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West Austronesian Shipbuilding
Traditions
Dr. Horst H. Liebner, M.A.
 ‘The Austronesian Migration’
Taiwan
3.500 BCE

3.000 BCE

1.500 BCE
500 BCE

1.000 BCE 2.000 BCE

1.500 BCE
1.000 BCE
 Hawaii
500 CE
1.500 BCE

1.500 BCE
500 CE 1.000 500 CE
Madagascar BCE Easter
Island
800 CE
New Zealand
 … distribution of
Austronesian languages.
Hawaii

Madagascar Easter
… distribution of Island
outrigger craft.
New Zealand
 Hawaii

Madagascar Easter
Island

New Zealand
 Micronesia Bali
Outrigger Boats?

Makassar

Madagascar
Liebner, H.H. 2016
 Outrigger Boats?
“… of supreme elegance of form
[…] so perfect in design as to excel
in swiftness and handiness in
working every other vessel of its
type at the time when it was first
seen by Europeans.” … were able to cross vast dis-
(Haddon and Hornell 1975 [1936-8]: 418, about the ‘flying proa’ of Micronesia)

tances of open oceans, long

before European shipping.
 Outrigger Boats?

… became the paragon for

sophisticated modern sailing craft.
 Outrigger Boats?

A proposed centre‘Western
of Austronesia’
complexity between E-
Java, Bali and Sulawesi,
in perhaps the last
millennium BCE.
# of traits of complexity of
typical outrigger craft per region

Doran, Edwin Jr. (1981), Wangka: Austronesian Canoe Origins (College Station), Fig.50
Borobudur, 1:53
Borobudur, 1:86
 Sulawesi, 19th century
How reliable are these representations?

Tanja-sails: The prototypical

Dutch sailors, W-Austronesian rig
early 17th
century
 Sulawesi,
‘Atlas
OtherMiller’,
iconography? 20th century
early 16 century
th

Indian Murals, 2nd – 6th centuries CE

… no outriggers, but …
N-Australia, 19th century

Schlingloff 1976: 'Kalyāṇakārin's Adventures. The Identification of an Ajanta Painting'. Artibus Asiae, 38 (1): 5-28, pg. 21
 Other iconography?
Indian Murals, 2nd – 6th centuries CE

Western observers, 18th/19th centuries:

“… steered with two commoodies, a sort of
broad paddle”, “hung on the quarters
from strong crossbeams which [project]
out two to three feet on each side .” China
(Forrest, T. 1779 [1780]: A Voyage to New Guinea, and the Moluccas. Dublin [London]: Price, Whitestone et al. [G.
Scott], pg. 11; Wallace, A. 1962 [1890]: The Malay Archipelago. New York: Dover Publications, pg. 310)

Jambi, 1670

Arabia, India
Schlingloff 1976: 'Kalyāṇakārin's Adventures. The Identification of an Ajanta Painting'. Artibus Asiae, 38 (1): 5-28, pg. 21
Other iconography?
Indian Murals, 2nd – 6th centuries CE

Schlingloff 1976: 'Kalyāṇakārin's Adventures. The Identification of an Ajanta Painting'. Artibus Asiae, 38 (1): 5-28, pg. 21
 Folkard, H. C. 1901: The Sailing Boat. London: Edward Stanford, pg. 430.

early 20th century

19th century
An addition onto a ‘basic’ hull?
South Sulawesi, 20th century: The tattaq tallu, the ‘three-times cut’, building plan

Papang lamma: the ‘soft planks’ – sheerstrakes, the

number of which depends on the kind of ship to be build.

Papang terassaq: the ‘hard planks’ –

fixed number and placement.

… given one or two long sheerstrakes,

the hull could be used for a pajala, a
type of net-fishing boat.

Horst Liebner, February 2023

 layar [IND] /
sombalaq [Konjo]
tanja[/q]: sails
and rig

pajala:
hull
 The shipwrights “build first
the ‘padjala’, the underpart,
which then […] is completed
with upperworks and a deck,
and then is called a ‘palari’”.

palari:
hull
 salompong

ambeng rua kali

palari:
hull
… with tanjaq sails:
padewakang

palari:
hull
 … and the Indonesian
gaff-ketch rig:
sombalaq penisiq

Collins, G. E. C. (1992 [1937]). Makassar Sailing. Singapore

[London]: Oxford University Press [MacMillan]., pg.47

palari:
hull
Tropenmuseum Amsterdam TMnr. 10007912
 Dutch observers,
early 17th century

Portuguese observers,
early 17th century

Eredia, E. G. d. M., John V., transl., ed.]. (1930 [1613]). Eredia's Description of
Malaca, Meridional India, and Cathay. JMBRAS, 8(1)
 Dutch observers,
early 17th century

Portuguese observers,
early 17th century

Eredia, E. G. d. M., John V., transl., ed.]. (1930 [1613]). Eredia's Description of
Malaca, Meridional India, and Cathay. JMBRAS, 8(1)
Frames and stringers …
 Frames, stringers and
deckbeams in a palari hull…
… today held in place by dowels
driven through the planking.

Frames, stringers and

deckbeams in a palari hull…
Punjulharjo find, 7/8th century

… frames tied onto lugs

worked out from the
inside of the planks.
Archaeology, however …
 ????
Sambirejo, Palembang,
Indonesia, 7/8th century

Chau Tau wreck, Vietnam, 7/8th century

Noriko, N. et al. 2017: "Nishimura

Lingga wreck, Riau, Indonesia, 12th century
Masanari’s Study of the Earliest Known
Shipwreck Found in Vietnam." Asian Review
of World Histories 5(2): 106-122.

Perhaps a dozen finds of

pre-15th century remains
Photo courtesy by P.-Y. Manguin

with such ‘holed lugs’ … http://epress.nus.edu.sg/sitereports/lingga/text/shiporigin/

Nan Han / Cirebon Wreck,
foundered 969-971
Planks of the Nanhan/Cirebon Wreck,
foundered around 970
 Plank Pattern of the Nanhan/Cirebon Wreck, around 970

… designed around a … that defines the symmetry

centrepoint … of the construction!
‘Stations’: Measuring
Plank references for a ship’s hull
Connections

5 4 3 2 1 1 2 3 4 5
 Plank Pattern of the Nanhan/Cirebon Wreck, around 970

… designed around a … that defines the symmetry

centrepoint … of the construction!

Plank
Connections

5 4 3 2 1 1 2 3 4 5
Sequences of repeated measurements Same measurements

½ ½
⅓ ⅓
¼ ¼
⅙ ⅕
⅟12 ⅙

⅕ ⅕
¼
⅓ 1
1
 Frame Station Pattern, Nanhan/Cirebon Wreck, around 970

1 ½
1

⅙ ½ ½ ½

5 4 3 2 1 1 2 3 4 5

1 1 1
/n /n /n
 Frame Station Pattern, Nanhan/Cirebon Wreck, around 970

1 ½
1

⅙ ½ ½ ½

+ - + -
 1

Sequence of attaching
a new plank strake.
 Directions for
drilling the holes.

> Placement of the holes/lugs

holding frames had to be deter-
mined when the keel was laid.
Impossible to drill
holes into the side
of the lugs on
Stations: Holes for after
keel/planks
attaching the
nextframes

X
plank strake
onto the keel.
is attached.

X
 Frame Station Pattern, Nanhan/Cirebon Wreck, around 970

1 ½
1

⅙ ½ ½ > Placement of the holes/lugs½

holding frames had to be deter-
mined when the keel was laid.

+ - + -

> This is a consciously

applied pattern.
 ????
Ships have to be
conceptualised as a
harmonic sequence of
multiple curves in a three-
… f(x)= !
dimensional space!

Witsen, N. (1671), Aeloude and hedendaegsche Scheepsbouw en Bestier (Amsterdam)

 … ‘the Art of Marine
Sutherland, W. (1711), The Ship-Builders Assistant : or, some essays
towards compleating the art of marine architecture (London).

Architecture’!

Witsen, N. (1671), Aeloude and hedendaegsche Scheepsbouw

FragmentsenofBestier
Ancient(Amsterdam)
English Shipwrightry, 16th century, Magdalene College, Cambridge
… a centrepoint, the ‘possiq’, around
which the construction revolves …
‘Stations’

5
4
3
2
1
1
2
3
4
5

tambugu + ruang
= 1 tari-taripang
possiq
 1781, England
????
… a centrepoint, the ‘possiq’, around
which the construction revolves …
‘Stations’

5
4
3
4 3 2 21 A B C D
1
1
2
3
4
5

Marmaduke Stalkartt (1781), Naval Architecture Or the Rudiments and Rules of Ship-Building (London), pl.1. EN.2

tambugu + ruang
= 1 tari-taripang
possiq
panapu tallulalang = 3-plank inside
????
papangappaq = [2+2=] 4-plank

panapu tallulalang = 3-plank inside

papanglima = [4+1=]5-plank

papangannang = [3+3=] 6-plank

1 2 1 1 2
2
3 1 1 1
4 3 2 2 3
3 2 1 1 2 3

DIRECTION DIRECTION
OF COUNT CENTRAL OF COUNT
RUANG: NOT
RUANG TAMBUGU COUNTED!
TARI-TARIPANG

Many of the planks’ names refer to their lengths in the

‘count’ of measuring units marked on the keel …
- + - +
On the stems, the
tambugu stations
The tambugu to aft are are exchanged with
each slightly the positions of the
lengthened planks’ ends.

+ + + +

tambugu + ruang
= 1 tari-taripang
possiq
Horst Liebner, February 2023
 … and when you apply the same beam of the hull
at corresponding stations in the bows and aft …

… you get the shape of a ship’s hull:

Pointed bows, rounded stern …

+- +
As the fore stem
+
+ + is longer than the
+ aft one ..
-
The tambugu to aft
are each slightly
lengthened
 74cm
150cm
274cm
340cm

336cm
266cm
146cm
70cm
 Frame Station Pattern, Nanhan/Cirebon Wreck, around 970

Pointed bows, rounded stern …

+
the ideal curve for a ship’s hull.
-
+
-

+ - + -
… frames tied onto lugs
worked out from the
inside of the planks.
 The ‘Lashed-Lug’ technique:
A MAJOR CHARACTERISTIC OF WESTERN
AUSTRONESIAN BOATBUILDING!

… still found in e.g. Eastern

Indonesian whale-hunter boats.
lashings
 dowels
1 2 1 1 2
2
3 1 1 1
4 3 2 2 3
3 2 1 1 2 3

DIRECTION DIRECTION
OF COUNT CENTRAL OF COUNT
RUANG: NOT
RUANG TAMBUGU COUNTED!
TARI-TARIPANG

Around, possibly, the 15th Century lashing

began to be replaced by dowelling – the lugs,
however, were still retained, now as marks on
the keel that determine plank lengths and the
positioning of frames and dowels.
 1 2 1 1 2
2
3 1 1 1
4 3 2 2 3
3 2 1 1 2 3

DIRECTION DIRECTION
OF COUNT CENTRAL OF COUNT
RUANG: NOT

ruang tambugu
RUANG TAMBUGU COUNTED!
TARI-TARIPANG
 Tana Beru, Ara: Konjo
tambugu
Makassar, Sulawesi
tambugu
tambuku
Bugis, Sulawesi
tampuku
Rawas, Sumatera
tamuku
Malay
tembuku
Bacan, Moluccas
tambuku
tambuku
Philippines, 17th cent.
tamboko
 Tana Beru, Sulawesi, Indonesia, 2018
Sambirejo, Palembang,
Indonesia, 7/8th century

= two symmetrical
planks that can be
placed on starboard
and portside of the hull.
 … ‘hard’ because
they are not bent,
but carved to shape.

Papang terassaq: the ‘hard planks’ –

fixed number and placement.
 … distribution of
Austronesian languages.
Hawaii

Madagascar Easter
… distribution of Island
outrigger craft.
New Zealand
 The ethnographic record …
Outrigger Beam
Crossbeams /
Frames

Lashings

Tambuku
Lombok, Hornell 1920: 93

Buru, Hornell 1920: 60

Makassar, Haddon dan Hornell 1935: 11 Tobelo, Friederici 1912: 24 Manado, Hornell 1920: 80

Hawaii, Haddon dan Hornell 1935: 11

 ???

CRACK!
Thwarts: Often retained
as reinforcement, ‘seats’
for rowers, … … A dugout …
Nooteboom 1932

Lashings
 Adding a washstrake
dramatically increases
seaworthiness …
... ‘tambuku’.
Cf.: Nooteboom, C. 1932:
De Boomstamkano in
Indonesie; Leiden!

https://pxhere.com/en/photo/767654?
utm_content=shareClip&utm_medium=referral&utm_sour
ce=pxhere

Horridge 2006: 148.

3,000+
years! lashings

tambuku
 … a tradition of
3,000+ years!

… that in 2017 became

UNESCO World Heritage.
Thank you for your kind attention.
Thank you for your kind attention.