ii^DIAN BOAT DESIGNS. 165 



shorter ; the majority are dug-outs fitted with wash-strakes and balance boards and 

 while they occasionally use three masts as at Muthupet, they usually employ the 

 mainmast only (fig. lo) and less frequently a mizzen in addition. The characteristic 

 features are the use of a pair of quarter steering-boards instead of a fixed rudder, 

 and the employment of a compound balance board. 



The former have the shape of lee-boards ; one is attached on each quarter by 

 a loose lashing passed under the end of the sternmost thwart. The steersman sits 

 right aft on a short decked space and manipulates the quarter steering boards 

 with his feet. The sea for a long distance from Adirampatnam is very shallow 

 and muddy, rendering the use of a fixed rudder troublesome, hence the survival 

 of a peculiar variation of the quarter paddles used before the invention of the fixed 

 rudder. In addition a leeboard is also employed by all these boats. 



The balance board or kadisu is exceptionally long. In the largest boats, which 

 run to 37 feet in length, it attains fully 34 feet in total length (fig. 11). Unlike all 

 the balance boards hitherto described it consists of three sections, a median portion 

 19 or 20 feet long laid athwart the boat immediately in front of the mainmast, 

 with a terminal flattened or bladeshaped section 6 to 7 feet long, added at either 

 end. The latter is thinned and broadened at its further end and slightly twisted, so 

 that the forward edge is depressed a little. The splicing is done by overlapping the 

 ends, which are secured in place by {a) a stout square peg passed through both in the 

 centre of the splice, and by [b] a rope lashing tightened by means of a Spanish wind- 

 lass. Usually two side stays pass from the mast-head on each side to the balance 

 board, one being attached a short distance outboard, the second where the terminal 

 blade is spliced to the main plank. In others only one stay is used on either side. 

 In all other boats the balance board is heavy and straight ; here it has a graceful 

 droop downwards on either side ; its position is permanently fixed and there is no 

 jockeying with it in rough weather beyond the loading of the weather section with 

 one or more of the crew. All the attachments of the balance boards both to the 

 gunwale and to the blade terminals are made by means of the tourniquet device 

 described on p. 161. 



The plank-built canoes, pdldgai kdttu vdttai (fig. 11), are as nearly similar as they 

 can be made to the dug-outs. Sometimes they have a second and shorter balance 

 board, about seven feet long, abreast the mizzen mast ; this has no stays led to the 

 outboard ends, and none of the crew ever perch upon the weather end as they do in 

 the case of the main one. Even in the case of the latter there is less recourse to 

 loading it with men than in any other form ; the principle of the balance pole is here 

 most perfectly utilized. 



The dug-out form is fitted with a high wash-strake, about 9 inches deep, sewn to 

 the slightly tumble-home edges of the dug-out gunwale. 



In Adirampatnam there are about 90 of these boats, 60 being dug-outs, the 

 remainder plank-built. The size of the latter ranges from 18 to 37 feet, with a beam 

 between 2 and 3 feet and depth of 2| feet. Very light draft is necessary ; before the 

 shore is reached long stretches of mud have to be passed. Usually each boat has its 



