DHOW
- just the very word conjures up a host of images, from pearl
divers and fishermen to merchants, smugglers and adventurers.
Like the Windtower, the dhow is synonymous with the Gulf, and
it is probably one of the most widely-recognised icons of Arab
culture, known to millions who have never travelled in the region.
No expatriate who has never been to sea on a working dhow (as
opposed to the custom-built floating restaurant kind) can truly
be said to have completed his or her experience of life in the
Gulf.
The word dhow is generally used indiscriminately
to describe a wide range of boat designs of different shapes
and sizes. Those in the know use the correct names, but it is
not always possible to agree on the correct definition of a particular
boat. Like any other technology it is subject to evolution and
to the input of different builders, with regional variations
on broad themes. The same name is often applied to boats which
look quite different to each other: for instance the name sambuq
is given both to tapered-stern sewn-construction fishing boats
in Oman and to large, square-stern trading vessels.
Despite the fact that the Gulf’s cities
are amongst the most modern in the world - with state-of-the-art
technology in shipping, as in every other area of activity -
traditional wooden dhows continue to play an important part in
the economy. They are widely used for fishing, for inshore and
long-distance (Gulf to India) trading and, increasingly, for
tourism and recreation.
It says much for the soundness of the basic
designs that people continue to use dhows
and even to commission new wooden dhows, long after one might
have expected steel and GRP to have displaced traditional materials.
There have been GRP dhows made, but these are a poor substitute
for the real thing.
GRP dhows - no substitute for the
real thing.
Around the Gulf, on sheltered creeks or bays
there are still many dhow building yards.
Bahrain has its dhow builders in Muharraq; there is a yard on
Umm Al Quwain’s creek; another upstream of the Al Garhoud
bridge on Dubai’s creek and various others scattered throughout
the region.
The most common type of dhow in the Gulf is
the shu’ai which can fairly be described as the workhorse
of the inshore waters, performing in both fishing and coastal
trading roles. This is a design seen in craft from as small as
five or six metres up to large vessels of fifteen metres and
more.
It has a distinctive profile, high at the
stern and sweeping low towards the bow before rising to a characteristic
jutting prow.
Another familiar shape - although more seen
in the lower Gulf than in Northern waters - is that of the boum.
In terms of size, it might be said that the boum starts
where the shu’ai leaves off, since this is a shape
which is not generally seen on craft of less than, say, 15 metres.
Boums may be more than 35 metres long and have a tonnage
of as much as 400 tons. With its tapered stern it is more symmetrical
in shape than the shu’ai and has an imposingly high
prow (it’s not uncommon to see young boys using this soaring
prow as an impromptu diving platform when a boum is in
harbour).
The rudder of a large boum is equally
impressive, and merits closer inspection should you happen to
be walking along a quayside where boums are drawn up.
The boum generally features a yoke-type of steering gear
with chains leading from the ends of yoke to the steering wheel.
The tall prow of a boum is
one of its most distinctive features.
Another dhow variant is the jelbut
or jalibut. This too has distinctive lines but it does
not have the curves of the shu’ai or the boum.
Indeed its most distinctive characteristic is the way its short-prowed
stem piece - very restrained compared to those of either the
boum or shu’ai - rises vertically from the
waterline, giving it a very rectangular profile.
Sailing versions of the jelbut feature long bowsprits
which have the effect of increasing the overall length of the
vessel and thereby enabling it to carry a much larger sail. In
jelbuts which have been designed for racing, this bowsprit
- in the form of a tree trunk - may be virtually as long as the
hull itself.
Jelbut beached at Muharraq.
The name jelbut is thought by some
to derive from the English term “Jolly Boat”, suggesting
that the design was inspired by the jolly boats (or tenders)
of visiting British warships. The transom stern of the jelbut
is also an indication of foreign influence since tapered sterns
were a feature of the pure-bred Arab boat design. Although the
boum survives to this day, other Arab designs with tapered
sterns have been vanishing, simply because the tapered stern
is less suited to powered craft. Whatever its origins, the jelbut
was used extensively as a pearling vessel, in addition to roles
as trading and fishing boats.
In common with other traditional Arab vessels,
the sailing jelbut used a lateen - or fore-and-aft rig,
unlike the square rig which characterised early European sailing
ships.
The fore-and-aft configuration reduces the total amount of canvas
which a vessel can carry (hence the need for the bowsprit to
increase the effective length of the boat) but gives an advantage
in allowing the vessel to sail closer to the wind. Marine historians
have speculated that the development of lateen-rigged vessels
in the Gulf and Western Indian Ocean arose from the necessity
of sailing close to the wind on voyages against the north-east
monsoon breeze.
By the time western sailing technology reached
its peak in the form of the clipper ships designs incorporated
both the square rig and varieties of mizzen sail which gave the
ships a combination of speed and flexibility. (It is not generally
appreciated that steel clipper ships were still plying the oceans
right up until the Second World War: see Eric Newby’s book,
The Last Grain Race
for an account of the twilight of the sailing vessel.)
The largest of the dhows seen in the Gulf
today are the sambuqs which incorporate design features
from both Europe and India. The sambuq and other designs
like it generally has the square or transom stern which is generally
assumed to have been influenced by seventeenth century Portuguese
galleons.
For centuries, Arab shipwrights crafted boats
using sewn construction - literally sewing the planks together
with coconut fibre cord - but this craft has more or less died
out, being superseded by nailed construction. However, in Oman, a Seafaring Nation
published by the Omani Ministry of Information in 1979 there
are photos of sewn sambuqs on the beach at Taqah in Dhofar.
The last 30 or so of these boats were being used in Taqah and
Salalah either as fishing boats in the sardine fleet or as lighters
in Dhofar’s ports. Apart from using this ancient form of
construction, they were also unusual to the extent that they
were made from mango wood, whereas the larger nailed-construction
dhows are made chiefly from teak, with other timbers used in
smaller quantities for specific elements of the boat.
Although nailed construction is now the norm
among dhow builders, in other respects the method of construction
varies considerably from that seen in the west. Whereas European
tradition has been to make a framework and then add the hull
planking, the Arab dhow builder starts with the hull planking
and then adds the reinforcing framework later. Since the planking
has to be supported during construction, this results in having
temporary supporting ribs or templates on the outside of the
hull.
Shu'ai under construction in Umm Al
Quwain.
The dhow builders of the Gulf are also noted
for their ability to work entirely without plans, judging everything
by eye and experience. In this day of pre-fabricated components
it is interesting to see the way in which so much of the finishing
is done in-situ, with the stem and stern posts being placed in
position as rough unfinished planks.
Although modern dhows get their motive force
from big diesel engines rather than the wind, the trading dhows
still have teak masts (these are typically raked forward a few
degrees) which are used for loading and unloading cargo.
Dhow hulls are generally left unpainted above
the waterline, although there may be the odd flourish on strakes
or railings. Where paint is used to decorate the hull, white
and blue appear to be the favourite colours. Oddly enough, the
most vividly decorated feature of the dhow is often the “thunderbox”
- the barrel-shaped structure overhanging the stern which serves
as the vessel’s sea-toilet. A shark’s tailfin nailed
to the short foremast is a not uncommon sight.
Detail of wood carving seen on
Sambuq hull in Dubai Creek.
Carved wooden panels can also be seen attached
to the hulls of some dhows, although this falls far short of
the intricately carved transoms which can be seen in old photographs
of some other types of large dhow - the ghanjah and the
baghlah - which are no longer seen in the Gulf’s
sea lanes. These types of dhows showed the
Portuguese (or possibly British East India Company) influence
very strongly, although in photographs the lateen rig looks strangely
out of place in vessels which look so similar to European galleons.
Today, the most common form of dhow seen around
the Gulf is the shu’ai. Boums can be seen
at any time in the creeks of Dubai and Sharjah and jelbuts
can also be spotted from time to time. The really large wooden
vessels (with both square and rounded sterns)which ply between
Dubai and India have many of the features of the Sambuq,
but probably owe as much of their design to Bombay as to the
Gulf.
(If anyone has views on
dhow names and definitions we’d be glad to hear from you,
and if anyone has any interesting photos we’d be glad to
post them in our gallery for
others to enjoy.)
