Re: Amerindian navigators and Eurocentrism in scholarship

[Jean.Pelmont@wanadoo.fr (J.R. Pelmont)]

<zippy@fuse.net> wrote:

> .........................
> 
> The curragh was also an open hide boat, constructed of leather over a
> wooden frame, but larger than a coracle and boat-shaped (length 3 or 4
> times the beam, and pointed at the ends). Many curraghs carried a mast
> and sail. The curragh was similar to the Eskimo umiak. Curraghs were
> sea-going vessels, used for fishing and trasportation.
> 
I saw some of these boats six weeks ago in Ireland, at Aran islands (bay
of Galway, facing the Atlantic). Older boats were smartly built, rather
light (because of no wooden hull, a covering of leather and black tar),
easy to carry up to the shore. Those I saw were about 7-8 meters long at
the most, and one had still a mast. Most were rotten and completely out
of order. The people are still building new boats of this type, with no
leather but metal plates instead. They are still in use for fishing and
local transportation. I doubt that they were used to go very far, but
...? A kind of traditional art becoming rare, because modern motor boats
are used now by the Irish between islands, with satellite positioning
and radar, allowing to cope with frequent fogs.


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jean.pelmont@ujf-grenoble.fr
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