[Paddlewise] Skinboats of Greenland

Yesterday I received my copy of H.C. Petersen's _Skinboats of Greenland_. 
One thing no one had ever said about it is what a handsomely produced book 
it is, with far more photos and drawings than I expected, including a nice 
color painting on the cover of an umiak and three kayaks painted in the 
19th century. The English translation is graceful, though it has 
occasionally odd terminology.

If you are unfamiliar with this work, it is about the kayaks and umiaks of 
Greenland, their construction, history, and accessories. The author was a 
high school teacher in Greenland, the son of a man raised as a hunter in 
the early 20th century. The book is published by a museum in Denmark and is 
hard to obtain in North America; I ordered my copy from the Quarterdeck 
bookstore in Vancouver.

The section on paddles is rather brief. Petersen illustrates several 
different types, but unfortunately the East Greenland type, though referred 
to in a caption, is not included in the illustration. Though he mentions 
the sliding stroke, he doesn't clearly differentiate between the storm 
paddle and intermediate length paddles (the longest paddle he mentions is 
230 cm). He also gives a brief but interesting defense of unfeathered 
blades that is rarely discussed -- the fact that having the blades in the 
same plane makes it possible to use the paddle as a stabilizer by sliding a 
blade under the deck cords. This obviously wouldn't work if the outboard 
blade was vertical!

Writing on the history of the kayak, he says that a few centuries ago, when 
kayaks were used only in the summer, kayak ends were relatively low and 
straight, and that the ends became upturned only when the Greenlanders 
started paddling in ice. Later, when hunters started using rifles, they 
found the high bow in the way, and reduced the height of the ends again. He 
also identifies by name the Greenlanders who developed the fixed skeg in 
the 19th century, which made it easier to keep the kayak turned toward the 
prey when using a rifle, and illustrates several different ways of 
attaching the skeg.

Often the Greenland kayak and the baidarka are represented as being the 
perfect culmination of centuries, if not millennia, of evolution. What I 
get from reading this book is that the Greenland kayak (and likely the 
baidarka, as well) was constantly changing to meet changing conditions, and 
that there never was an ideal kayak, whether traditional or modern. In 
fact, what we consider to be a "traditional" Greenland kayak is partly a 
result of the Greenlanders' access to modern tools and lumber over the last 
200 years, one of the results of which was a gradual reduction in the 
number of deck beams and a consequent lightening of the boat.

Chuck Holst



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