Nur al-Marege:

A ‘Real-World’ Exercise in Reconstructing an

Early 19th-Century Makassan Trading Vessel
Chiara Zazzaro
Horst Liebner
1770, Eastern Australia …
Makassar

Chaloupka 1996

Rock paintings of
South Sulawesian ships
on Groote Eylandt,
Arnhem Land, N-Australia
 Liedermoij 1854: 361-2

Who could build such ships?

• … e.g., Haji Jafar, a master shipwright from Lemo-Lemo, and his

sons and grandsons ...
• … descendants of the people who had built the ships that in the
18th and 19th centuries frequented northern Australia.
 … in Northern
Tropenmuseum Amsterdam [TM], #10010501, Territory’s Museum
‘a local prau in Makassar’, end 19th-century and Art Gallery

Hati Marege, 1987 …

Exhibition Archipel, La Bouverie, Liege, 2017 …
 … the owners?
As the vessel was to be used in a
popular documentary, it was
expected
• to represent a possible vessel of the
18th century, including choice of
materials, lines and sail cloth;
• to be sufficiently graceful and
refined;
• safe, if possible so even for people
not accustomed with sailing vessels.
Until the introduction of marine engines in the 1970s, most S-Sulawesi
vessels were assembled according to one of two blueprints that prescribe
the arrangement of the lower hull’s planking ...

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 positions.

… which then would be

topped by additional strakes.
Papang lamma: the ‘soft planks’ – sheerstrakes, the
number of which depends on the kind of ship to be build.
Layout of a padewakang or a palari of late 19th / early 20th century

Rijksmuseum Volkenkunde, Leiden [RV], #A440-i-86, 1928 TM-60008232, harbour of Makassar, c. 1910
 Before 1770?

On ships built in ‘Biera’: ‘… their proas,

which they call paduakans […] have their
bow lowered or cut down, in a very
awkward manner, so as to be often under
Stavorinus 1798: 260
water; a bulkhead is raised a good way
abaft the stem, to keep off the sea.’
 Museo delle Civiltà, Rome, Paduakang
A palari, 1923-5
ethnographic collection ‘Luigi Pigorini’
H.A. Karnebeek, 1821/8

Before 1770?

‘salompong’
Padewakang, before 1959
TM-10010874
Unspecified prauw, 1890-1900

On ships built in ‘Biera’: ‘… their proas,

which they call paduakans […] have their Scheepvaartmuseum Amsterdam [SA], #S.0782(14)
bow lowered or cut down, in a very
awkward manner, so as to be often under
Stavorinus 1798: 260
water; a bulkhead is raised a good way
abaft the stem, to keep off the sea.’
TM-60008824 Rijksmuseum Volkenkunde [RV], Leiden, # 3600-5944
A large trading vessel, South Sulawesi, first half 19 th century

Before 1770?

• We assumed that larger ships of the 18th century were built in the
same way …
• … and after consulting with the master-builder decided to use the
tattaq talluq, the ‘three-times-cut’ blueprint for the lower hull.

… upperworks fashioned by adding various

wash- and sheerstrakes onto a basic hull.

tattaq talluq plank pattern

Wereldmuseum Rotterdam [WM], #29568
• Designing the panattaq, a length of bamboo that contains the major
measurements of the vessel, not only made for exotic filming …
• … but, as its basic unit is the handspan of the future owner, creates a
spiritual bond between her/him and the shipwright …
• … which, possibly due to the genteel disposition of her owner, in Nur Al-
Marege’s case made up for the services of at least two lawyers’ offices.
 In the shipyard …
• … actual construction begins with
transferring the measurements on the
panattaq onto the keel timbers …

u a n g
9r
b u g u
0 tam
1
Position of dowels interchanging by strake
between planks, In the shipyard …
• … actual construction begins with
transferring the measurements on the
panattaq onto the keel timbers …
• ... thus providing references for dowel
ruan
g placement, plank lengths and
Space for frame positioning of the framing.

tam
b ugu
Mark for plank butts
 Dowels

Frames
g
tallulalan
pannapu
pa
papangap sarro
pannapu
rakka
Plank pannapu
lalang
sangahili pintallung
Butts appa bengo
papang
lima
papang
inruang
sangahili p
annang
papang
q
ngkara
urussa

pange
peq • ... thus providing references for dowel
placement, plank lengths and
ruang tambugu
positioning of the framing.
 In the shipyard …

• … etic documentation of the

building process was in the hands
of an international team from the
Università degli Studi di Napoli
«L'Orientale», Italy, the Universitas
Indonesia, Jakarta and Kanazawa
University, Japan.
17.5m 3d photogrammetry

m
4.75
 12
11
10
9
7 8
5 6
3 4 tungku-
2 tungkulu
1

rembassang
papang lamma
pannapu sarro pannapu tallulalang 8
papangappa pannapu tallulalang pannapu sarro

pannapu sarro pannapu lalang 7 papangappa pannapu sarro

pannapu sarro papangappa 6 pannapu lalang pannapu sarro
rakka pannapu tallulalang 5
papangappa pannapu tallulalang rakka
bengo pannapu tallulalang 4 papanglima bengo
sangahili pintallung 3
papangannang sangahili pintallung

sangahili pinruang 2
urussangkaraq sangahili pinruang
1
pangepeq
 Before 1770?

• While shape and arrangements of the lower hull did

not pose particular problems for the builders …

• … layout of the upper works was open to discussion.

tattaq talluq plank pattern, lambere shape WM-29568

 Before 1770?
For the type of vessel in question, the shipwrights recommended

• … a high and overhanging poop deck topping an aft-cabin with

• … openings to both
a large central sides
hatch through
covered which
with the lateral
a kurung, rudders
a roof-like structure
would
that couldbealso
operated.
become a cabin;

• The use of square fore-n-aft tanja sails, on two masts …

• … at least one of which should be a tripod;
RV3600-5944
Trading vessel,
before 1857

… the owners?
Trading vessel, 1900s
Padewakang, before 1883

WM-29506

• “… represent a possible vessel

of the 18th century, …;
• to be sufficiently graceful and
refined;”
KITLV-1407322 RV-351-27
Trading vessel,
Paduakang, H.A. Karnebeek Pritchett 1899: 135
before
1821-81857

… the owners?
Padewakang, before 1883

WM-29506

• “… represent a possible vessel

SA-S.0782(14)
of the 18th century, …;
• to be sufficiently graceful and
refined;”
RV-351-27
 ????
• … yet show a number of
palpable differences to
more modern vessels.

• … a much more elaborate stern than later vessels, reminding of

the sterncastles of European ships of the 17th and 18th centuries.
RV-351-27
 ????
• … yet show a number of
palpable differences.

• … ‘set upon’ the aftship of the

hull below, i.e., not a
continuation of the midships’
washstrakes or rails.
RV-351-27
????
 ‘… the tillers were not on deck,
but entered the vessel through
????
two square openings into a lower
or half deck …’ [Wallace 1890: 310]
????
????
 SA-S0782(17)

RV-351-27
 TM-668-123

SA-S0782(17)

WM-29506

Makassar, c. 1915

KITLV-34218
RV-351-2
RV-351-27
RV-3600-5943
18th century …
• For re-enactment filming, safety equipment and various other modern
gear that had to be carried on deck was camouflaged with mats and
spare lontar-palm sail cloth.
• Efforts were made to ban
any modern crockery from
the foredeck galley …
 Modern Times: Bureaucracy

Registering the vessel proved demanding:

• Dimensions of planking and framing exceeded the national Indonesian
requirements …
• … and potentially unsafe layout features –e.g., the large central hatch or the
openings in the aft cabin– were not further scrutinised.
• Administrators at transportation department and harbourmaster offices however
repeatedly asked for details on the vessel’s engine and the compulsory engineers
and mechanical personnel ...
• … deeming an unmotorised vessel unsafe for the planned voyage and threatening
to withhold licenses.
Modern Times: Bureaucracy
• Navigation equipment followed SOLAS V
Reg.19.2.1, and thus more than complied with
national Indonesian rulings.
• Though having no engine, being of less than
500GT and carrying only 11 crew and passengers,
most safety equipment complied with SOLAS II/III
rules …
• … hence far exceeding both Indonesian as well as
the rather rudimentary regulations in force for
‘recreational boating’ in Australia’s Northern
Territory.
 Modern Times: Navigation

• No member of the crew had navigated ships further East than central Alor …
• … dozens of years ago.
• Hence, ‘traditional’ cognitive navigation was used only along the coast of
South Sulawesi until around Bonerate.
• However, in times of GPS-driven chartplotters and readily downloadable
navigation programs running on the smartphones of various crewmembers,
even the use of paper charts and bearings had an antiquated air …
 Modern Times: Navigation

Saumlaki

Darwin
• As the voyage had to pass through official ports of last and first call, it was
also not possible to sail the time-proven historic route …
• … so that safety and timing made it necessary to tow the vessel for much of
its voyage in Australian waters.
Modern Times: Bureaucracy
• While complying with the safety,
navigational and operating rules
applicable in the area sailed …
• … fearing introduction of invasive
pests, Australia’s Biosecurity
administration demanded the vessel
to be taken ashore and fumigated …
• ... necessitating unloading of about
½ of the 14 tons of ballast …
 Makassans at Victoria, Port Essington, by H.S. Melville, 1845

The argument that in the perhaps 300 years of continual contact most if not
all potentially invasive species would have made their way from Sulawesi to
northern Australia anyway found no ready consent.

A Makassan trepang-processing site, Raffles Bay,

N-Australia, by L. Le Breton, 1839
Modern Times: Bureaucracy
• After some closer inspection,
fumigation alone was thought not
enough …
• … and Biosecurity officers demanded
the whole ballast to be replaced.
• As Darwin is not a producer of heavy
masonry, the new ballast was nuclear-
radiated pebbles and larger stones
reportedly imported from the
Indonesian island of Bali.
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