Canoes of the Austral Isles

Ellis describes as follows the canoes of Tupuai, Austral Isles: "Their canoes resembling those of Rapa, were generally sixteen or twenty feet long; the lower part being hollowed out of the trunk of a tree, and the sides, stern, and stem formed by pieces of thin plank sewed together with cinet, or cord, and adorned with shells. The stem projected nearly horizontally, but the stern, being considerably elevated, extended obliquely from the seat occupied by the steersman. The sterns were ornamented with rude carving, and, together with the sides, painted with a kind of red ochre, while the seams were covered with the feathers of aquatic birds."

Vancouver makes the following remarks on the canoes of Rapa, as seen by him in 1791: "We saw about thirty double and single canoes, though most of them were of the double sort: the single canoes were supported by an outrigger on one side, and all built much after the fashion of the Society Islands, without having their very high sterns, though the sterns of some of these were considerably elevated: and their bows were not without some little ornament. They were very neatly constructed, though the narrowest canoes I ever saw…. The island did not appear to afford any large page 297 page 298 timber…. Some of the stoutest double canoes accommodated from twenty-five to thirty men."

In the Dominion Museum are six highly ornate ceremonial paddles from the Austral Isles. The paddles are entirely covered with fine carving resembling that of the Cook Isles. (See figs. 151, &c.) Similar specimens from the same group are figured in volume 1 of the University of Pennsylvania's Museum Journal.