INDIAN BOAT DESIGNS. 



181 



a curious combination of fore and aft and square sails. These boats are of light draft 

 in order to pass through the shoal passages in the encircling reef into the safety of the 

 lagoon. The forward end rises easily and gracefully to a moderate extent, ending in 

 a slender upturned prow; the stern is low and rather full to provide the better 

 for a large platform not only decking in the extreme aft portion but projecting out- 

 board to a considerable degree. A single tall mast with little or no rake is stepped 

 slightly forward of amidships in a simple tabernacle, and when lowered rests on the 

 hoUowed-out top of a broad plank set upright on the aft platform to act as a crutch. 

 The rig is peculiarly hermaphrodite, there being a high mat square sail hoisted on the 



Fig. 2,2. — A bonito fishing-boat, Minicoy Island. 



f oreside of the mast while abaft on the same spar is set a fore and aft thin cotton main 

 sail. 



The object of the stern platform is not to give a commanding seat to the steers- 

 man but is primarily built to afford standing room for the crew to jig for bonito when 

 they get among a shoal of these fishes. The hull is open save for this fishing platform 

 and is divided by numerous bulkheads, as some of the compartments function as wells 

 for the live-bait carried. 



A somewhat similar boat, of larger dimensions, especially as regards beam and 

 depth, is used in traffic between the islands and Ceylon ; it is usually decked over 

 with somewhat elaborate and comfortably arranged deck-houses in the better class, 

 while in others these structures are largely replaced by well-built cad j an penthouse 



