Masula boat

Description

Locally known as padagu or salangu among the fisher folks, the masula boat is a large, flat-bottomed, high-sided, open boat with a clumsy design consisting of mango wood planks sewed together with strands of coir which cross over a wadding of the same material, but without frames or ribs, so that the shock due to surf is much reduced. It is specially designed for use where there are no harbours of refuge, chiefly upon the surf-beaten Coromandel Coast of India. It is used in shooting shore seines and also as a cargo lighter. Its range extends along the whole of the eastern coast of India northwards of Cape Calimere. The equivalent type of boats used on the west coast are the beach lighters.{{cite conference | access-date = 27 Oct 2011}} Masula boats are generally smaller, although they can be up to 9 m in length. The pattern varies across the coast, namely, padava on the Andhra coast and bar boat in Orissa coast. A variant found in the region between Kakinada and Machilipatnam has ribs inside.{{cite web | access-date = 27 Oct 2011}}

The masula boats were mainly used by Europeans in the 19th century before the building of Chennai Port.{{cite web | access-date = 27 Oct 2011 | archive-date = 21 October 2012 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20121021171304/http://www.bl.uk/onlinegallery/onlineex/apac/photocoll/m/019pho000000248u00032000.html | url-status = dead | access-date = 27 Oct 2011 | archive-date = 21 October 2012 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20121021171311/http://www.bl.uk/onlinegallery/onlineex/apac/other/019jzz0000063c5u00000000.html | url-status = dead | access-date = 27 Oct 2011

References