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99
APRIL, 1906.] BOATS AND BOAT-BUILDING IN THE MALAY PENINSULA.
this sail is used still in the majority of the Malay fishing craft and small traders, matting being the material used. A boom along the foot is almost as necessary as a yard along the head. The Malays, by the simple expedient of tilting the sail forward, so as to bring the tack right to the deck, have long converted this square-cut sail into the most powerful of lifting sails on a wind. (Plate I., fig. 5.) The dipping lug is set tant along the luff by a spar bowline fitting in a cringle, the lower end of which comes to the deck abaft the mast. The yard, being too light to stand alone by the wind, is invariably controlled by a vang. The unhandiness of the dipping lug in tacking is felt to the full with this sail, owing to the stiffness and weight given to it by the material of which it is made, and the boom along the foot; and the operation is such a long one, that the anchor is often thrown over while the manoeuvre is gone through with the two big sails. (Plate I., fig. 6.)
The devotion of the Malays to top hamper in the shape of raised deck houses and outrigged superstructures over the bow and stern, is shared with many other Eastern races, and is no doubt largely owing to the lack of body in their craft. In boats with sharp bottoms and fine lines, the cargo, whether of fish or merchandise, has often to lie high; and consequently all the accommodation for the crew is high up, and every foot of extra space, which can be built on in this manner, is so much added to their comfort and to convenience in working the vessel. The galleries built out over the bows of the larger craft are used for working and storing the anchors, just as was the case in the vessels of the classical and mediaeval seamen, and as still remains the rule in the Chinese junks; and in boats, which are often so lean about the quarters the little stern galleries and rails, they add greatly to the comfort and safety of the steersman and of men handling the mainsail. (Plate I., fig. 7.)
Even in the smallest canoes, which most of us would think crank under any circumstances, there is generally, in the East, a grating (or lattice) forming a raised floor, within an inch or two of the top of the gunwale, upon which the crew is accommodated. It can certainly not be claimed that such an arrangement conduces to stability; yet such good watermen are these warm water sailors, and the Malays in particular, that even long coasting voyages are undertaken in such craft without any apparent anxiety as to the result.
The Penjajap on the east coast is often a rather unsuccessful imitation of European build, with transome stern, half concealed by the overhanging stern galleries. There is generally plenty of show, but the boat is very wall-sided and with insufficient beam, which facts combine to spoil her appearance on a close inspection, although she looks smart enough a little distance off. The writer has seen these boats nearly on their beam ends when caught by a heavy squall at anchor, though with nothing but their slender masts aloft, a fact largely caused by the want of under-water body in the hull, and the amount of top-hamper by way of accommodation on deck. A bundle of bamboos along under each gunwale frequently adds some much needed stability, and provides a store, from which to renew broken spars. Yet crank as these craft seem, the Malays manage to make their way for long distances in them with very few accidents. No fact could form more conclusive evidence of their pluck and skill.
The Malay, like a true seaman, takes a great pride in his vessel, and if his ideas of ornamental decoration do not always accord with those of the West, he has, at all events, never been guilty of producing such scarecrows of the seas as many of the tramp steamers at this moment lying in the port of London. In rigging, as already hinted, he is partial to slender lofty masts, and if his vessel is large enough, he indulges in two masts of nearly equal height, to which is generally given a very smart rake forward. Under Chinese sails, the advantages of which over the dipping lug have been recognised by many on the east coast, the Malay may be distinguished from the Chinaman at sea, when yet hull down, by the equal size of the big sails, and the invariable absence of any mizzen. (Plate I., fig. 8.) The hull is also low and long, with no many-storied castle aft, but merely a kajang or thatch awning, over the raised, overhanging poops, or a simple dandan or gallery. There is something of the yachtsman in the Malay, and ho is much addicted to graceful
