INDIAN BOAT DESIGNS. 145 



When employed as fishing boats the mizzen is not stepped ; the figure-head also is 

 taken down and left ashore to permit of the use of a sheave fitted in a slot in the stem- 

 head when riding to the nets. The temporary weather-boards are also removed and the 

 boats are stripped to the gunwale in order to have the advantage of the lowest free- 

 board possible when hauling their great nets. As typical Indian craft, the Gujarat 

 machwas built at Bulsar, Billimora and adjacent ports, as opposed to the smaller ones 

 of Arab design such as sambuks and Karachi machwas and jolly-boats, show an essen- 

 tial difference in the way the hull is constructed. In all Arab style boats the plank- 

 ing is laid edge to edge, thereafter rendered watertight by caulking ; in the Indian 

 design, the edges of the planks are grooved or rabbetted to fit one another closely and 

 in the grooves are laid strands of cotton and a layer of putty. (The latter is made 

 by boiling together a mixture of resin and oil which is subsequently hammered into a 

 paste-like mass). The planks are then drawn together by lashings passed through 

 holes bored in adjoining strakes tautened by means of wedges driven in between the 

 lashing and the planks. When drawn sufficiently tight, long iron nails are driven 

 through the planks and the ribs, the projecting inner ends being beaten down to 

 serve as clamps. This method of construction renders the repair of damaged planks 

 a matter of difficulty bat these men look down in contempt at what they consider 

 the crudeness of the caulked planking of Arab-style vessels. Battelas are of the same 

 design but larger and used only for cargo. 



Where the fisher crews are Hindus (some are Roman Catholic Christians), old- 

 time propitiatory ceremonies are carried out upon appropriate occasions, which are 

 useful for comparison with those used elsewhere. The simplest of these is performed 

 each time the boat leaves shore ; when the nets have all been taken aboard and the 

 boat is moving off from the landing place, one of the crew empties a chatty of water 

 over the prow.' Far more elaborate are the special rites performed usually once a 

 season to the local deity of the locality where the fishing operations are carried on. 

 Usually this is one of the aboriginal village deities — a goddess almost invariably. At 

 Velan in South Kathiawar, the goddess of the harbour promontory is invoked with 

 cries of " Mata ! Mata ! " as a goat is killed and coconuts are broken at the prow. The 

 men say they know no proper prayers, so merely invoke the deity by name. Usually 

 several boats share the cost of the offerings, which are made on a date convenient to 

 the men. Occasionally if one boat experiences bad luck while others are making good 

 catches, the unlucky crew will make a special offering at their own cost to ensure 

 better fortune. A crude vermilion figure of Ganapathi, 4 or 5 inches high, is often 

 painted near the mast or at the stern as a further bid for the favour of the gods. 



For inshore fishing, small open boats, of the same general design, of 3 to 10 tons' 

 burden, are employed, manned by three or four of a crew. 



The larger craft used solely for cargo purposes in this region— Cambay to Bom- 

 bay — consist of the battela and the padao. Both may be described shortly as large 

 editions of the Bulsar fishing machwa, battelas running from 40 to 100 tons' register. 



I At Tuticorin the Roman Catholic fishermen similarly splash water on the bow as the boat leaves the beach ; our 

 own custom of breaking a bottle of wine over the bows of a ship when being launched probably has a common origin. 



