INDIAN BOAT DESIGNS. 



175 



These Vizagapatam fishing masulas are usually decorated along the sides with 

 two rows of sloped panels of alternate black and white, those of the upper row 

 slanting opposite to the inclination of the lower Ones (fig. 19). 



The delta of the Godavari furnishes a notable exception to the universality 

 of the catamaran and the masula boat upon the East Coast. In the seaward creeks 

 of this great river a host of peculiar fishing craft, called shoe-dhonis among Europ- 

 eans, ply their trade. The name well describes their appearance — wide and flat 



Fig. ig. — A large seining masula boat, Uppada, Vizagapatam. 



forward with a sharp stem, they narrow greatly aft and have a square transom stern 

 (fig. 20). The fore part is decked in, and as the aft portion, roughly two- thirds of the 

 length, has tumble-home sides, and is also decked in for three feet from the stern, 

 the well is narrow and restricted. It is protected by a high transverse coaming 

 where it meets the fore-deck. The steersman squats on the little deck aft and 

 steers by means of an oar about 12 feet in length working in a wooden rowlock 

 nailed to the centre of the stern. This oar is also used in skulling when there is 



Fig. 20. — Shoe-dhoni. Cocanada 



no wind. The hull has a deep forefoot merging into a fin-keel 6 to 8 inches deep 

 beneath the mast ; the aft portion is nearly flat bottomed, and has almost identical 

 lines as the same part in a skimming hydroplane. Narrow teak planks are generally 

 used for the hull, nailed on ribs of any sort of wood. The outside is kept liberally 

 coated with tar and not with fish oil as in Malabar. The forward decked part is 

 considerably wider than the aft, usually by a foot ; in one measured dimensions 

 were as under: — 



