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Updated: April 30, 2025
Most of them are narrow, and liable to upset; in order to prevent which catastrophe the natives have ingeniously, though clumsily, contrived a sort of "outrigger," or plank, which they attach to the side of the canoe to keep it upright. They also fasten two canoes together to steady them.
No nails are used in their construction, the woodwork being securely lashed we might say sewed together with Ceylon cordage, made from the fibrous bark of the palm. An outrigger, consisting of a solid log of wood, is fastened alongside six or eight feet away, by means of two arched poles of stout, well-seasoned bamboo.
Their canoe was not above ten feel long, and very narrow, but it was fitted with an outrigger, much like those of the islands, though in every respect very much inferior: When it was in shallow water, they set it on with poles, and when in deep, they worked it with paddles about four feet long: It contained just four people, so that the people who visited us to-day went away at two turns.
The sails have a slender pole on each side to which the matting is secured by small pegs; when set, they are put up on end side by side, travelling along the backstay by means of a cane grommet. When blowing fresh it is usual to keep a man standing on the temporary outrigger to counteract by his weight the inclination of the canoe to leeward.
Sometimes a hungry shark will seize the outrigger in his jaws, or get foul of it, and upset the canoe, and a capsize under such circumstances is a serious matter indeed.
The canoes of this archipelago were found to be different from any that we had heretofore seen, not only in shape, but in making use of a double outrigger, which consequently must give them additional security. The paddle also is of a different shape, and has a blade at each end, which are used alternately, thus enabling a single person to manage them with ease.
The attack was gradually developed by means of fixed and outrigger charges of increasing power, and the coup de grace was not given by means of a service Whitehead in actual contact until various lessons had been derived.
Everywhere they cultivate the ground, construct houses, and skilfully build and manage outrigger, or double, canoes; while, almost everywhere, they use some kind of fabric for clothing.
Sometimes these canoes were used singly, but then they were fitted with outriggers like the flying Proa of the Ladrone Islands. The outrigger is a log of wood fixed at the end of two poles, which lie across the vessel, projecting eight or ten feet, according to her size.
The captain of Number Nine canoe, himself a charter member of the Outrigger and a many-times medallist in long-distance swimming, had missed seeing the Bartons take the water, and first glimpsed them beyond the last festoon of bathers clinging to the life-lines. From then on, from his vantage of the upstairs lanai, he kept his eyes on them.
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