Article

Boats

From Munshipedia, the MBRAS digital historical encyclopedia

Boats

Boats of the Malay Peninsula and Borneo constitute a diverse and historically layered maritime tradition, encompassing everything from single-man dugout canoes to large multi-masted cargo vessels. The region’s sheltered straits, extensive mangrove coastlines, and monsoon-driven trade routes produced a fleet characterised by shallow draught, lightweight construction, and a persistent synthesis of indigenous, European, and Chinese design elements. From the small kolek (a Malay term for a shallow-keeled fishing or cargo boat) of the Singapore Strait to the perahu pinas of the Trengganu coast, these vessels reflect both the ecological constraints of their operating waters and the complex ethnic and commercial networks through which they were built, manned, and traded [1, pp. 121–133], [2, pp. 106–125]. The study of these craft has been a sustained programme of documentation, driven by the recognition that modernisation and the displacement of sail by motor were erasing an entire material culture within a single generation [3, p. 99].

Typology and Construction

The indigenous boat tradition of the region can be broadly divided into two structural categories: dugout canoes and plank-built carvel hulls, with many forms retaining vestigial elements of the former in the latter [3, p. 99]. At the smallest end of the scale, the kolek pulau of the east coast measures approximately 7 feet by 2½ feet, draws about 1 foot of water, and is built with a Kayu Teruntum keel and Kayu Medang planking; it carries a single man and a small gaff-rigged sail called Layar Bulu Ayam [4, p. 193]. The jongkong, a small inshore boat rarely exceeding 12–14 feet, consists of a dug-out base with a single added plank or wash-strake on each side, and is found in three distinct forms across the Rhio-Lingga archipelago [1, pp. 121–123].

Moving up in scale, the kolek johore—the representative Malay craft of the Singapore Strait—ranges from 12 to 20 feet in the northern Rhio Archipelago and retains traditional wood-peg fastening and single-piece ribs, though its builders in the Singapore area have begun adopting the Chinese diagonal-nail technique [1, p. 125], [5, pp. 148–170]. The sampan rhio, now built on European lines with a straight, well-raked stern post and a straight keel with angled heel and forefoot, serves as both a passenger and cargo vessel, with larger examples reaching 30 feet and carrying atap-covered shelters [1, pp. 127–128]. The perahu payang, the principal vessel for deep-water seine fishing on the east coast, measures 35–45 feet in length and 7–8 feet in beam, with a shallow well for storing the catch and a large square lug-sail suited to the diurnal land and sea breeze rhythm [6, pp. 145–174], [4, pp. 195–196].

At the upper end of the indigenous scale, the perahu pinas of Trengganu represents a distinctive hybrid: a two-masted cargo boat of 60–70 feet stem to stern, with a breadth of 15–17 feet and a depth of 7–8 feet, whose hull was built on European lines and whose sail plan combined Chinese batten lugs with a European bowsprit configuration [2, pp. 106–107], [7, pp. 206–210]. The tongkang group, discussed in detail below, extends the range still further, with the Singapore Timber tongkang reaching 85–95 feet in length and 30–33 feet in maximum beam [8, pp. 84–86].

A recurring theme across all these types is the degree of cultural transfer visible in the boats themselves. Gibson-Hill observed that the kolek johore in the Singapore area was increasingly using the long-shafted Chinese oar in place of the short Malay paddle, while the Chinese-built kolek chiau and kolek selat, though sharing the general double-ended, shallow-keeled form, differed from their Malay counterpart in construction sequence, rib assembly, and finish [5, pp. 148–170]. These variations were treated not as mere curiosities but as evidence of a living process of technical exchange between communities working the same waters [5, pp. 148–170].

The Tongkang Group and the Lighter Trade

The word tongkang first appears in romanised form in newspaper accounts of the 1830s, and the earliest dictionary to record it is Crawfurd’s (1852), which defines it simply as “the name of a large kind of boat” [8, p. 82]. Gibson-Hill’s 1952 study resolved the taxonomic confusion surrounding the term by arguing that it should be restricted to sailing lighters of European hull origin, or boats developed from such stock, and that the apparent diversity of “tongkangs” in Malayan waters represents a single evolutionary lineage radiating from the Tamil-manned lighters first brought to Singapore in the 1820s [8, pp. 82–84].

The history of the lighter trade in Singapore reveals a clear ethnic succession. In the earliest days of the settlement, the lighter traffic was in the hands of men from southern India, recruited from or through the East India Company’s port at Madras; they brought with them the construction and use of the lighters of the Madras coast—beamy, deep, double-ended vessels with short keels and rounded forefoot and heel [8, pp. 94–95]. By the 1860s, Cameron estimated that no fewer than 500 tongkangs were visible at one time in the first reach of the Singapore River, each carrying a crew of at least three men, giving a floating population of at least 1,500 men [8, p. 99]. The first recorded sailing race between tongkangs took place on New Year’s Day 1834, as reported in the Singapore Chronicle [8, p. 97].

The position of the Tamil boatmen was considerably weakened in 1867, when ultimate responsibility for the Straits Settlements was transferred to the Colonial Office and Singapore became part of a crown colony under direct control from London [8, p. 100]. In the following decades, part of the lighter traffic passed into Chinese hands, and the twakow—a Chinese-style hull developed by the local Chinese—began to replace the European-style lighter in the last quarter of the nineteenth century [8, p. 87]. The tongkang name was subsequently applied to two extant Singapore boats: the Singapore Trader, a general purposes cargo boat of 40–85 feet, and the Singapore Timber tongkang, a specialised vessel of 85–95 feet built solely for carrying logs of timber from the Endau River valley to Singapore [8, pp. 84–86]. The capital value of the timber alone in the hull and spars of a Timber tongkang was estimated at $10,000–$12,000 at 1950s prices [8, p. 86].

The Penang tongkang is unique among the Malayan forms in that it is still largely Tamil-managed, and even now the copy of the surul (a decorative and ritual motif on the stem head, associated with non-Muslim Indian boat traditions) retains some significance for the men who work it [8, pp. 88–89]. A 70-foot Penang tongkang took two months to build in 1949 and cost $17,000–$18,000, of which half was the cost of timber [8, p. 91]. The group extends beyond the peninsula: in Sandakan Bay, North Borneo, a beamier version of the transom-stern sailing lighter is built by a small community of Malays from Banjermasin on Nunuyan Laut Island, used for bringing mangrove wood for fires to Sandakan [8, pp. 94–95].

Economic and Ecological Dynamics

The fishing economy of the Singapore Strait and the east coast was structured around a hierarchy of maritime activity organised by scale and risk. The kolek pulau served as a single-man craft for subsistence fishing near shore; the kolek kelibat introduced net fishing and a small crew; the kolek pengayer represented a cooperative enterprise of four boats working in concert; and the payang was a full-scale commercial operation with a crew of about 14 men, a complex purse net, and established protocols for locating fish [4, pp. 193–196]. The payang employed a Pukat Petarang net measuring 110–120 feet long by 18 feet wide, with a mesh graduating from wide at the arms to ¾ inch at the purse end [4, pp. 195–196].

The kelong (a staked platform in the water from which fishing nets are operated) served as the single most productive fishing unit in the Singapore area: in 1949, 247 kelongs were licensed, 139 in depths exceeding 3 fathoms and 108 in shallower water [5, p. 170]. The total licensed fishing fleet grew from 1,530 boats in 1947 to 1,722 in 1949, with the kolek (549–574), kolek chiau (368–439), and sampan/kolek selat (280–382) together accounting for roughly three-quarters of all entries [5, p. 148]. In 1949 there were 4,387 registered fishermen working from Singapore Island: 3,073 Chinese, 1,301 Malay, 10 Indian, and 3 of other nationalities [5, p. 170].

On the east coast, the perahu pinas was built at Kuala Trengganu over approximately 10 months by a gang of 20 men, and was employed mostly on runs between Kuala Trengganu and Bangkok, making about three trips per year during the south-west monsoon season [2, p. 106]. The smaller bedar (also called Luang Sudu), at 30–35 feet, achieved speeds of 8 knots in good sailing weather with a total sail area of approximately 500 square feet [2, p. 110]. The environmental constraints that shaped these designs included shallow estuaries with shifting sand bars that limited draught to four or five feet in most cases, the north-east monsoon (Musim tutup kuala) that rendered the coast a lee shore from October to March, and the Tenggara winds that raised a short, choppy sea in the extremely shallow waters [2, pp. 106–125].

Indonesian trading vessels reaching Singapore represented a separate but interconnected maritime economy. The Palari (Makassar trader), measuring 50–70 feet overall, carried a crew of 7–8 men earning $10–20 per month plus food, and the 1,200-mile passage from Makassar to Singapore took 8–9 days with the north-east monsoon [9, pp. 112–113]. The Golekkan (Madura trader), remarkably consistent in size at 50–55 feet overall, carried 500–550 piculs of cargo, and the 535-mile run from Batavia to Singapore was estimated at 5–6 days at a maximum speed of 8–8½ knots [9, pp. 122–123]. The double-masted Lambok ketch from Bonerate, reaching 58–80 feet overall with a sail area of about 2,000 square feet and a cargo capacity exceeding 700 piculs, required only 6–7 men—demonstrating the efficiency advantage of the European-modelled design over the traditional Palari and Golekkan [9, p. 134].

Model Boats and Racing Traditions

The tradition of model boat racing, known as the jong, was documented by Gibson-Hill in 1950 as a lightweight sailing model raced along the coasts of Singapore, the adjacent southern islands, the Strait of Johore, and Mersing [10, pp. 144–148]. The hull was cut from a single piece of Jelutong wood (Dyera costulata), carrying a triangular foresail and sprit-mainsail on a slender mast, with no true keel or rudder; stability and directional control were achieved through an outrigger boom (Batang Katir) set to windward, terminating in a heavy float whose angle could be rotated by the owner to vary the drag-moment [10, pp. 146–147]. Two size classes existed: larger jongs with a waterline length of 55–65 inches (used south of Singapore and at Mersing) and smaller ones at 33–40 inches (predominant off Singapore Island) [10, p. 147]. New models cost approximately $15–20 [10, pp. 146–147].

Alfred’s 1986 study of three model jong from Pulau Brani, Singapore, provided the first detailed morphological account of this variant and argued that their hull form derives from the full-size Sekochi of the east coast of Peninsular Malaysia, while their two-masted gunter rig was likely adapted from Indonesian trading vessels that once called at the island [11, pp. 133–138]. The Sekochi, the closest full-size hull match, has a maximum recorded length of 9–10 metres, though Alfred observed larger examples of 14–16 metres at Beserah, Pahang in 1975 [11, p. 137]. A former island resident dated the tradition to at least the late 1930s; by Alfred’s first visit in 1974 the practice had ceased and only one kampong (village) remained on the island [11, p. 137].

The presence of outrigger attachments on the jong lends support to the hypothesis, advanced by Hornell (1946), that model outrigger canoes in the region reflect the former use of outriggers on full-size vessels, a practice for which no full-size single-outrigger canoe is known in Malaysia and Singapore [11, p. 138].

Research and Documentation

The Society’s literature on boats reveals a clear progression from early descriptive ethnography to systematic taxonomic survey, driven by the accelerating loss of traditional craft. Dalton’s 1926 article provided one of the earliest practical field guides to the maritime technology of the east coast, cataloguing vessel types in terms of dimensions, timber selection, rigging, crew size, and the specific fishing techniques associated with each [4, pp. 192–200]. Warington Smyth’s 1902 paper, long treated as the standard reference, was explicitly critiqued by Gibson-Hill as “comprehensive only in its title,” having been written on the basis of a personal knowledge of some parts of Peninsular Siam, a passage through Singapore, and a “prolonged though not conspicuously critical examination” of the Skeat collection [1, pp. 121–133].

Gibson-Hill’s systematic programme of documentation, spanning 1949 to 1954, represented a deliberate correction to these earlier limitations. His 1949 article on east coast cargo boats provided the first systematic post-war catalogue of the Pinas-Bedar group [2, pp. 106–125]. His 1950 papers on Indonesian trading boats, Singapore fishing boats, and the racing jong extended the survey to the full range of vessels operating in Singapore waters [10, pp. 144–148], [5, pp. 148–170], [9, pp. 108–138]. His 1951 note on the small boats of the Rhio-Lingga Archipelago traced a clear north-south transition in boat types across the archipelago [1, pp. 121–133]. His 1952 study of the tongkang group resolved a century of taxonomic confusion and reconstructed the ethnic succession in the lighter trade over a 130-year period [8, pp. 84–110]. His 1953 note on the perahu pinas connected a previously unexamined mid-nineteenth-century colonial account to the local oral tradition, demonstrating how a minor figure in an official dispatch could become the eponymous founder of a boat type in the collective memory of a coastal community [7, pp. 206–210]. His 1954 paper, the final volume in the monograph Papers on Malayan Fishing Methods, integrated boat typology with the functional analysis of fishing methods, providing a material-culture dimension to the fisheries research programme of the Singapore Fisheries Department [6, pp. 145–174].

Alfred’s contributions in the 1980s addressed the gap left by Gibson-Hill’s passing mention of the Pulau Brani jong and provided the first physical description and comparative analysis of that form [11, pp. 133–138]. His 1987 checklist of 22 distinct craft forms in Singapore was compiled explicitly to preserve nomenclature and physical specifications before they were lost to fibreglass hulls and motorised transport [3, pp. 99–114]. The archival infrastructure supporting this body of work includes the Maritime Museum, Singapore collection, the Skeat collection of boat models at Cambridge University (assembled in 1896–1897 in Kuala Langat), the Raffles Museum Archives, and the shipping registers of Singapore and Penang [11, pp. 136–137], [8, pp. 109–110], [1, pp. 121–133].

MBRAS Sources

Sailing boats

References

  1. C.A. Gibson-Hill (1951). A note on the small boats of the Rhio and Lingga Archipelago JMBRAS 24(1): 121–133.
  2. C.A. Gibson-Hill (1949). Cargo boats of the east coast of Malaya JMBRAS 22(3): 106–125.
  3. E.R. Alfred (1987). Boats of Singapore JMBRAS 60(2): 99–114.
  4. H.G. Dalton (1926). Some Malay boats and their uses JMBRAS 4(2): 192–200. Read on JSTOR
  5. C.A. Gibson-Hill (1950). The fishing boats operated from Singapore Island JMBRAS 23(3): 148–170. Read on JSTOR
  6. C.A. Gibson-Hill (1954). The boats of local origin employed in the Malayan fishing industry. {In Papers on Malayan fishing methods JMBRAS 27(2): 145–174.
  7. C.A. Gibson-Hill (1953). The origin of the Trengganu perahu pinas JMBRAS 26(1): 206–210.
  8. C.A. Gibson-Hill (1952). Tongkang and lighter matters JMBRAS 25(1): 84–110.
  9. C.A. Gibson-Hill (1950). The Indonesian trading boats reaching Singapore JMBRAS 23(1): 108–138.
  10. C.A. Gibson-Hill (1950). The racing jong JMBRAS 23(1): 144–148.
  11. E.R. Alfred (1986). The Pulau Brani Jong JMBRAS 59(2): 133–138.