FIJI FUN FACTS 27

DRUAS

"The Fijian double canoe (waqa ndrua) was the largest and finest sea-going vessel ever designed and built by natives of Oceania before contact with europeans." [1]

Druas were large vessels, up to 30 meters long, and could carry over 200 people. Despite being called "canoes" they were not dugouts, but plank-built,  double-hull ships.

Technically, a drua is a pacific proa; they do not tack but rather shunt (stern becomes the bow and viceversa).  Both ends of each hull are identical, but the hulls are of different sizes and the smaller one is always sailed to winward.  The main differences compared to other pacific proas, are that the hulls have a symmetric U-form profile, and a second hull is used instead of an outrigger.

 

Druas could only be owned by chiefs. Their main role was as war ships, taking part in naval battles and transporting warriors during raids.  Following Fijian custom, it was an insult to cross her bows, or to sail to her winward, where the mast stay could be easily cut bringing down the sail. It was also custom to scull and not to sail in sight of another chief's territory.  Launching a drua required a bloody ritual, including human sacrifices on its deck or clubbing men so that the canoe could launched over men's bodies that mana might enter into it and make it swift and safe.  They also had a representative role, and were used to collect taxes.

The speed of druas became a legend for western sailors.  The steering oars were massive, and big canoes would carry one at each end because they were too heavy to transport to the other side while shunting. The steerman (or men) risked being crippled or killed when hitting big waves by its design. The chief used to stand on the platform's top, being responsible for cutting the sheet to avoid capsizing the vessel.

"The disappearance of the double canoe of Fiji coincided with the close of the nineteenth century. Few, if any, were constructed after 1883, the year of the death of King Cakombau, for his grandson, Ratu Popi, informed me that the king's sons two or three years later broke his double canoes to pieces and buried them in a swamp that they may be preserved and kept from being used by anyone else."[1]

Only two original druas appear to have survived, both of them small. One, named Sema Makawa, is in the New Zealand National Maritime Museum.  The second one is Ratu Finau, at the Fiji Museum in Suva.

English          Fijian (pronunciation)

boat                   waqa (wahn-ga)

war                    ivalu (ee-vah-loo)

[1] Haddon, A.C., and Hornell, J. (1936). Canoes of Oceania Volume I, The Canoes of Polynesia, Fiji, and Micronesia. Honolulu, Hawaii: Bishop Museum Press.