Model Of Dugout Canoe
date: label: Collection Date
content: 1883
name: label: Collector
content: Francis Day
label: Donor Name
content: Accession Number Unknown
notes: label: Notes
content: No catalog card found in card file
label: Notes
content: See Collins Boat Ms. p. 1256 for description. Boat is also described in U.S. National Museum Bulletin # 127, pp. 271-272: "Model of Bengal fishing boat. This peculiar type of dugout fishing canoe is employed at Chittagong, in the Bengal Presidency, India, as a sort of automatic fishing device, for which purpose it is specially equipped. It is a rough dugout, with round keelless bottom, cambered strongly at ends and tapering to narrow V-shaped bow and stern; fitted with a bamboo platform on one side, and net on the opposite side; ballasted with cement at one end. Dimensions of canoe - Length, 22 feet 2 inches; beam, 3 feet 3 inches ; height, in center, 2 feet 2 inches. Fishing boats of this kind are generally 24 feet in length. Scale of model, 3 inches equal 1 foot. When fishing, the boat is heeled so that the bamboo platform, which is fixed on its upper edge, projects into the water, and a string of palm leaves is attached to it in the form of a broom. This device has the effect of frightening the fish, which jump upon the half submerged bamboo platform, and thence into the boat, where they fall among the branches of trees, with which the canoe's bottom is strewn. The fisherman sits on the gunwale with one foot in the water to careen the canoe to the proper angle and give it the requisite motion to frighten the fish. To prevent the fish from leaping over the boat, the net is fixed obliquely or vertically along the opposite gunwale. he bow of the canoe is heavity ballasted with sand or stones, and is thus kept low in the water; this facilitates the capture of fish, which can easily leap over the low gunwale. This plan for decoying fish is widely prevalent in certain parts of the Oriental countries, especially in Burmah and China. Gift of Surg. Gen. Francis Day." Records indicate this was a gift in 1883 from Surgeon General Francis Day through G. Brown Goode. It was apparently collected for and exhibited at the International Fisheries Exhibition in London of 1883. P. 87, in the Smithsonian Annual Report for the year 1884, part 2, reports that a collection of boats and boat models were presented to the museum by Surgeon-General Francis Day, F.L.S., Late inspector of Her Majesty's fisheries in India, and commissioner from India to the International Fisheries Exhibition at London, 1883. This boat model is described as part of this gift on p. 88. See also p. 149, # 224 in International Fisheries Exhibition. 1883. Great International Fisheries Exhibition, 1883: official catalogue. London: W. Clowes; http://books.google.com/books?id=EVk9AAAAYAAJ&pg=PA149#v=onepage&q&f=false . See also Plate II, # 13, after p. 59 in Day, Francis. 1883. Indian fish and fishing. London: W. Clowes and Sons. (Handbook International Fisheries Exhibition, London 1883), for an illustration of what may be this object. At the time this boat was collected, Chittagong was a part of Bengal, India. It is now part of Bangladesh.
label: Record Last Modified
content: 30 Jul 2020
label: Specimen Count
content: 1
place: label: Place
content: Chittagong, Bangladesh, Asia
topic: label: Topic
content: Ethnology
setName: label: See more items in
content: Anthropology
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: NMNH - Anthropology Dept.
identifier: label: Accession Number
content: 000000
label: USNM Number
content: E160158-0
objectType: label: Object Type
content: Canoe Model