Recently acquired photographs of the Labrador Inuit
(Eastern Arctic) kayakPhotograph captions are from the original publications wherein the photographs first appeared.
Recently acquired photographs of the Labrador Inuit
(Eastern Arctic) kayak
David Zimmerly's
new Arctic kayak site - see his detailed bibliography & database
The Newfoundland
Museum's Labrador Inuit Kayak (includes photographs)
Index
to Accounts/descriptions on this page:
Roger Curtis 1774
S.K. Hutton 1930
Derek Hutchinson 1995
Garth Taylor 1974
E.W. Hawkes 1916
Edwin Tappan
Adney and Howard I. Chapelle 1964
Labrador Kayak References
Recently obtained historic photographs of Labrador Inuit kayaks. Thumbnails - click on images to enlarge.
Nachvak, Labrador. Man in kayak with two people in row boat. 1911-12. Photographer unknown. MacMillan collection, Bowdoin College, Brunswick, Maine, USA.
Kayak, one man paddling the other lying down on top behind the cockpit. 1911-12. Photographer unknown. MacMillan collection, Bowdoin College, Brunswick, Maine, USA.
Two kayaks, one going across the deck of the other. 1911-12. Photographer unknown. MacMillan collection, Bowdoin College, Brunswick, Maine, USA.
Group of Inuit pulling a walrus. Three rowboats and three kayaks. Cape Mugford. 1911-12. Photographer unknown. MacMillan collection, Bowdoin College, Brunswick, Maine, USA.
An excerpt from Roger Curtis. 1774. Particulars of the Country of Labrador, Extracted from the Papers of Lieutenent Roger Curtis, of His Majesty's Sloop the Otter, with a Plane-chart of the Coast. Royal Society of London, Philosophical Transactions 64, Part 2. pp. 386.
"They live always upon the sea-shores, from their dread of the Mountaineers. Their canoes contain only one person; they are extremely long in proportion to their breadth, being upwards of twenty feet by two; they are covered with skins, and are extremely light, so that they are overset with the least inclination to one side or the other. It is really a very extraordinary circumstance, that though these people are almost ever in their canoes, which are so excessively ticklish, there is not one among them that can swim. They navigate their shallops without a compass in the thickest fogs, and are very good coasters."
Excerpts from S.K. Hutton. 1930. By Eskimo Dog-sled and Kayak. London: Seeley,Service & Co. Ltd. pp. 133-135.
"If you happen to be along the village on an autumn morning, you may see an Eskimo come out of his hut and drag his skin canoe from its resting-place on the roof of the porch. He balances it upon his head or on his shoulder, and trots away down the beach to the sea; then he gently lowers the canoe to the water, steps quickly in, and paddles away.
It all looked so very easy that I thought that I should like to try, so I asked little Johannes to lend me his canoe and his paddle. Johannes smiled. 'Yes,' he said, 'I will bring my canoe; and I think that it would be very good for you to try in the shallow pool there, along the beach, for there you cannot be drowned'.
"The Spring Flitting. Jakobus and his family leaving Okak to pitch their tents for the spring seal-fishing at Cut-throat Island. Bedding, boxes, and stove are on the floor of the sledge, with the tent lashed over them, and on the top is the kajak frame awaiting a new skin" (S.K. Hutton. 1930. By Eskimo Dog-sled and Kayak. London: Seeley, Service & Co. Ltd.).
And so in the evening, when the tide began to fall, and the big pool was left on the beach in front of the houses, Johannes came sweeping along with graceful strokes, and drew his canoe up by the spot where I was standing. 'Now', he said, 'you may begin'; and I began to clamber in. But oh, the treacherous, wobblesome thing: it danced upon the water like a cork, and careered off sideways as soon as I set foot upon it, and rolled from side to side as though it would upset, while I clung to it with one hand and to Johannes with the other, and he himself could hardly stand upon his feet for laughing. But at last I managed to get in: Johannes held the crazy thing while I crawled along the deck and seated myself in the hole in the middle with its padded cushion of dogskin. Then things were better; for I found myself seated on the floor of the canoe, well below the water line, and I felt fairly safe. I took Johannes's paddle in both hands, and off I went, down the long pool in front of the houses. Then the uproarious glee! Men came running from their homes to see the fun; they howled with delight, and sat upon their doorsteps to laugh the louder. 'Hai', they shouted, 'who are you? - and where do you come from? - have you paddled here from Nain, or is it Hebron where you live?' with fresh yells of laughter as I dipped my paddle and the nose of the canoe went dodging from side to side.
"Seal-hunters. They go out in the autumn, always on the alert to fling the harpoon that lies ready at their right hand. The seal is brought home on the deck of the kajak, and the arrival is always followed by a feast of raw sealment for all (photo lent by Moravian Missions) (S.K. Hutton. 1930. By Eskimo Dog-sled and Kayak. London: Seeley, Service & Co. Ltd.).
...and round I managed to turn the thing and paddled back to Johannes, feeling every minutes more at home in the canoe, and feeling, too, how wonderfully safe the frail-looking thing was. That was a beginning, and I know more about canoes since then; but that first trial in a skin canoe made me wonder all the more at the skill of the men who go off to the seal hunt, and sit for hours in rough and freezing seas, balancing themselves with their long paddle, and ready in an instant to fling their great harpoon or point their gun at the head of some seal that happends to come within reach."
"Labrador Eskimo and Kayak" (S.K. Hutton. 1912. Among the Eskimos of Labrador. Seeley & Co. Ltd.).
Derek Hutchinson reports that "These huge kayaks were up to 24ft. long and had a beam of 23 in. They were never rolled by their occupants, and in the event of a capsize the paddler would need assistance from a companion in order to get back into this boat" (1995. The Complete Book of Sea Kayaking. Old Saybrook, Conn.: The Globe Pequot Press, Inc., p.166).
"Eskimo Kayaks in Nain Bay" (photo H. Hesketh Prichard. 1911. Through Trackless Labrador. London: William Heinemann).
"The other type of aboriginal boat, the kayak, was used by the men for short trips and for hunting. One reference to the size of kayaks was made by Curtis, who said that they were ‘upwards of twenty feet by two’ (1774: 385). A kayak obtained at Hopedale in 1851, now in the Danish National Museum, measures 19.3 feet in length. Thus, 20 feet was probably a ‘typical’ length for kayaks on the Labrador coast.
The diaries sometimes refer to ‘boys’ using kayaks, which suggests that kayaks were acquired at a relatively early age. At Nain, ‘Sikkuliak, with two boys, came here in their kayaks’ (N.D. 1.7.74). At Okak, ‘a boy of fifteen years drowned in his kayak in our bay’ (O.C.B.: 212).
Although the kayak was normally a one-person craft, passengers were sometimes carried for short distances, as when Niakoke transported his sister the 12 miles or so to Satorsoakh (N.D. 28.11.74). Passengers had to lie on their stomachs on the rear deck, a position that seems to have had its drawbacks. A diary reference reports that ‘one [Eskimo] had to fish his wife, who rode on the back of his kayak, out of the water several times, as there was a storm’ (H.D. 11.10.85).
Boat shortages could sometimes be remedied by lashing kayaks together to form ‘rafts’, which could be either towed behind the boats or propelled as independent units. For example:
The boat was so full that they fastened three kayaks with tent poles together, tied them to the boat, and towed it after them. On these kayaks sat a family with tent and all their things. [N.D. 18.7.76] Some more families went from hence to the South Point with tent and all, and as they had no boat they made five kayaks fast together and made a sort of raft of them. [N.D. 28.8.76]
Kayaks travel at a very good speed for a hand-propelled watercraft. The journey from Nain to Hopedale, which is about 100 miles, was described as a ‘normal two day kayak trip’ (H.D. 23.10.86), suggesting that under ‘normal’ conditions kayaks could travel about 50 miles per day. This is quite feasible, as kayaks have been known ‘to make six miles an hour in dead water’" (Tyrell 1897: 142).
Excerpts from Hawkes, E.W. 1916. The Labrador Eskimo. Canada, Department of Mines, Geological Survey, No. 14, Anthropological Series, pp.71-73.
The Kayak
The shape of the kayak stem and stern, particularly the stem, varies much more than that of the umiak, from one section of the Eskimo world to another. The Labrador and southern Baffin island kayak is very long and heavy, with a broad level stern and long peaked stem....Some of the older models have the stern slightly turned up. The Mackenzie River Eskimo kayak turns up in a half-moon shape at stem and stern....This feature is said to have been also characteristic of the old type of East Greenland kayak....The Alaskan kayak turns up at the stem, but slopes down a little at the stern....The top rail projects at the stem and stern, forming a grip by which the hunter is hauled ashore when he lands. In certain sections, this is merely a hole sewn in the skin cover where the upper and lower rails meet in the stem. A model, in the Museum, of a three-hole Aleutian bidarka exhibits the same variation. The Alaskan kayak is wider and shorter than the Labrador type, and exhibits considerable variation in different sections of the coast. The entrance hole is round, and nor raised in front as among the eastern types....
The frame of the kayak is made of driftwood, and the cover of Big seal (u’djuk) hide, or when this is not available, of the skins of the Harp seal (hi’ olik). The instruments used in construction are the adze (u’limot), the drill, and the crooked knife.
The two long sticks forming the upper rims or rail (apu.ma’.k) of the kayak are the first made. They are chipped and smoothed out with the adze and knife, and holes are bored in them with the drill where the ribs fit in and lashings are necessary. Then the other side-pieces (qiya’teutuk) and the ribs (tulimaúyuk, from tulima’q, rib) are shaped and fitted in, the ribs being let into the side-pieces about 1 ½ inches and secured with wooden pins.
The ribs are placed quite close together, from 2 to 6 inches apart. The two rim pieces (rails) are then placed under heavy stones to retain their shape. The so-called keel or centre-piece (tu’nigak) is fitted in along with the side-pieces. Strictly speaking, the kayak has no keel, and any one of the six or seven side-pieces is as important as the other. Cross-pieces (a’ya.t) hold the rails apart on top, and an extra lengthwise strip runs from the entrance hole (pa.k) to the stern (itirbi’n) and another to the stem (ma.si’n). The upper section is usually built before the bottom. It is placed upside down with heavy stones holding the upper rails in place, which gives the shape to the kayak. The ribs and side-pieces are then added. Space is left at the top centre of the frame for the entrance hole.
The skin covering (ame’qsuk) is then sewn and placed on the kayak wet, and it draws tight on drying and shrinking. The sewing has to be completed at one sitting before the skins dry, so several women help. Double water-proof stitching, similar to that used in the umiak cover, makes the boat watertight. In Labrador, the kayaker has an entire suit (coat and trousers) of gutskin....A drawstring (a.ni.gut) is used to draw the waterproof coat around the rim of the hole (pa.k), as in other parts, and the upward slant of the frame of the kayak in front of the hole tends to divert the water. Why gutskin trousers are needed as well as a frock is not evident. It may be that on account of the protection of the upturned front of the hole, the drawstring is not much used, and a complete waterproof suit is worn instead.
The Labrador paddle (pau’tik), is double-bladed, like the Greenland type. It is quite long - 10 to 12 feet. It is made of hardwood, when it is obtainable, otherwise of spruce, and tipped with ivory or bone, which is fastened to the wood with pegs of the same material. The paddle is used alternately on either side of the kayak, thus having a distinct advantage over the single-bladed Alaskan paddle, as far as economy of motion is concerned.
Great speed is maintained by the Eskimo in their frail kayaks. It is said that a single Eskimo in a kayak will propel it as fast as two white men with a canoe. The Eskimo ventures out in a sea that an Indian would not dare attempt in his canoe and appears none the worse for it. The Labrador Eskimo handle their long, heavy kayaks easily, but do not attain the expertness recorded of the Greenlanders, although their kayaks are of the same type as in southwest Greenland. Neither do they attempt the long coastal voyages which the Greenlanders take in summer in their kayaks. For long trips the umiak, and more recently the whaleboat, are used.
Two thongs are sewn into the kayak in front to hold the harpoon rack and harpoon on one side, and the bird spear on the other; and behind the hole, two small loops are sewn to hold the seal hook and killing lance. The position of these weapons on the kayak is regulated by their use, the chief weapon to be used being at the right hand front of the hunter. Ordinarily, the harpoon occupies this position, and the bird-spear and throwing-stick are placed on the left front, the seal-hook on the right back, and the lance on the left back. The line of the harpoon lies in the rack in front of the hunter; the harpoon is thrown from the kayak. If the harpoon line has a float attached, it rests on the boat just back of the hunter and is thrown into the water after the harpoon is launched. In northern Labrador, a circular hoop-like float, called the nau’la.taq (Labrador) or nau’la.tan (Baffin island), is attached to the float, and being dragged at right angles through the water, soon lessens the pace of the fleeing game. This attachment if found in Baffin island, from whence it is perhaps derived.
On the left hand side of the hole (pa.k) of the kayak is a seal thong loop, to which game is attached and towed home, after it has been brought alongside with the seal hook.
Excerpts from Adney, Edwin Tappan and Howard I. Chapelle. 1964. The Bark Canoes and Skin Boats of North America. Washington, D.C. Museum of History and Technology, Smithsonian Institution.
p.191. The basic requirements in nearly all kayaks are the same; to paddle rapidly and easily, to work against strong wind and tide or heavy head sea, to be maneuverable, and to be light enough to be readly lifted from the water and carried...
p.192. Most Alaskan kayaks come stern to the wind when paddling stops, but most of the eastern craft come head to the wind. Nearly every type has been developed by long periods of trial and error, to produce the greatest efficiency in meeting the conditions of use in a given locality....In all kayaks the gunwales are the main strength members, longitudinally....The eastern kayaks of the flat-bottom and V-bottom models have three longitudinal battens (including the keel or keelson) in addition to the heavy and often deep gunwale members; these are supported at bow and stern either by stem and stern post of shaped plank on edge as in the Greenland V-bottom kayaks, or by light extensions of the keelson and small end-blocks as in the northern Greenland, Baffin Island, and Labrador types....
p.194. The kayak is usually entered by floating the boat near a stone or low bank and stepping into it with one foot, which has first been carefully wiped. With the body steadied by placing the paddle upright on the shore, or outside the kayak, the other foot is then wiped and placed in the boat. The paddler then slides downward and works his legs under the deck until he is seated with his hips jammed into the manhole rim. Getting out of a kayak is almost the reverse of this process. Great care is exercised to avoid getting dirt into ta kayak, as it might chafe the hide cover....
pp.194-5. All eastern kayaks appear to have been propelled with the double-blade paddle, but folklore suggests that the single-blade kayak paddle may have once been used....
p.205. The double-blade paddle used is like that of the Labrador kayak, very long with narrow blades. When the paddler is seated, these kayaks, like many of their eastern sisters, draw more water forward than the illustration would indicated....One of the most obvious features of the Labrador kayak is the long "grab" bow, which is formed by a batten attached to the end of the keelson. The stern is formed with a very small block inside the gunwales, and to this the keelson is laced or pegged. It will be noticed that the rake of the manhole is very moderate. These kayaks are heavy and strong, paddle well, particularly so against wind and sea. Shown in the drawing [below] is the type of long- and narrow-bladed paddle used....
p.206. The North Labrador kayaks are the largest in the Arctic for a single person; some are reported as long as 26 feet....The kayak used on the northeast coast of Labrador sown in... [the figure above], differs slightly from that of Hudson Strait. The northeast-coast kayak has a very slight V-bottom and a strong concave sheer with relatively great rocker in the bottom. While the craft trims by the bow afloat, the rocker probably makes it more maneuverable than the Hudson Strait kayak, though less easily paddled against strong winds. The V-bottom is formed by using a keelson that is heavier and deeper than the chines. The latter are thin, wide battens, on the flat. The V-bottom appears to help the boat run straight under paddle and may be said to counteract, to some extent at least, the effect of the strongly rockered bottom....Most have their greatest beam well aft and draw more water forward, as do the Labrador and Baffin Island types....
Adney, Edwin Tappan and Howard I. Chapelle. 1964. The Bark Canoes and Skin Boats of North America. Washington, D.C. Museum of History and Technology, Smithsonian Institution.
Babcock, William H. 1913. ESKIMO LONG-DISTANCE VOYAGES. American Anthropologist 15:138-141.
Discusses 'Finn men' literature and some Greenland and Labrador material to posit Labrador to Greenland invasions of Eskimo.
Brantenberg, Terje. 1971. NOTES ON A LABRADOR KAYAK. Unpublished manuscript in Zimmerly kayak files.15 xerox sheets.
Notes on a kayak constructed in summer 1971 in Nain, Labrador for the Moravian Mission's Bi-centennial.
Current Designs. nd. A Short History of the Kayak.
Curtis, Roger. 1774. PARTICULARS OF THE COUNTRY OF LABRADOR, EXTRACTED FROM THE PAPERS OF LIEUTENENT ROGER CURTIS, OF HIS MAJESTY'S SLOOP THE OTTER, WITH A PLANE-CHART OF THE COAST. Royal Society of London, Philosophical Transactions 64, Part 2, pp. 372-388.
Labrador kayak description, p. 386.
Hawkes, E.W. 1916. THE LABRADOR ESKIMO. Anthropological Series No. 14. Memoir 91, Geological Survey, Department of Mines.Ottawa: Government Printing Bureau.
The kayak, pp. 71-79.
Hutton, S.K. 1912. AMONG THE ESKIMOS OF LABRADOR. Seeley & Co. Ltd.
Hutton, S.K. 1930. BY ESKIMO DOG-SLED AND KAYAK. London: Seeley, Service & Co. Ltd.
Brief description of hunting from kayak and his attempts at kayaking.
Taylor, J. Garth. 1974. LABRADOR ESKIMO SETTLEMENTS OF THE EARLY CONTACT PERIOD. Publications in Ethnology, No.9. Ottawa: National Museum of Man.
Mentions size of kayaks, use by young boys, rafting of two or more and speed, pp.39-40.
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