tour 3 of 26
Power and Taboo: sacred objects from the Pacific
Canoe
Polynesian islanders were immensely skilled
boat builders and equally accomplished navigators who travelled
great distances across the Pacific Ocean in sailing
canoes.
This canoe is one
of the earliest documented surviving artefacts to have been brought
to Europe from the eastern Pacific and was the first object from
the region to be acquired by the British Museum. It was collected
at Nukutavake in the Tuamotu Islands archipelago in June 1767 by
Captain Samuel Wallis, just before Captain James Cook's
first Pacific voyage.
The
Tuamotus are low-lying islands with few forests, or trees large
enough for a hull to be crafted from a single trunk. Instead the
hull is composed of forty-five wood sections bound together with
continuous lengths of plaited coir, a coarse fibre made from the
seed of the coconut palm. It probably had an outrigger (a parallel
hull) to balance it in the
waves.
A single plank seat
survives to suggest the manner of its use and on the upper edge of
the left side there are burn marks made by fishing
lines.
Wallis brought it
back to England lashed to the deck of his ship, HMS
Dolphin. Given this
treatment it is in remarkably good condition.