Chine bLog

My daughter's kindergarten class had "X" week last week. We had to find SOMETHING original for her to bring. Something struck me in the back of my mind, and a quick Google brought it to me: "Xebec." A xebec, according to the authority, Wikipedia, is:

a Mediterranean sea sailing ship that was used for trading and other things. It has a long overhanging bow and stern. It also refers to a small, fast vessel of the 16th to 19th centuries, used almost exclusively in the Mediterranean Sea.

Note that Wikipedia classifies the article as, ahem, needing work. I am guessing the gem ..."trading and other things..." fits that bill... Anyway, "piracy" seems to be one of those "other things." Here is a nice-looking model of one, yours, for $225, at SMC Trading:

Xebec model on sale at SMC Trading

So this was all interesting, but it ended up being moot because my wife said it had to be a word they might actually know [editor's comment: beginning with "X"??!!]. Well, as it happened, I had to take my daughter to school the next day. And don't you know, they have a picture board with "X" letters... and guess what is gracing it... That's right, I'm the man...

Location: El-Jazair, Algeria

One of my favorite web sites is that for the African Wildlife Foundation (full disclosure: it was designed and build by my company, Forum One Communications). It is packed full of gorgeous images, but I kept running into one that stuck with me, for obvious reasons.

This, my friends, is a lovely dugout canoe from the Congo River basin in central Africa. The canoe represents AWF's programs in its Congo Heartland (protecting wildlife means partnering with the communities of the area) and conveys that message well, but I just love how the boat looks. The long overhang and subtle, up-swept sheer - Mmm-mmm-mmm. Once again, people in the region have built these boats for centuries for transport and fishing, but they did not sacrifice grace and beauty in the "design."

Location: Bongandonga, Congo

Thanks to Ruth from the blog VazahaGasy for picking up my last post on her partner's building of a traditional Malagasy fishing boat. She updated her pictures to include a few of the boat under sail.

As I suspected would be the case, the boat carries a loose-footed lanteen rig. Really, I would have accepted nothing less! Seriously, this fits the boat well - I bet she looks nice under sail - and shows how that rig made its way down the coast of Africa.

Rath also gives us a good shot of the owner / builder. Great work! The boat is lovely. It is a work boat, but you can tell was well finished nonetheless. Enjoy!

Location: Antsiranana, Madagascar

Today I came upon an interesting post and some great pictures courtesy of the blog VazahaGasy and author Ruth Frost. The post outlines the author's experience watching the building of a traditional Malagasy fishing boat. It is a quick read, clearly an interested, observant, non-boatbuilder's take on the process. No matter - she gives a sense of construction techniques, materials, and dimensions. Most importantly, then, she takes lots of photos. Bravo!

View a full slide show of the building process or a slide show of the launching (which looks like a fascinating communal exercise). I think the end-result is a fairly handsome boat (great paint job), though it looks like what was once a sailing craft is now destined for an outboard. Practical, but I'd like to see how these were rigged.

Location: Antsiranana, Madagascar

We bloggers tend to pay a great deal of attention to our web stats - page views, visitors, visits, etc. It is a tangible validation that somebody is paying attention. Or, in my case, 50-75 somebodies a month, pretty consistently (you know who you are). One area I am always eager to see is the geographic location of visitors. A visitor from a new country - even just one person - is such an exciting and exotic touch-point. It sends me looking for more on a theretofore less known land

Tonight was no different, and tonights treat was a visit from Malawi, in Southern Africa. Why so interesting, it being land-locked and all? Ah, but it sits astride Lake Malawi (also Lake Nyasa), one of the largest lakes in Africa (in fact, 9th largest in the world). I figure any large body of water must be navigated, and I was curious to see what kinds of boats one would find there. There weren't many sources to find, but I did get a couple good glimpses via Vintage Africa Safari's site.

Click to enlarge

Click to enlarge

It appears that the boats are a mix of pirogue-type flat-bottomed canoes and dugout canoes. The dugouts are interesting in that they are shorter and more enclosed than others I have seen. They appear to keep more of the top of the log, giving the boats pronounced tumblehome and not a ton of room for the crew. It would be fascinating to know more about why this is the case - the nature of available wood? Something about the fishing techniques on the lake? Custom? Please comment if you can add any insight here.

By the way, Malawi looks beautiful and the lake appears to have some small boat touring going on. Add this one to the list...

Location: Monkey Bay, Malawi