BOATS

Waipa Post, Volume 45, Issue 3215, 11 August 1932, Page 2

BOATS

USED BY EARLY EGYPTIANS. It is difficult to ascertain at what period in the history of mankind boats were invented. There is no doubt, however, that they owe their origin to the fact that people living on the banks of rivers or on the shores of lakes observed that reeds or logs would float on the surface of the water, and would move with the current. The earliest boat used by the ancient Egyptians was made of a bundle of the reeds which grew abundantly on the marshes bordering the Nile. In other parts of the world where there were forests the simple log was the most primitive type of boat. The word boat was derived from the An-glo-Saxon word bat, which means a log or a piece of timber. Among many primitive people to-day these primitive types of boat are still used; for instance, among the Australian aboriginies and among the inhabitants of the upper reaches of the Nile.

fft was discovered later that if a number of logs were tied together to form a raft there was room to transport several people and even some sort of cargo* The log was hollowed out and became the " dug-out" canoe. 1 There is a natural scarcity of wood in the bleak Arctic regions. Therefore the boats of the Esquimaux are made of sealskins, sitched at one end and stretched over a wooden frame, which may be compared with the coracle that is still used by Welsh fishermen. At some unknown time sails came into use. Manpower was saved, and sailng-boats could be made to travel many times faster if the winds were favourable. The hardy Polynesian sailors navigate the vast expanses of the Pacific Ocean in light outrigger boats, of which there are many varieties, including the Chinese junk.