The Indian Ocean - Michael Pearson [38]
We can assume that the primitive coastal craft still found around the shores of the ocean go back to far antiquity. An early European account by Sir Thomas Bowrey gives a vivid account of millennium-old fishing craft, the mukkuvar: they
are built very Sleight, haveinge no timbers in them, Save thafts [that is, thwarts] to hold their Sides togeather. Theire planke are very broad and thinne, Sowed togeather with Cayre, beinge flatt bottomed and every way much deformed.... They are Soe Sleightly built for conveniencies sake, and realy are most proper for this Coast; for, all along the Shore, the Sea runneth high and breaketh, to which they doe buckle and alsoe to the ground when they Strike. They are called Massoolas. . . . When they goe on fishinge, they are ready with very Small Ones of the like kind, that will carry but 4, 3, 2, or one man onely, and upon these Sad things, they will boldly adventure [out] of sight of the Shore, but indeed they Swimme (in general) as naturaly as Spanyall dogs. I have often Seen them one leage or more off Shore, when the Westerly winds have blowne very hard, which is right off, soe that they cold by noe means paddle any nearer in, and they have made Sleight of it, onely let fall theire line with a Stone fast thereto, and let the Cattaraman ride by it, (for such are theire Anchors) and they Swimme on Shore both against wind and Sea.
Bowrey then goes on to tell the story of a man who got far out to sea, and took four days to swim and drift back to shore.14
In more recent times such boats were also used as lighters, tending larger ships held off the coast by the high surf of the area. Mrs Graham in 1810 described them: 'The boats used for crossing the surf are large and light, made of very thin planks sewed together, with straw in the seams, for caulking would make them too stiff, and the great object is, that they should be flexible, and give to the water like leather, otherwise they would be dashed to pieces.' She also described the ubiquitous catamarans of the southeast Indian coast. In 1810 she
walked to the beach to see the catamarans of this coast; they are formed of two light logs of wood lashed together, with a small piece inserted between them at one end, to serve as a stem-piece; they are always unlashed, and laid to dry in the sun when they come out of the water, as dryness is essential to their lightness and buoyancy; when ready for the water, they hold two men with their paddles, who launch themselves through the surf to fish....15
A brief account from Sumatra in the early fifteenth century gives the same impression: 'The lower classes make a living by catching fish with nets. In the morning they take their boats which are made from single tree-trunks, raise the sails, and go out to sea; in the evening, they return with the boats.'16
The rise of early civilisations in the Tigris-Euphrates area, and in northwest India, that is those of Mesopotamia and the Indus Valley, had profound effects for trade, including that by sea. We can now begin to write about relatively routine and organised trade using the Indian Ocean as a highway. Indeed, it is clear that the main economic connections between these two civilisations was by sea, for the land route was and is formidably difficult. For the first time coastal dwellers lived in cities where there was more differentiation amongst the inhabitants, and hence a need for both practical and luxury goods from far afield.