Hiquily, T. Et Al. Conserving a Canoe Sail. 2009

8/7/2019 Hiquily, T. Et Al. Conserving a Canoe Sail. 2009

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VOLUME 3 2009

Technical Research Bulletin


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S g th gh h st : s v g s h g h t s

ara Hiquily, Jenny Newell, Monique Pullan, Nicole Rodeand Arianna Bernucci

Summary T B t sh M s m h s s ts t , h h s k t b th h t s (ie ) t h v s v v m th s g s. T s s s j st v 9.5 m t s g b 1.5

m t s , v g t th t p b tt m, s h t st th S t Is s. It t s m thth ght th t th t . It s st t m f p t m ts t p s , thfb p st s s g ts g s, h s m s th p s th t p h s th s

s t t t t m st. C s s s th s t p bs v m t b E pv g s. Is s E p s s t th h th s m t m t h g t t h-

s x mp s m h th . S v s s s m th t P f b ght b k tB t F th ght th t th h st t s P s m t m t h-

g s h t th B t sh M s m.I 2007 2008, th M s ms h t s s ss ss , s v m t x pt t .

C s v t th m v s g, s t th t t t t p s s pp t:gths t m b p p v t s pp t sm , k s h s, h st ps v k

s t m t p t g m t v g s ss, p t g g g.T b t b t t s s v t s t th B t sh M s m h t t s

mp t t p t th s v t p j t s t th t g m t m t b tth s s th t s v s s s v t t st g ps, m m th P f , h bt ss th s th t mp m s g ts g-t m p s v t .

IN RODUC ION

T s m h t th t s t th B t shM s m (O 1999,Q.139: F g 1) pp s t b th s h s t h v s v v m h t s s g .

h t s st pp m k g s g s th 1840s, h

th F h g v m t st t t b t -s t v . T s p b b h th M s m th

t ght th t th t . It h b st g th M s ms s v t t ts s g f-

s g z p g mm s t t th t t ts ss ssm t, s v t m t t

20072008. P t s v t , th s z gt th s h t mp ss b t

s , h h s g f t m t x m t s s.A s v t , th s m s h t v g ,b t b m v b s st .

D g th s p j t, B t sh M s m t s s v t s t t t k th th th s

( H), h s sp st th h st t h g P s s m th M s h t . g th thth s v t s t g s t h st , th

b t g t h th st g th sp t s .

N s th s v t x m t p j t sp

p , s h s, j sts P s s k g st t g v g g s h v b b t b ft

m th s pp t t t v mp t P ss st t th t t m t s t h s,

h p v s th g g ss k.

DESCRIP ION OF HE SAIL

T s s t , m s g 9.68 m h gh b 1.53m , v s s t th t p b tt m s. Its

m m t h s th st t s m b th t sts C ks


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ARA HIQUILY, JENNY NEWELL, MONIQUE PULLAN, NICOLE RODE AND ARIANNA BERNUCCI

and Bl hs a ly voya s to ah t , n pa t c la thos by tha t sts S. Pa k nson, W. Hod s and J. W bb on th thCook voya s and by L t nant G o ob n on Bl hsProvidence n 79 , F s 4. T sa ls d m ns ons, w tha w dth to h ht at o o on to s x, acco d w th th obs -vat ons o th s v s to s.

T sa l s const ct d om th la mats, as w ll assmall p c s o va o s shap s and s z s, ach mad ompla t dPandanus tectorius l a (th ah t an t m o wh ch

sfara). T s hav b n st tch d to th w th nn nst tch s app ox mat ly 34 cm lon n a two Z-pl d co dmad om th nt nal ba k o Hibiscus tiliaceus ( ah t ant mpurau ). T o t d s o th mats hav b n old dov and st tch d nto a sl v that ns alon th ntp m t o th sa l. T s sl v ncas s a th ck (app ox -mat ly 3 cm d am t ) th Z-pl d op mad ompuraufb , F 5. T op , st n th n n th sa l at th d s,

xt nds o twa ds at th top and bottom nds, wh l a s pa-at s ct on o op xt nds om th mast d o th sa lo hly two-th ds o th way p th sa l, F 6. T s

th th ck purau op s a a ma kabl at o th s sa l.T two low l n ths most l k ly s v d to ast n th sa lto th mast, b t th topmost l n th was p obably s d to fxa lon op o black ath s.

Alon th d s o th sa l, n m o s small loop ast n sa t d at la nt vals, xc pt o a l n th b tw n th

nd o th spa (wh ch an n pa all l w th th mast) and thtop o th mast, wh th a no ast n s. T s loopsw mad th ompurau o om cocon t palm (Cocosnucifera) fb s, th ah t an t m o wh ch snape. d tos v al o th s loops ast n s a ma ns o two-ply purau

fb co d l n ths, wh ch wo ld hav h lp d fx th sa l toth mast and th spa . T sa l wo ld p obably hav b nd on on s d to a st a ht mast ach n sl htly ov

hal way p ts h ht and on th oth to a J-shap d spaxt nd n alon ts nt l n th, F 6. Ext a st tch n

igure 1. ah t an sa l Oc 999,Q. 39 (d n t atm nt)

igure 2. E. Rook ,A view in the island of Ulietea [Raiatea] with a double canoe and a boathouse , a d aw n s by Sydn y Pa k nson [ ; Plat3 (vol. II)]. Ima : Nat onal L b a y o A st al a, Canb a, nla.p c-an.9 84895


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CONSERVING AND RESEARCHING A RARE AHI IAN CANOE SAIL

figure 3. G o ob n[vaa motu], p n and wash d aw n , ah t ,1792. Locat on o o nal not d nt d. R p od c d om L , I.,Captain Blighs second voyage to the South Sea, Lon mans G n andCo., London (1920). Ima : Nat onal L b a y o A st al a, Canb a

figure 4. Sydn y Pa k nson, Canoe of Ulietea [Raiatea], A st 1769;not that th p opl a not d awn to scal . F om A coll ct on o d aw-

n s mad n co nt s v s t d by Capta n Cook n h s st voya17681771, B t sh L b a y, Ms Add 2 921 . 20. Ima : Nat onalL b a y o A st al a, Canb a

w th a co d mad omnape, n th s cas a th -st and atpla t, has b n add d alon th d w tho t loop ast n sto st n th n th s s ct on, wh ch wo ld not hav b n

n o c d by wood wh n th sa l was d.T pandan s l a has b n spl t lon t d nally n st ps

and pla t d to th n a pla n b as patt n, now athd sto t d. T pp s ac o th l a s cha act z d by a smooth lossy c t cl wh l th low s ac s bb dand matt. T st ps hav b n pla t d p dom nantly, b tnot xcl s v ly, w th th sam l a s ac ac n to on

figure 5. Const ct on at s o th sa l


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s d o th sa l, F 5. It s poss bl to sp c lat an nt n-t onal p pos b h nd th s p haps to k p an v n andfat t ns on on th sa l, o o d co at v ct. T w dtho th c t st ps va s om mat to mat and s n th an35 mm. T s d nc p od c s mats that va y n d l -cacy and n n ss, s st n th y may hav b n pla t dby mo than on hand.

CONSERVING HE SAIL

Condition

T ah t an sa l a v d n th o an c a t act cons va-t on st d os old d nto a b ndl . T scal o th nd -tak n nvolv d n cons v n s ch a la and a l obj ctcannot b nd stat d, and d ta l d sch d l n o so c sand o wa d plann n , ncl d n sta n , mat als andst d o spac was ss nt al. Fo xampl , t q d t ntabl s, wh ch almost nt ly ll d th st d o, to accommo-dat th sa ls ll l n th, so that mano v n p oc d ss ch as t n n that a s ally st a ht o wa d q dca l st p-by-st p plann n .

Cons d abl s ct ons o th sa l ma n d n ma k-ably ood cond t on w th th pandan s l a cl an, ntactand ta n n a d o s ppl n ss and f x b l ty.How v , th w also la a as o dama whth l a was xt m ly b ttl and had b ok n, s lt n

n th th loss o on l m nt o th pla t st ct oboth. T old n o th sa l n sto a had s n cantly d o m d t, and th w st on ly s t olds at nt -vals ac oss ts w dth that p v nt d t om op n n fat,F 7. La spl ts had o m d alon th s old l n s,and th w many a as o loss: at l ast 33 a as hadhol s spann n 10 cm o mo . Not all a as o loss co -spond d w th olds o w n a as wh th s o nd npandan s was pa t c la ly b ttl , and may hav occ dd n s o th sa l. Onc on l m nt n th pla t st c-t had b ok n th s cl a ly had a s n cant mpact onth st ct al stab l ty o th s o nd n a a, s nc thpla t l m nts co ld th n as ly mov o t o pos t on andl av th b ok n nds v ln abl to th dama . Many

a m nts, both pla t d s ct ons and nd v d al l a st ps,w o nd d tach d and w app d p w th th sa l b ndl ,F 8.

T sa l was h av ly so l d on both s d s w th n ,black, sooty pa t c lat matt , typ cal o ban poll t on.T l v l o so l n co ld b co lat d to th way n wh chth sa l had b n old d n sto a , w th th h av st layon th o t most s ac s. T l v l o so l n also lat dto th cond t on o th pandan s l a ; n th h av ly black-

n d a as th plant b s w d and b ttl , wh l thl ss so l d a as ma n d s p s n ly pl abl .

Treatment

T p ma y a m o th t atm nt was to nhanc th p s-vat on o th sa l n lon -t m sto a . How v , n l ht

o th nt st that th cons vat on o th sa l b an ton nd , pa t c la ly n comm n t s phys cally d stant

om th UK,2 th was a d s to nabl th at stposs bl acc ss to th n o mat on conta n d n th sa lw tho t comp om s n ts p s vat on.

M ch so l n was mov d s n low-pow d vac ms ct on and v lcan z d lat x bb spon s. A boths d s o th sa l had b n cl an d n th s way, th sa l was

h m d d s n contact h m d cat on; damp n d cottoncloth was s d to nt od c mo st vapo th o h aGo - xm mb an (a polyt t af o o th n and poly-

st lam nat ). mpo a ly nc as n th mo stcont nt o th plant b mad t mo f x bl , ac l tat nth shap n o olds and d sto t ons. H avy blank ts w

s d to hold th al n d and fatt n d sa l n plac as thlat v h m d ty t n d to amb nt cond t ons.

wo app oach s to th phys cal stab l zat on o thsa l w tak n. T st a m d to hold to th ands c w th n th pla t st ct any b ok n l a st ps,th s p v nt n th loss. T s cond a m d to p ov dst ct al nt ty to th sa l on a la scal , h lp n to

igure 6. D a am o pos t d sa l n (not to scal )


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figure 7. T top nd o th sa l b o cons vat on, show n th xt ns v c as n ac oss th w dth o th sa l

figure 8. S ct ons o b ttl and spl t pandan s l a

add ss th d m ns onal nstab l ty and st ss s ca s d by th la a as o compl t loss.

B aks n th l a st ps, small hol s, and th d s o any la a as o loss wh p oj ct n a m nts o pandan sl a w mov n o b ak n o , w all st n th n d by

nt od c n s ppo t l m nts nto th pla t n th s a as,

F 9. St ps o a s m la w dth to th o nal l a st psw c t om colo -match d 11 .m2 tengujo m lb y pap . L q t xac yl c pa nts d l t d n wat w s dto ton th pap and av a s btl sh n that match d thsl htly lossy l a . T ton dtengujo pap s w lam -nat d w th 10% Lasca x 49 HV adh s v (a th moplast c


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TARA HIQUILY, JENNY NEWELL, MONIQUE PULLAN, NICOLE RODE AND ARIANNA BERNUCCI

ac yl c polym d sp s on bas d on m thyl m thac ylatand b tylac ylat ). By lam nat n to th two sh ts o pap t was poss bl to c at th s btl colo va at onson th s d o th o nal l a st ps.

Us n n dl s c t om h avyw ht poly st flm(M l n x) and tw z s to d aw th m th o h, th paps ppo t st ps w wov n nto th st ct on top o tho nal pandan s st ps, b d n ac oss b aks and loop n

igure 9. Us n a n dl c t om h avyw ht M l n x, a m lb y pap s ppo t st p s wov n ac oss a w ak a a. To th lo th dama d a a, al ady nco po at d pa st ps a v s bl

igure 10. A s c n th d s w th ton d pap st ps, l n ths o c t Tyv k ma nta n th pla t al nm nt ac oss th laa a o loss


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round to anchor broken lea ends. Te paper supports weresecured at points to the pandanus lea below with a doto arrowroot starch paste adhesive, applied with a smallbrush.

Te use o long-fbred mulberry papers in the repair o basketry is well documented, and is used regularly at theBritish Museum [1, 2]. It was ound to be a very compatiblematerial with the pandanus: it gave su cient strength, wasfne enough to insert within the plait, blended well visually,and was exible enough to con orm to the lea and preservethe natural movement between individual elements withinthe weave structure.

Te larger areas o loss had a signifcant impact on theoverall stability o the sail, making the surrounding areasvulnerable to urther damage, particularly when it wasbeing handled or rolled, when they tended to project outo alignment. As the sail was to be rolled or storage andit was expected that it would be unrolled occasionally orstudy, this posed a problem.

o hold the broken edges in register and maintain theoverall plait alignment o the sail, bridging elements wereadded. Cut strips o yvek (a non-woven high density polyethylene) were stretched across the area o loss atspaced intervals and secured either side by weaving along-side the pandanus lea or short sections, Figure 10. yvek was chosen in place o the mulberry paper or its additionalstrength; a narrow strip can success ully bridge two areasacross a large space without tearing. Te supports were leuncoloured, and were secured by weaving the ends back on themselves, rather than by adhesion [3]. 3 Tere was nointention to infll the missing areas, only to stabilize the sail

structure and protect vulnerable surrounding areas. Tesesupports have worked well to maintain plait alignmentduring rolling and unrolling. Inserting the supports atspaced intervals was inevitably aster than the more closely spaced coloured paper supports, and the white colour o the yvek gives a visual indication o the inherently ragilenature o the sail during examination. As no adhesive wasused, the yvek strips can easily be removed should the sailever go on display, and urther cosmetic inflling could becarried out i this was ever deemed to be appropriate.

Te pandanus lea remains extremely brittle and thesail is, there ore, very prone to continual resh, small-scalebreaks occurring, particularly during handling. Tis makes

it unlikely that the sail itsel can be regularly or repeat-edly rolled and unrolled in its entirety without causingdamage.

Prior to long-term storage, the sail was rolled around apadded, acid- ree card roller and extra padding was intro-duced to accommodate the undulations and unevenly distributed raised areas o sail.

Information resource

During the conservation process conservators had the frstopportunity to examine the sail closely. Various orms o

detailed documentation were undertaken, including theproduction o descriptions, diagrams, detailed measure-ments and extensive photographs, all o which have beenmade available through the Collection Database on theBritish Museum website. 4

Te various documents will enable all interested partiesto have access to the in ormation, including academicresearchers, those involved in Polynesian canoe recon-structions, museum curators and conservators. Te richvisual in ormation ensures that access is available to thosewho may not read English as their primary language. It iso particular value, as the sheer size and ragility o the sailprecludes its display in the near uture, although occasionalstudy is possible, i cumbersome.

POLYNESIAN CANOES AND SAILS

Te design and construction o canoe sails have sharedmany points o similarity across Polynesia, a culturalgeographic region covering the eastern and central Pacifc,

rom Hawaii in the north to Rapanui (Easter Island) in theeast and across to New Zealand in the south. A numbero attempts have been made to reconstruct ancientPolynesian canoes relying on in ormation drawn romcontemporary traditional building knowledge, historicalaccounts and drawings. However, very little is knownabout ancient fbre sails because they disappeared very soon a er the frst contacts with Europeans. Te analysiso the ew surviving sails that were collected at the time,

when the canoes were still in use, is there ore crucial tounderstand how they were made and their role in sailcanoe navigation.

Polynesians rom the Society Islands ( ahiti andsurrounding islands) re erred to the sails o their canoeswith the term ie. Tis term can also be ound in uamotu,while on Mangareva kie, a variant o ie, is used. Nearly everywhere else (notably Hawaii, New Zealand, Samoa,Wallis and Rarotonga) the terms r or l are in use [4].Polynesian sails were fnely woven out o pandanus fbre,work that was carried out exclusively by women, whilethe ropes and lines used in conjunction with them weremade by men. Similarly, all sea aring carpentry work was

carried out exclusively by men and under the supervisiono a master calledTahua tarai vaa [5].

In the Society Islands, the sail on every canoe was basedon a single model and it is even likely that they were alsoo similar size. Tis type o sail, re erred to as the simpletriangular sail, was quite widespread throughout easternPolynesia (the area including Hawaii and the Society andMarquesas Islands) and was also ound in New Zealand.

Society Island canoes were tacking canoes, with the sailfxed in position and the prow o the canoe always acing

orward. In other parts o Oceania, double-ended canoes,re erred to as shunting canoes, could sail in both directions:there was a step at each end and the apex o the sail was


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moved rom one end o the canoe to the other with thehelmsman positioning himsel at the opposite end [6].

acking canoes were ast vessels: one man would pilotthe canoe with a steering paddle made o dense wood andwith a very wide blade, while one or two other men wereneeded to maintain the balance o the canoe by movingalong the fat beam or cross-beam that was lashed acrossthe mid-point o the canoe and that extended out overthe water on both sides [7]. Te ahitian type o sail wasdistinctive in that it was high, very narrow and the uppersection reached a considerable height beyond the mast-head, curving in towards the mast axis when the canoewas moving; or urther in ormation on the canoes andsails o Polynesia, and speci cally the Society Islands, see[811].

Outrigger canoes with a single sail were called vaamotu . Tey were used or deep-sea shing and shorterjourneys. Te only other canoes that were tted with sailswere the large double-hulled canoes. Tey had two sailsand were o two di erent types: the tipaerua (a big vaawith a double hull) and the pahi . Te tipaerua had hulls(like those o the single-sailedvaa motu) that were carvedout o tree trunks, attached end to end and built up withstrakes (boards), while the pahi was a complex structureo boards pierced and sewn together. Te cross-sectionthrough the hull o the tipaerua was U-shaped, but thepahi had a sharp keel. Te prow o the tipaerua compriseda projecting horizontal plat orm and its stern was wideand raised, while or the pahi both the prow and the sternwere raised and tapered. Both types o canoes could reachlengths between 16 and 24 m and one or two shelters were

sometimes built on the deck connecting the hulls. Tesecanoes usually had two sails set out as in a ketch, i.e. witha larger sail on a mast in the ront third o the canoe and asmaller sail in the a third. Both sails were always placedon the connecting deck hal way between the two hulls,and a ladder was attached to the mast to help reach thesail and sail sheet (the rope that the helmsman held tomake slight adjustments to the angle o the sail, keepingit close to the wind).

Around 17891791, James Morrison described a typicalahitian sail as being equal in length to a canoe (i.e. about

10 m), and with a width varying between 1.5 and 2.2 m[7; p. 168]. A long rope was attached to the top o the sail

and decorated with black eathers, presumably to indicatewind direction, while a cone-shaped basket o unknown

unction was placed at the top o the mast. Captain JamesCook noted a ew years previously that a canoe about10 m long had a mast o around 8 m and a sail a thirdlonger than the mast [12; p. 223 (vol. 2)]. Te sail sheetwas attached at the point where the horizontal bambooboom at the oot o the sail met the vertical boom-sprit andwas held by the helmsman; on larger canoes, several menhandled the sail sheet. Te disadvantage o this type o sailwas that it could not be reduced when the winds becamestrong [7; p. 168], but the Polynesians invented a meansto reduce the overall sur ace o the sail by detaching and

rolling up the lower section o the sail. When the canoecapsized, a rope was tied to the end o the boom and oneo the crew climbed onto the beam to make it sink whilepulling on the rope until the sail li ed out o the water,which, with the help o wind, righted the canoe.

Te sails o the Society Islands have been re erredto erroneously as crab claw sails because drawingsshowed a wide curvature towards the top o the mast [6;p. 36]. Te examination o the British Museum sail hascon rmed by the location o the bre loop astenersalong its edge that this curvature was not intrinsic inthe orm o the sail, but was the shape given to the sail by the wind. Tis e ect was heightened by the way in whichthe end o the spar bent back towards the mast, pulled by a rope [7; p. 203]. It is highly likely that this was also thecase or ongan and especially Hawaiian sails, which havealso inaccurately been represented as crab claw sails; themodel ahitian and Hawaiian canoes made by AdmiralPris rom 1871 are testimony to this mistake. Tere areindeed many Polynesian crab claw sails, but they are onamphidrome canoes used by Polynesian populationsliving within Melanesian areas (the Motu living on theislands along the south eastern coast o New Guinea andthe aumako in the Santa Cruz Archipelago, east o theSolomon Islands).

Across Polynesia, canoes were treated with care andceremony. Te protection o the gods was called uponperiodically to ensure the ongoing good ortune o thecanoe and voyages taken within it. Large war canoeswere in many ways sacred and embodied the prestige o acommunitys chie [13]. Captains Wallis and Cook, a er

observing the central role o canoes in ahitian society,took canoes hostage when the two groups came intoconfict, or broke up war canoes in reprisal, guessing howmuch impact this would have on the community.

COLLEC ING CANOES

From their rst encounters in 1767, Europeans and ahi-tians were ascinated with each others ocean-going tech-nologies, and both inspected, asked questions about, andmeasured the others vessels [14]. British, French and

Spanish voyagers o en recorded these assessments intheir logs and journals, providing insights into the scale o values within which one maritime culture viewed another.Te Europeans were, or the most part, impressed by thecanoes they observed in ahiti and other Polynesianislands. During his rst visit to the island, Cook wrotelengthy, detailed descriptions o the construction anduses o canoes. He wrote o the ingenuity o the canoemakers and reported enthusiastically on the manoeu-vres o a huge feet o elaborately carved war canoes thathe had witnessed, noting that these were manned withat least een hundred warriors, and our thousandpaddlers [15].


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Collecting samples o these technologies was a way ortravellers to record evidence o the practices and skills o particular interest to them as mariners and as a meanso gauging the maritime expertise o those they met inthe Pacifc, although objects related to canoes were notgiven or traded in such great quantities as other productso the Society Islands; it is stone adzes, fsh hooks, lengthso barkcloth and other, more readily replaced, objects o everyday li e that are the common contents o museumshelves and stores. Voyagers needed to be in a position too er high value goods, not just the usual trinkets, to trade

or vessels that had such a central importance in the li eo the islands. As a result, canoes were collected by thosewith a specialist interest and not just a general desire tobring back potentially lucrative, eye-catching souvenirs.

Tere appear to be only two mentions in early naviga-tors logbooks o the acquisition o a Polynesian sail. Tefrst is when Commodore John Byron seized the sailingcanoes o the inhabitants o akaroa in the uamotu Islandsin 1765 as a reprisal or their aggressive attitude. Te sail,which he kept but has never been identifed, struck himas as neat a piece o work as he had ever seen [12; p.120 (vol. 1)]. One o the authors ( H) has investigatedthe possibility that it could be another Polynesian sail atthe British Museum (Oc1999,Q.140), but or a variety o reasons this seems unlikely. A chie (arii) o the Hitiaadistrict on the eastern side o ahiti gave a long, wovensail to the second European captain to reach the island(Louis de Bougainville), who arrived on the Boudeuse a

ew months a er Samuel Walliss initial visit in 1767 [16].5

Te sail would presumably have been taken back to Paris,

along with Ahutoru, a high-born young man o the Hitiaadistrict and the frst Pacifc islander to visit Europe.Te objects collected and their collection history show

that canoes were only really o interest to the explorersthemselves (rather than other members o their crew)and only the frst explorers were able and eager to study them. Indeed, the changes initiated by these contactsradically and irrevocably altered Polynesian traditionsand cra s. Captain George Vancouver noted that as early as 1793 Hawaiis great chie s ollowed the great chie Kamehamehas example and rigged their canoes withwestern sails [17]. Tis was also the case in other partso Polynesia and particularly on those islands that had a

privileged contact with Europeans.

Sails and canoes at the British Museum

Tere are no extant records o the British Museum sailsarrival or early history at the Museum. wo sails madeo coarse mats were listed in an 1842 Synopsis o theMuseum as part o the long-term display in the popularSouth Seas Room [18]. Tis room acted primarily as ashowcase or material rom Cooks voyages. Tere is insu -fcient evidence to confrm which sails these were, but the

ahitian sail is likely to have been collected very early; it

has a parchment label, commonly used in the eighteenthcentury, indicating that it is likely to have reached theMuseum late that century or in the nineteenth century,in time to be included in the South Seas Room display.Te label is not conclusively o the eighteenth century, asthe inked text reads ahiti, rather than Otaheite. Britishwriters tended to use ahiti rom the early nineteenthcentury, once the use o the ahitian honorifc article Owas understood and it was more usual or eighteenth-century writers to use Otaheite. However, at least oneearly commentator, James Morrison, a Bounty mutineerwho lived on the island rom 1788 to 1791, recognized andused aheite in his account o the island, which he hadfnished writing by 1792. Te use o ahiti on the labelsuggests a slightly later collection and labelling date thanthe Wallis or Cook voyages, but Morrisons example showsthat it is possible that it was labelled in the period betweenthe late 1780s and early 1800s, when voyagers, traders andmissionaries were spending longer periods on the islandand securing a better grasp o the language.

Tere are three Polynesian sails at the British Museum.Te ahitian sail was kept in storage along with a secondsail rom elsewhere in Polynesia (Oc1999,Q.140), possibly

rom the Hawaiian or Marquesas Islands. Te latter sailmeasures 5.1 3.6 m and eatures small geometric designso dark lea strips within the pale pandanus weave. Tissmaller sail is scheduled to be conserved during 2009,and the authors intend to publish any fndings rom theirexamination and treatment o this object in due course.

A third sail, rom New Zealand (Oc,NZ.147.7), whichis trimmed with black eathers, has an elongated, inverted

triangular orm, 4.4 m long and 1.9 m at its widest end.Tese three are the only known surviving examples o ancient Polynesian sails and, in addition, the BritishMuseum appears to be the only institution that holdselements rom the material culture related to canoescollected at the time they were made and used. Britishvoyagers collected Polynesian material relating to feldsother than navigation, and the British Museum holds oneo the richest Polynesian collections in the world.

Tere is a canoe (Oc1771,0531.1), which is nearly intact(the beam is missing and possibly part o the stern) romNukutavake Island in the uamotu Archipelago. Tis wascollected by Captain Samuel Wallis in 1767 and was prob-

ably given to the Admiralty o the Royal Navy, which inturn donated it to the British Museum in 1771 [19]. Tereare also, rom ahiti, examples o the carved posts thatdecorated the stern and prow o many canoes, showinganthropomorphic ancestor fgures ( tii) standing back to back, or example British Museum Oc, ah.60. A largesteering paddle (Oc, ah.87) and a bailer (Oc, ah.6) thatwere almost cer tainly collected during James Cooks visitsare other highlights o the Museums Polynesian maritimecollection. Tese objects provide undamental in orma-tion, and having been collected during the early years o contact with Europeans, they document the changes thatoccurred as canoe-builders who were used to working


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1. Preliminary identifcations o the materials in the sail were madeby visual examination by one o the authors ( H). Te botanicalspecies present were confrmed as Pandanus tectorius , Hibiscustiliaceus and Cocos nuciferaby Caroline Cartwright.

2. An article entitled British Museum discovers 2 pre-European

ahitian canoe sails appeared in the Tahiti Presse in 2008. Availableat http://outriggersailingcanoes.blogspot.com/2008/03/ancient-sail- ound.html (accessed 22 June 2009).

3. A presentation by J. Bracko entitled en ips or yvek given ata meeting o the extile Specialty Group ( SG) o the AmericanInstitute or Conservation in Richmond, Virginia in 1990 is citedin re erence [3].

4. www.britishmuseum.org/research/search_the_collection_database.aspx (accessed 31 March 2009).

5. Te journal o Nicholas Duclos-Guyot (o the Boudeuse), held in

the Muse National dHistoire Naturelle, Paris, Ms 2214, Book 1,. 155, is quoted in [17].

Documents

Hiquily, T. Et Al. Conserving a Canoe Sail. 2009