XoRiii Alaskan Whai inc Umiak of about i8go. Drawn from damaged 

 frame, formerly in a private collection, now destroyed. 



the Western Alaskan coast and among the islands. 



The drawing on page 186 represents a large Alaskan 

 tiiniak from King Island. Two boats of this model, 

 hut with modern metal fastenings, are in the Mari- 

 ners" Museum, Newport News, Virginia, but the 

 drawing shows the methods of fastenings used in 1886. 

 The plan is of a burdensome model, such as is used for 

 travel or other heavy cargo work. The boat is 34 

 feet 2]^ inches over the gunwales, 8 feet ji inch 

 extreme beam, 2 feet jji inches deep and 2 feet 10 

 inches beam on the bottom over the chines. The 

 construction follows the general plan of the small 

 umiak just described, except that another method of 

 fitting the floor timbers to the chines is employed. 

 Due to the size and use of the umiak, two side battens 

 are employed with a single riser. The thwarts are 

 not notched over the frames, but instead fall between 

 them. As diagonal thong braces from gunwale to 

 keelson would be ineffective in this situation, two sets 

 of wooden braces that resist not only tension but also 

 compression are used to take the thrust off the thw art 

 lashings. These brace-frames are staggered slightly 

 to allow room to fit them at the keelson. The draw- 

 ing, which requires no additional explanation, shows 

 the plan of construction and the important lashings, 

 and the method of fitting oars with thong thole loops. 



Boats such as these carried a square sail lashed to a 

 yard, the mast being stepped in a block on the keelson. 

 No mast thwart is used; instead stays and shrouds of 

 hide rope supported the mast, a method that made it 

 easy to step or unstep the mast in a seaway. Early 

 umiaks in this area are said to have had mat sails; 



later ones used sails of skin and drill. Modern umiaks 

 of this class often have rudders hung on iron pintles 

 and gudgeons and the floors fastened to the keelson 

 w ith iron bolts or screws. The scarphs are also bolted, 

 but the remaining fastenings are lashings in the old 

 style, to obtain flexibility in the frame. 



A North Alaskan whaling umiak, supposed to have 

 been built about 1890, is represented in the drawing 

 of figure 171 . The remains of the boat were sufficient 

 to permit reconstruction of the frame. This umiak is 

 aljout the size of, and in profile greatly resembles, a 

 New Bedford whaleboat. However, the model is 

 that of the umiak, rather sharp-ended and strongly 

 sheered. The boat is 29 feet 4% inches o\er the 

 headboards, 5 feet lO.'i inches extreme beam, and 2 

 feet \% inches deep. Umiaks of this model were 

 used at Point Barrow and vicinity in offshore whaling, 

 and w'ere also used for travel and cargo carrying. 

 Paddles were used in whaling, but in more recent 

 times sail, oars, and outboard engines have been em- 

 ployed. The boats of this class appear to have been 

 marked by a very graceful profile and strongly 

 raking ends. Despite the resemblances of this type 

 of umiak to the whaleboat, it is highly doubtful that 

 Its model \\as influenced by the white man's boat. 

 In fact, it might just as well be claimed that since the 

 whaleboat appears to have been first employed in the 

 early Greenland whale fishery, the latter had been 

 influenced by the umiaks found in that area. How^- 

 ever, one might also point to the fact that the model of 

 the early European whaleboat is much like that of 

 a \'iking boat, from which will fx" seen the danger in 



187 



