The fishing craft is a platform on which the fishermen sail to and from the fishing ground, haul his gear keep the catch and process them. Fishing crafts in use through out country are indigenous, non mechanised and locally built, designed to suit local conditions. Fishing crafts are broadly classified into
sea fishing crafts and
inland fishing crafts.
Sea Fishing Crafts:
Catamaran: -
It is a keel less raft formed by rigging together several logs, which are curved and Shaped like a canoe. One end of the craft is shaped into a cone rising above the water, forming the stem from where the rubber is used. The use of catamaran is restricted to the East Coast from Orissa to Cape comorin with a short extension northwards on the Kerala coast. They vary in length 12 ft. to 25 ft. Best catamaran longs are in use in Kanyakumari district. Some types are operated with additional riggings like out-trigger booms and floats so as to ensure proper stability under varying loads.
There are four types of catamarans are known to be in use
Andhra type: - It is 5-7 meter in length and made of heavy wood. Planks used in fitting the sides often include strong median logs and are known as wash boards.
Coromandel type: - It is made up of 3-5 logs, with many variations in pattern. It is most commonly used around Tamil Nadu. A specialised type is the seven logged catamaran or kolamaran used in flying fish fishery off Nagapatnam.
Boat catamaran: - It consists of three longs fitted into a regular boat shaped and is used on the coast around Mandapam and Mukkur areas. Wide variations of this type are found in the Tuticorin, Cape comorin and Colachel areas.
Orissa and Ganjam type: - It is made up five logs, which are not tried together by rope; but are pegged with wood. It is boat shaped, made up of 3 to 5 logs of 20’to 25’.
Musula boat: -
Dinghi and nauka: -
Tuticorin boats: -
Dug out canoes: -
It is a non-rigid boat constructed with planks sewn together with coir rope, but without frames or ribs, so as to withstand the severe knocking of the surfs. Masula boats are upto 9 m in length, although generally smaller. There are various patterns e.g. bar boat in Orissa and Padava on the Andhra coast. A variant with ribs inside has been developed in the area between Kakinada and Maslipatnam.
These are carvel boats of Orissa and West Bengal Naukas, which are well designed and constructed up to a size of 13m. x 3 m.x 2m. are quite spacious and are used for a variety of purposes including fishing operations.
These are also called the fishing luggers. They are carvel boats (11.m x 2m. x 1m.), which are seaworthy in inshore waters. They are used more as mother ships and cargo boats than directly for fishing.
These are made from large logs of wood by scooping out the inner part, the keel portion being thicker than the sides. These are mainly used on the Kerala and Kanara coasts and also between Colachel and Kathiawar.
The large dug outs (Vanchi, Odams) from the main fishing crafts of Malabar Coast, operating a variety of nets. They are 10-12 m. long. The smaller dugouts known as Thonies are generally used for gill nets, drift fishing and for seining. These dug out canoes are operated in large numbers from the sandy beach along the southwest coast of India. Mango (Magnifera indica) wood is mostly used for these canoes. The dug out canoes (Shoe dhoni) of Andhra coast are made out of palm tree trunks. The dug out canoes are employed for day to day fishing operations and they are hauled on shore when not in use.
Plank built canoes: -
Out trigger canoes: -
Built up boats: -
There are dugouts, which are further enlarged with planks on the sides. They are largely used in Kerala for boat seine and other fishing. This type is also seen in Kathiwar and North Bombay.
Canoes with single out trigger are in use on the Kanara and Konkan coasts and are called Rampani boats, as they are used for mackerel fishing with Rampani net. They are built up canoe with a narrow keel, but differ from the plank built canoes in that the planks are more spread out. These canoes are large up to 15 m. x 3 m. smaller out trigger canoes are also largely used in the area between Bhatkal and Majali.
These are the best type of constructed, indigenous boats seen on the West coast, north of Ratnagiri and along the Bombay Camby coast. The Ratnagiri type has a pointed bow, straight but narrow keel and low gunwale. The Bassein type, locally called machus has a broad hull, pointed bow and straight keel. The Satpati type, popularly called galhat has a medium pointed bow broad beam, straight keel and high gunwale. The broach type is flat bottomed and used in inshore and estuarine waters.
The two extreme end taper to a point with a round or a flat bottom. In the absence of a keel the bottom wood is distinctly left thicker than at the turn of the bilge and the sides. There are no additional strengtheners either longitudinal or transverse except for a few thawarts, which are used as cross benches. The use of metal fastenings are hardly seen, but coir ropes are used for the purposes of fastening. There are all exclusively sailing canoes, though oars, paddles and punting poles are also used. The sea going fishing canoes are usually in the length of 30-40 ft. and 3-4 ft. in width.
The small dugout canoe with its sides built up to a greater height with wooden planks sewn together with coir ropes is the simplest form of a built up canoe. These types of built up canoes with out-trigger fixed to one side is commonly used in fishing along the Mysore coast.
The Masula boat of the east cost is the simplest form of built up boat, peculiar in its construction with entirely stitched wooden planks for the hull with or without transverse frame insides. The Tuticorin type of built up boat is a fast sailing lugger with a simple backbone assembly and hull planking firmly secured to the inside frames or natural crooks with iron or galvanised iron fastenings. The ‘Navas’ of Andhra coast are yet another type of built up boat popular on that coast.
‘Batchary’ and ‘chot’ types of fishing boats are from West Bengal mostly operating in the Hooghly estuary. The best type of built up boat for fishing are from Maharashtra and Gujrat coasts, where excellent hull forms are built to greater details out of best timbers teak (Tectona grandis) for the hull, Babul or Cutch (Acacia sp.) crooks for the frames and Poon (Callophyllum sp.) for the mast. ‘Lodhias’,’Machuwas’, ‘Kotias’ and ‘Satpati-Varsova type’ of boats are some that have won great admiration from naval architects for their design and construction.
Inland fishing crafts
The simplest and most primitive types of craft used for fishing in inland waters are the rafts and songas, operated in calm waters. In the larger rivers and estuaries subject to strong current and tidal movements, sturdier plank built boat are used.
The rafts are made of various materials as:
Inflated bufallow skins tied together in the upper reashes of the river Gangas.
Banana stems or shoal bundles tied to form a floating platform as in ponds, and clam waters of West Bengal, Tanjore district in Tamil Nadu.
Earthen pots tied together to support alight platform of bamboo as in the river Ganges near Patna, Gaya and in the river Cauvery.
The coracle, a shallow framework of wicker covered with a well-stretched cowhide, commonly used in rivers Cauvery, Tungabhadra and Mettur Dam.
Dug out: -
Plank built boat: -
A simple form of dug out, made by hollowing out the butt and stem of the palmyra palm is commonly used in West Bengal for angling and cast net fishing in inundated caim waters. Similar but sturdier dugouts known as Vallam are used in fishing in the backwaters and estuaries of Karala.
The plank built boats are of various types and are used for fishing in rivers with strong currents and tides, and in the larger backwaters and lakes for operation of large nets. Small riverine and estuarine crafts, known as ‘dinghis’ are employed extensively in West Bengal for operation of purse nets and dip nets. These dinghis have narrow tapering bows and sterns and have no keels, larger boats of this type are used for operating larger nets. The boat, (Chhandi nauka) used for operating drift nets, may be as large as 18 m. long and 3 m. wide. In the Chilka Lake and the river Mahanadi, flat bottom plank built boats, known as Nava are in use. Machua type boats are used for the operation of large nets in the estuaries of Gujrat.
