Acoracle is a small, rounded,[1] lightweightboat traditionally used inWales,Ireland, particularly on theRiver Boyne,[2] andScotland, particularly on theRiver Spey. The word is also used for similar boats found inIndia,Vietnam,Iraq, andTibet.[3] The wordcoracle is an English spelling of the originalWelshcwrwgl, cognate withIrish andScottish Gaeliccurrach, and is recorded in English text as early as the sixteenth century. Other historical English spellings includecorougle,corracle,curricle andcoricle.
A typical coracle's structure consists of a framework of split, interwovenwillow rods, tied with willow bark. The outer layer was originally an animal skin such as horse orbullock hide (corium),[4] with a thin layer oftar to waterproof it; today replaced by tarredcalico,canvas, orfibreglass. The Vietnamese/Asian version of the coracle is made of interwoven bamboo and made water proof by using resin and coconut oil.[5] Oval in shape and very similar to half awalnut shell, the coracle has akeel-less flat bottom to evenly spread the load across the structure and to reduce the required depth of water; often to only a few inches. This structure helps to make the boat more maneuverable and less likely to snag when used on narrow and/or shallow slow-running waterways.[citation needed]
Each coracle is tailored to the local river conditions. In general there is one design per river, but this is not always the case. TheTeifi coracle, for instance, is flat-bottomed, as it is designed to negotiate shallow rapids, common on the river in the summer, while the Carmarthen coracle is rounder and deeper, because it is used in tidal waters on theTywi, where there are no rapids. Teifi coracles are made from locally harvested wood: willow for the laths (body of the boat), hazel for the weave (Y bleth in Welsh.) Tywi coracles have been made from sawn ash for a long time. The working boats tend to be made fromfiberglass these days. Teifi coracles use no nails, relying on the interweaving of the laths for structural coherence, whilst the Carmarthen ones usecopper nails and interweaving.[citation needed]
They are an effective fishing vessel because, when powered by a skilled person, they hardly disturb the water or the fish, and they can be easily manoeuvred with one arm, while the other arm tends to the net; two coracles to a net. The coracle is propelled by means of a broad-bladedpaddle, which traditionally varies in design between different rivers. It is used in asculling action, the blade describing a figure-of-eight pattern in the water. The paddle is used towards the front of the coracle, pulling the boat forward, with the paddler facing in the direction of travel.[6]
The Welsh Coracle is intended to be carried on the back; Welsh saying isLlwyth dyn ei gorwgl (load of a man is his coracle).[citation needed]
Designed for use in swiftly flowing streams, the coracle has been in use on the British Isles for millennia, having been noted byJulius Caesar[4] in his invasion of Britain in the mid first century BC, and used inhis military campaigns in Spain. Remains interpreted as a possible coracle were found in an EarlyBronze Age grave at Barns Farm nearDalgety Bay, and others have been described, fromCorbridge and from nearNorth Ferriby.[8]
Where coracle fishing is performed by two coraclers the net is stretched across the river between the two coracles. The coraclers will paddle one handed, dragging the net in the other, and draw the net downstream. When a fish is caught, each hauls up an end of the net until the two boats are brought to touch, and the fish is then secured, using apriest (or knocker – a small block of wood) to stun the fish.[citation needed]
A new tax was introduced in 1863 on the commercial capture of migratory fish in Wales; this led to a decline in the number of coracles. During the 1930s, the government decided to begin revoking the licences of commercial fisher families on the death of the main licensees. It took some years for this plan to be completed but eventually led to a more significant decline in the number of craft.[9]
In the 1920s and 30sJames Hornell visited hundreds of rivers in the British Isles to talk with remaining coracle makers and users. He documented the tradition in his bookBritish Coracles and the Curraghs of Ireland (The Society for Nautical Research, 1938) containing drawings, diagrams and construction details gleaned from regular makers.[10]
Coracles are now[when?] seen regularly only in tourist areas of West Wales, and irregularly inShropshire[11] on the River Severn. Apublic house inSundorne, Shrewsbury called "The Coracle" has a pub sign featuring a man using a coracle on a river. The Welsh rivers Teifi andTywi are the most common places to find coracles in Wales. On the Teifi they are most frequently seen betweenCenarth, andCilgerran and the village ofLlechryd.[citation needed]
In 1974, a Welsh coracle piloted by Bernard Thomas (c. 1923–2014) of Llechryd crossed theEnglish Channel to France in13+1⁄2 hours.[12] The journey was undertaken to support a claim thatBull Boats of theMandan Indians ofNorth Dakota in the US could have been copied from coracles introduced byPrince Madog in the 12th century.[13][14]
For many years until 1979,Shrewsbury coracle maker Fred Davies achieved some notability amongst football fans; he would sit in his coracle duringShrewsbury Town FC home matches atGay Meadow, and retrieve stray balls from the River Severn. Although Davies died in 1994, his story is still associated with the club.[15]
The design of the coracle makes it an unstable craft. Because it sits "on" the water, rather than "in" it, the vessel can easily be carried by currents and the wind. The Coracle Society has published guidelines for safely using coracles.[16]
The oldest instructions yet found for construction of a coracle are contained in precise directions on a four-thousand-year-oldcuneiform tablet supposedly dictated by theMesopotamian godEnki toAtra-Hasis on how to build a round "ark". The tablet is about 2,250 years older than previously discovered accounts offlood myths, none of which contain such details. These instructions depict a vessel that is today known as aquffa (قفة), or Iraqi coracle.[17]
Many scholars believe that the basket that babyMoses wascast adrift in on the Nile (inExodus 2:3) was in fact a coracle or quffa, based on the similarity of that passage toNeo-Assyrian legends depicting infants cast adrift on rivers inquffas.[18][19]
The Irishcurach (alsocurrach orcurragh) is a similar, but larger, vessel still in use today. Curachs were also used in the west of Scotland:
Thecurach or boat of leather and wicker may seem to moderns a very unsafe vehicle, to trust to tempestuous seas, yet our forefathers fearlessly committed themselves in these slight vehicles to the mercy of the most violent weather. They were once much in use in theWestern Isles of Scotland, and are still found in Wales. The framework [in Gaelic] is calledcrannghail, a word now used inUist to signify a frail boat.
Thecurrachs in the River Spey were particularly similar to Welsh coracles. Other related craft include:
Indian coracles (Tamil:பரிசல்parisal;Kannada:ಹರಗೋಲು,ತೆಪ್ಪ,aragōlu,tep, 'crab') are commonly found on the riversKaveri andTungabhadra inSouthern India.[21] Coracles are light, bowl-shaped boats with a frame of woven grasses, reeds or saplings covered with hides.[22] Indian coracles are considered to have been in existence since prehistoric times,[22] and are a major tourist attraction at theHogenakkal falls on the Kaveri river.[23] Although these boats were originally designed for general transport, they have recently been used mostly for giving tourists rides.[24]
The coracles found in the Hogenakkal are of two types, which differ mainly in size. The smaller ones are about 6.2 feet (1.9 metres) in diameter, and are used primarily for fishing. The larger ones, which measure up to 8.4 feet (2.6 metres) in diameter, are used for tourists.[25]
Indian coracles are either saucer or bowl shaped and circular, with the greatest diameter across the mouth. The circular coracles in Iraq are very similar, but they have convexly curved sides, and thus the mouth is not the widest part.[21] Indian coracles are on average about 7.3 feet (2.24 metres) in diameter,[25] but can still hold eight people at a time.[23] Other kinds of coracles usually can only hold one person.[26] Indian coracles, and coracles in general, are made ofbamboo and take about a day to build, given all the necessary materials.[25] The bottoms of the boats are covered inhides, sometimes with sheets of plastic, or sometimes the bottom is tarred in order to make them waterproof.[27] In modern times, a sheet ofLDPE plastic is often embedded between two layers of bamboo. Coracles are steered and propelled using a single paddle from the front of the boat in the direction of travel, making them unique.[25]
The boats are made primarily from bamboo. The first step in construction is a basic framework woven from bamboo sticks. Then the bottom is further reinforced with the addition of more bamboo sticks, making the boat's base sturdy. Once the bottom is structurally sound, the lowest points of the sides are defined by a circumferential band of three flat strips of bamboo woven into the existing lattice. The sides of the boat are then made with 20 to 30 adjacent strips of bamboo. Finally this framework is again strengthened by lightweight bamboo, making sure that the sides are not heavier than the base.[25]
The boats had earlier been waterproofed by using hides of animals, but these days plastic sheets are used for this purpose as they are cheaper as well as easily available.[25] The waterproofing is further enhanced by a layer of tar,[25] a feature which is common in most contemporary coracles.[26][28]
Iraqi coracles, calledquffa orkuphar (Arabic:قفة), have been used asferries,lighters, fishing vessels, andwater taxis on theTigris andEuphrates rivers since at least the 9th century BC.[30] They share details with the myriad types of coracle used acrossEurasia.[31] Modernquffas can be up to 18 feet (5.5 m) in diameter and carry four to five tons.[32] Modernquffas are of similar size and construction as their ancient counterparts, with both being made from woven bundles of reeds or basketry waterproofed withbitumen.[citation needed]
The Vietnamese battle coracle, calledthúng chai orthuyền thúng, dated back to the 10th century, is traditionally believed to have been created by a general named Tran Ung Long[33] to be used in battles. However, thuyen thung were probably strongly developed during the French colonial period when the colonialists imposed high taxes on seafaring, local fishermen built coracles to avoid the regulations on boats.[34]
The pelota of South and Central America was a hide vessel similar to a coracle, but it often lacked an internal wooden framework, relying entirely on the stiffness of the hide to stay afloat. Thus it could be carried about on horseback and deployed when there was a river to cross.
Only 12 licences are now issued per season to fish the tidal sections of the Teifi. Eight are issued for the river Tywi, and only one licensed pair can fish the river Taf from St Clares.
Four thousand-year-old cuneiform instructions on how to build a round "Noah's ark" have turned out to be mathematically on-target, the British Museum curator who translated the text told theInternational Science Times Monday.
