PART 1
THOUSANDS of years before the arrival of the first group of explorers, traders and settlers to our shores, indigenous seafarers ruled one of the largest and untouched frontiers on earth – the Pacific Ocean.
These fearless sailors and sea-going warriors explored the marine world around them, traded food and goods and engaged in endless battles, many of which influenced the course of Pacific and Fijian history that we know today.
But amongst the many things that helped shape civilisation in Oceania was the capability of the mighty double-hulled drua, the finest sea-going vessels ever designed, built and driven by Pacific Islanders.
The drua’s superior design and speed did not come by chance. To bring them to life required great understanding of the sea, weather and climatic conditions, and elements of nature like the tides, lunar cycles, winds and the stars.
Furthermore, it also hinged on superb craftsmanship and skills passed down by word of mouth through countless generations.
Fiji sea crafts, the biggest of which were the drua, were of varying sizes, design and purpose yet they all stirred the imagination of sailors from all over the globe.
In Fiji and the Fijians, writer Thomas Williams noted there were four main types of these canoes – the velovelo or takia, camakau, tabilai and drua. All were differed in the modification of their cama and hull.
Because tribal warfare was rampant at the time, the drua were inevitably fashioned with this disturbing reality in mind.
Invading warriors travelled vast distances to wage war and extend their dominions. To do this, their mode of transport had to be one of the best hands could build.
An armada of war canoes and the warriors transported on them were known as a “bola”, the Fijian term for a hundred canoes according to the traditional system of counting. A flotilla of 10 canoes was called uduudu.
Petty skirmishes employed smaller canoes but large-scale battles only involved the double-hulled drua, the equivalent to today’s high tech naval battleships.
Gigantic and plank-built, they easily exceeded thirty meters in length and were capable of transporting large contingents of warriors and crew. It is believed the largest drua carried in excess of 250 passengers on deck.
According to Fiji Museum records, the drua (called kalia in Tonga and alia in Samoa) was thought to be a combination of
Polynesian and Micronesian building techniques. It could travel at speeds of up to 25 knots in good weather conditions.
Fijian drua were distinctive in that they were made from vesi loa, a durable native hardwood that grew abundantly in limestone-rich islands of the Lau Group.
So to acquire large durable canoes, Tongans freely traded with the islanders of Lau and many islands there became “workshops” for the finest and most technologically advanced double-hulled vessels of the Pacific.
The ends of the hulls of these canoes were solid vesi wood to allow for more effective ramming during warfare.
“The well-built and excellently-designed canoes of the Fijians were for a long time superior to those of any other islanders in the Pacific,” Elsdon Best noted in the book, The Maori Canoe.
“Their neighbours, the Friendly-Islanders, are more finished carpenters and bolder sailors, and used to build large canoes, but not equal to those of Fiji.”
Smaller drua were built too with a single hollowed log forming the base of each hull. The largest drua were built using multiple planks expertly lashed together to form hulls over 40 metres long, with platforms eight metres wide.
During battles, the basic sea warfare technique was to ram this hardwood hulls into enemy canoes in order to sink or disable them, while the warriors in the latter boarded to engage in a bloody face-to-face merle.
Another tactic was to manoeuver the drua toward the outrigger hull of the enemy and cut through its rigging, dropping its heavy sail and engulfing all crew and warriors.
Sometimes a tactic known as “waqa-ubi” was used. In this case, warriors hid in a canoe, which drifted ashore as if derelict. The warriors sprang out to attack their enemies when inspected.
“The construction of the drua required a lot of time and resources,” the museum noted.
“Rich chiefs would typically employ a tribe of master boat-builders to build them, with the construction of large boats taking over two years and being dependant on the supply of construction materials by the chief.”
During the US Exploring Expedition, Charles Wilkes observed that when chief Tanoa launched a canoe “ ten or more men are slaughtered on the deck, in order that it may be washed with human blood.”
There drua were considered sacred so on their maiden voyage, they demanded blood. As an initiation rite while moving the drua from land to sea, human slaves were used as rollers, alternating with banana stems.
“Surrounded by ocean, the people of Fiji developed a wide range of canoes to meet their fishing, transportation, trade and warfare needs. In the 1800s Fijian canoes were faster and more seaworthy than the best ships Europe could produce,” the Fiji Museum added.
“Fijians were skilful sailors who could navigate long distance cross the open ocean and had extensive trade networks with distant islands. The major maritime powers of Bau, Rewa and Lau all had large fleets of canoes with which to enforce and defend their influence.”
Wars aside, the use of Fijian canoes for travel, trade and centuries of survival in the largest ocean of the world.
The drua remains one of the commonest sights today unfortunately only in the form of government, institutional and corporate emblems and logos. They no longer slice the waves of our Pacific seas like their used to in olden days.
Wooden, aluminium and fibre-glass boats now take up their place in coastal villages and the maritime islands. These are faster and physically less demanding to build and drive across the high seas.
Their popularity has significantly meant the disappearance of Fiji’s traditional canoes together with the traditional knowledge and skills set needed to create and maintain them. Our sailing culture that once spanned thousands of years has now given way to one that is almost non-existent.
The drua “Ratu Finau” is the oldest of Fiji’s great ocean-going double-hulled canoes. She lies at the Fiji Museum.
Measuring 13.4 metres, small by both traditional standards, it was built in 1913 in Fulaga in the southern Lau at the command of Ratu Alifereti Finau, the eleventh Roko Sau of Lau and the fifth Tui Nayau.
He was the son of Ratu Tevita Uluilakeba II and Adi Asenaca Kakua Vuikaba, daughter of Ratu Seru Epenisa Cakobau and a member of the noble household Matailakeba.
According to www.druaexperience.com Ratu Finau was “made for collector J.B. Turner and sailed to Suva for delivery”.
“Before going into storage it sailed for a time around Suva harbour and beat all comers in races against local yachts – it is said to have made better than 17 knots in ideal conditions. The Turner family generously gifted Ratu Finau to the Museum and the people of Fiji in 1981,” the website said.
Today, effects of man’s activities over the past few decades, culminating in serious environmental degradation and extreme climate change events have forced governments and leaders from around the world to look at ways of addressing the exploitation done our planet.
For the Pacific Islands, including Fiji, one of the most remarkable challenges we face is tackling detrimental contamination generated through the use from fossil fuels by the maritime transportation industry.
To tackle such a threat, through the reduction of pollution and our carbon footprint in general, different power solutions have to be considered, among them the re-discovery of our old and strong sailing and boat-building traditions and a re-emphasis on fossil-free travel using renewable energy.
- History being the subject it is, a group’s version of events may not be the same as that held by another group. When publishing one account, it is not our intention to cause division or to disrespect other oral traditions. Those with a different version can contact us so we can publish your account of history too — Editor.
