Te Ra Maori sail

[Priscilla II 392]

Only remaining Maori sail, crikey are those the first soft shackles.

https://thespinoff.co.nz/atea/atea-otago/31-08-2019/te-ra-the-sail-last-of-its-kind/

https://www.facebook.com/maoritextiles/videos/vb.627280544388219/363332467595847/?type=2&theater

[Vorpal Blade 89]

Looks like a very early square top main for a multihull, it's all been done before.

[Romany 162]

Thieving toerags. I'd love to know what the publishers think of that -is it a copyright breach?

My mum brought me a copy years ago & it is intriguing reading.

David Lewis was quite a guy.

Amongst the things I took from it was that the 'spiders web' tattoo on the hand between thumb and forefinger is not always the sign of a hoodlum.

[MarkMT 68]

Difficult to see how that would be legit. The edition they're distributing was published in Australia in 1972 by ANU Press (though the pdf includes a couple of pages that seem to be from a separate AH & AW Reed volume) and Australian Law prescribes that copyright lasts for 70 years from the author's death - 2002 in his case ... http://www6.austlii.edu.au/cgi-bin/viewdoc/au/legis/cth/consol_act/ca1968133/s33.html

 

I guess it's possible in general for someone to voluntarily give up copyright, but a second edition was published by the University of Hawaii in 1994, so you'd think they would have an interest... https://uhpress.hawaii.edu/product/we-the-navigators-the-ancient-art-of-landfinding-in-the-pacific/

[Priscilla II 392]

Back to the sail.

Fascinating the detail of the woven panel joins ,the square head and attachments.

This sail was delivered by Cooks ship to England.

The feathers are a great detail.

Next time I order a set from Doyle’s I will include a feather or two as a ode to the great Polynesian sailmakers of the past.

Early part of this clip shows how Doyle’s have reached to the past masters for technical advice to weave a proper sail.

[DrWatson 374]

If you read "The Maori Canoe" by Eldson Best, you can get a fair idea of it's use.  It's available free online somewhere, it's out of copyright.

 

Here maybe; http://nzetc.victoria.ac.nz/downloads/BesCano.epub

 

It appears that sails like this were used more or less dead down wind, as the vessels had relatively little stability to carry a sail across the wind, let alone to beat.

[MarkMT 68]

If you click on 'view full record' it gives the copyright information.

 

Also, there's a 1975 edition there as well.

 

Thanks, I hadn't seen that, though it's not clear to me how Section 200AB of the Copyright Act they refer to there gives them an out. Unless they're saying ((1)(d)) "the use does not unreasonably prejudice the legitimate interests of the owner of the copyright"... because he's dead!

[DrWatson 374]

Yeah it's suggested somewhere that the great voyaging canoes, and even outrigger canoes were rare in NZ by the time of first European arrival. It was postulated that the large forest trees in NZ allowed monohull canoes of sufficient size to be built that could move large enough numbers of warriors around to effect the purpose required. No need for multihull ocean voyaging canoes if your destination was 10 miles down the coast, and outriggers for river work were just a nuisance.

 

Nonetheless, there are a number of outrigger amas etc. that have been discovered in NZ, made form NZ timber, as well as a large plank made of Matai, discovered on the west coast, and believed to have come from a large voyaging double hulled canoe.  https://www.livescience.com/48055-new-zealand-colonization-canoes-climate.html

[Steve Pope 243]

The problem with the long canoes with many warriors is that any sea of moderate size swamps them, OK in rivers, but at sea not so good. One was swamped not so many years ago at Waitangi.

[Priscilla II 392]

Able Tasman's artist Isaac Gilsemans 1642 sketch shows Maori warriors in twin hulled canoes which would have been both fast and stable.

 

 

 

[DrWatson 374]

A single sailing canoe amongst the rest kind of suggests a degree of rarity.

 

Definitely the outrigger canoes existed but their use and construction was waning in Tasman's time.

 

The Double canoe depicted in large (with the ripped paddlers) is apparently two canoes lashed together without the added advantage of beams to increase stability through beam. the Artists depiction is likely also coloured by their other experiences of polynesian peoples.