Taugata

Trip Start May 12, 2006

Trip End Ongoing

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Flag of Samoa Western Vailoa, Samoa Western
Monday, May 21, 2007

Finally, after much trouble and expense, I have a Samoan dugout canoe. The villagers here are very superstitious about a foreigner having a boat. I was not able to purchase a second-hand boat under any circumstances, even though there are a number of them lying about unused. Finally, the master boat builder of the district agreed to build me a new one, but he demanded a hefty bribe over and above the value of the boat. Even so, it is not quite a traditional Samoan paopao though useful enough for my purposes. Then, after I had sailed it a few times, the High Chief insisted it be put away in a fale 'to protect it.' It took four men to do this, as the boat is quite heavy-one of the ways in which it differs from a traditional canoe-and the help to get it out again was not readily forthcoming. It was finally spirited out by a large gang of small boys sympathetic to my predicament so I have the use of it again, at least for the time being until the High Chief returns from a conference in Upolu.

Having the boat built new was better than buying a used one in any case, because I was able to observe the entire boatbuilding the process, from selecting a suitable tree in the forest to the final finishing. The pictures show the master, Chief Pulasui, directing the work of his sons. After the tree was felled, the boat was roughed to shape on the spot and then moved to the chief's workshop for completion.

My intention was to resurrect the sailing canoe, unseen in Samoa for many years. Canoes are paddle-driven for fishing in lagoons. For work outside the reef or for ocean travel where sailing canoes were once used one sees now only aluminum catamarans powered by outboard motors. The Samoan heritage people at the university tell me that there is no documentation of the technical details of the Samoan sailing canoe. They advised me to get a canoe and put any kind of a sail on it at all, to see if any old men would come out of the woods to tell me why it was wrong. This sounded like a good idea, but from the amount of ridicule and perplexity I have attracted with my efforts I would have to say that traditional Samoan sailing technology is lost forever. Still, the thing is fun to sail about in. I named it Taugata, which is Samoan for 'very expensive.'.