The Dugout Canoe of the Indians
Chief Powhatan tribe
It is interesting to learn about the dugout canoe in use by American Indians. Although I have paddled a canoe across lakes from time to time, I never realized that a canoe could be as long as fifty feet! So, here is how:
A long and thick tree was chosen according to the size of the ship desired, and a fire was made on the ground around its base. The fire was kept burning until the tree had fallen. Then, burning off the top and boughs, the trunk was raised upon poles laid over crosswise on forked posts to work at a comfortable height. The bark was removed with shells; gum and rosin were spread on the upper side to the length desired and set on fire. The log was hollowed out to the desired depth and width by alternately burning and scraping. The ends were scraped off and rounded for smooth navigation.
Captain John Smith of the new Virginia Colony, who had to use the canoe, wrote that some were an elne deep (forty-five inches) and forty or fifty feet long; some would bear forty men, but the most ordinary were smaller and carried ten, twenty, or thirty men. "Instead of oars, they use paddles or sticks with which they will row faster than our barges." Additional space and graceful lines in the canoes were secured by spreading the sides. To do this, the hollowed log was filled with water and heated by dropping in hot stones until the wood became soft enough to bend into the desired shape by forcing the sides apart with sticks of different lengths and hardening them.
The tools with which the Indians built their boats and used for other purposes were tomahawks of stone sharpened at one end or both, or one end was rounded off for use as a hammer. A circular indentation was made in the center to secure the tomahawk to the handle. Another method of fitting the stone tomahawk to a handle was to cut off the head of a young tree, and as if to graft it, a notch was made into which the crown of the hatchet was inserted. After some time, the tree grew together and kept the hatchet so fixed that it could not come out. Then, the tree was cut to such a length as to make a good handle. Another method used was binding the stones to the ends of sticks and gluing them there with rosin.
Some colonists did not hesitate to take the canoes from the Indians, which they may or may not have returned. On one occasion, the King of Rappahanna demanded the return of a canoe, which was restored. Among the first laws of the General Assembly was that for the protection of the Indians, enacted in August 1619:
"He that shall take away by violence or stealth any canoe or other things from the Indians shall make valuable restitution to the said Indians, and shall forfeit if he is a freeholder, five pounds; if a servant, forty shillings or endure a whipping."
A story of an Indian and his canoe was told by John Pory, Secretary of Virginia after he had visited the Eastern Shore. "Wamanato, a friendly Indian, presented me with twelve beaver skins and a canoe, which I requited with such things to his content that he promised to keep them while he lived and buried them with him being dead."
Several writers of boatbuilding have expressed the thought that the evolution of the Chesapeake Bay canoe and the Chesapeake Bay bugeye from the Indian dugout canoe was one of the most exciting developments in shipbuilding. M. V. Brewington, in his Chesapeake Bay: A Pictorial Maritime History, says of this development: "The white man's superior knowledge of small craft soon indicated changes which would improve the canoe: sharp ends would make her easier to propel and more seaworthy; broader beam and a keel would increase stability; sail would lessen the work of getting from place to place. Sharpening the bow and stern was simple; the increased beam was difficult because no tree could provide the needed width. In time, the settler learned to join two or more trees to get the desired beam. He learned how to add topsides, first of hewn logs and later of the sawed plank. A keel and a sailing rig were added. After the centerboard was invented, it replaced a keel…."
The Bugeye Canoe
The bugeye is a sailboat developed in the Chesapeake Bay for oyster dredging. The predecessor of the skipjack, it was superseded by the latter as oyster harvests dropped. Origins Between 1820 and 1865, the state of Maryland banned dredging for oysters. The Indians made it from a single log to a length of eighty-five feet!
The canoe was so popular in Jamestown that it served the colonists like that of a sailboat. At certain times, the Indians shared their canoes with the residents., or borrowed a transport to cross the river.
Upon my visit to old Jamestown, noteworthy were the perfectly crafted huts from natural resources and canoes that could hold so many tribe members. Although Chief Powhatan’s tribe opposed the white man occupying the region and often attacked their little village, the settlers learned how to build a functional canoe and other crafts in the wilderness country.