga. Tata, as in New Zealand, is the name if the canoe-bailer. The paddle is oe, the steering paddle oe tuoe; the mast is tira and the hole riu, as in New Zealand.

Illustrations are given of the carved and painted decorations of the canoe (see Dominion Museum Bulletin No. 5, p. 101), the patterns being simple and mostly rectilinear, but, unfortunately, no illustration of the model canoe was given that might serve to explain the so-called steering-apparatus (see figs 148, 149). It is by no means made clear as to how a fixed apparatus on a moving body enabled voyagers to steer on a set course when no distant point to steer by was visible. Explanation is lacking as to this and some other points.

The following remarks concerning a Mangaian canoe are taken from the account of Cook's third voyage: "The fore part had a flat board fastened over it, and projecting out, to prevent the sea getting in on plunging, like the small canoes at Tahiti: but it had an upright stern, about five feet high, like some in New Zealand, and the upper end of this stern-post was forked. The lower part of the canoe was of white wood, but the upper was black, and their paddles, made of wood of the same colour, not above three feet long, broad at one end, and blunted. They paddled either end of the canoe forward indifferently: and only turned about their faces to paddle the contrary way." The canoe seen was only about 10 ft. long.

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