Crossing the Ocean

For people, plants and animals to travel across the ocean, they need something to cross the seas in. Boats and ships have been made for trade and fishing for tens of thousands of years. Often sophisticated pieces of technology, that needed many people to help make them, little is known about the boats that traded around the Indian Ocean hundreds and thousands of years ago. Toys, models and paintings help us piece together the history of sailing our ocean—and these objects often have their own intriguing stories to tell.

Guided by the Stars

Astrolabe
Possibly made in North Africa, 1200-1300
The British Museum, OA+1733

An astrolabe is like holding a model of the universe in your hand. It could be used to help find out where you were, what the time was, where the stars or moon were in the sky, and many other uses. This astrolabe is about seven hundred years old, and was made for someone who could read Arabic. Invented by the Ancient Greeks, astrolabes were developed by Muslim scientists and craftspeople, and were used across the Indian Ocean world.

This astrolabe has three parts. The front piece called a ‘rete’ shows the position of the sun, moon and stars and their location in the sky as seen from a particular latitude on the ‘plate’ of the device. The ‘mater’ is the base and is engraved with scales to interpret the astronomical information.

Shared Technology

Dugout Canoe
Made by Robert Cunningham, Cobourg Peninsula c.1970
Western Australian Museum, A23786

Indonesian Dugout
Bali, Found 1981
Western Australian Museum,T2016.08.01

Pandanus sail
Berndt Collection, University of Western Australia, WU5899

These two canoes have a shared design despite originating from either side of the Timor Sea.

In the early 1960s, Iwaidja man Robert Cunningham from the Cobourg Peninsula made the dug-out canoe in front of you in the classic style used by Aboriginal groups across the Northern Territory. The dug-out canoes of Arnhem Land, similar to those also found in the Kimberley, are a link to the past interactions between coastal Aboriginal groups and Makassan fishermen, who visited Australia’s northern shores long before Europeans. Prior to the introduction of dug-out watercraft, northern coastal groups made bark canoes, typically from eucalyptus trees or mangrove log rafts. It is highly likely that the Northern Territory dug-out form is based on the Indonesian examples like the one with the sail on display behind. These were sometimes left ashore when the Makassans returned to Sulewasi. The sail displayed here on the Indonesian dug-out is made from panadanus palm leaves.

A Lost Tradition

Model of a yathra dhoni
India / Sri Lanka, 1854
The British Museum, 1933,1110.1

Once commonly used to transport goods between India and Sri Lanka this model captures the form of a Sri Lankan trading vessel called a yathra dhoni. These vessels are no longer built or used due to the introduction of steamships, engines and new materials, such as fibreglass. Models, like this one, are important evidence for what traditional boats around the Indian Ocean looked like and how they were made.

If you look closely you can see the wooden planks are sewn together. Boats were commonly built like this around the Indian Ocean for thousands of years. The rope was made from coconut fibres with grass wadding over the seams to help waterproof the boat. Although one mast is missing in this model, these boats had two masts and sails, a roof to protect the cargo it carried on board and a wooden float, known as an outrigger. This device helped stabilise the boat in strong winds.