Drua
Encyclopedia
"The Fijian double canoe (wangga ndrua) was the largest and finest sea-going vessel ever designed and built by natives of Oceania before contact with europeans."
Druas were large, up to 30 meters long, and could carry over 200 people. Despite being called "canoes" they were not dugouts, but plank-built ships.
Origins
No written record exists of the diffusion of the drua design, but most anthropologists assume its origin in MicronesiaMicronesia
Micronesia is a subregion of Oceania, comprising thousands of small islands in the western Pacific Ocean. It is distinct from Melanesia to the south, and Polynesia to the east. The Philippines lie to the west, and Indonesia to the southwest....
, and it probably came to Fiji through the Kiribati
Kiribati
Kiribati , officially the Republic of Kiribati, is an island nation located in the central tropical Pacific Ocean. The permanent population exceeds just over 100,000 , and is composed of 32 atolls and one raised coral island, dispersed over 3.5 million square kilometres, straddling the...
and Tuvalu
Tuvalu
Tuvalu , formerly known as the Ellice Islands, is a Polynesian island nation located in the Pacific Ocean, midway between Hawaii and Australia. Its nearest neighbours are Kiribati, Nauru, Samoa and Fiji. It comprises four reef islands and five true atolls...
islands. The only Polynesian shunting type is the Pahi of the Tuamotu archipelago, but it uses equal hulls and does not appear related to other proas. From Fiji, druas spread to Tonga
Tonga
Tonga, officially the Kingdom of Tonga , is a state and an archipelago in the South Pacific Ocean, comprising 176 islands scattered over of ocean in the South Pacific...
(where they are called Kalia) and Samoa
Samoa
Samoa , officially the Independent State of Samoa, formerly known as Western Samoa is a country encompassing the western part of the Samoan Islands in the South Pacific Ocean. It became independent from New Zealand in 1962. The two main islands of Samoa are Upolu and one of the biggest islands in...
(where they are called 'Alia). Captain Cook
James Cook
Captain James Cook, FRS, RN was a British explorer, navigator and cartographer who ultimately rose to the rank of captain in the Royal Navy...
visited Tonga in his second and third voyages, and noticed that druas were rapidly displacing the Polynesian catamaran design. Tongan chiefs taking part in Fijian wars used to carry them back as prizes of war. Drua construction eventually became a monopoly of Tongan constructors living in the Fijian Lau Islands
Lau Islands
The Lau Islands of Fiji are situated in the southern Pacific Ocean, just east of the Koro Sea. Of this chain of about one hundred islands and islets, about thirty are inhabited...
.
War canoes
Druas were sacred canoes in the sense that only aristocrats could own one. Their main role was as war ships, taking part in naval battles and transporting warriors during raids. They also had a representative role, and were used to collect taxes. Following Fijian custom, it was an insult to cross her bows, or to sail to her windward, where the mast stay could be easily cut bringing down the sail. It was also custom to paddle and not to sail in sight of another chief's territory. Launching a drua required a bloody ritual, including human sacrifices."With regard to the human sacrifice associated with the launching ceremonies, Wilkes
Charles Wilkes
Charles Wilkes was an American naval officer and explorer. He led the United States Exploring Expedition, 1838-1842 and commanded the ship in the Trent Affair during the American Civil War...
(1985, vol. 3, p. 97) records that when Tanoa launched a canoe 10 or more men were slaughtered on the deck in order that it might be washed with human blood. Wall (1916) also says:
A new canoe was launched over men's bodies that mana might enter into it and make it swift and safe, but I can find no trace of living men ever having been used for this purpose; they were clubbed first. Certain small islands and districts enjoyed by hereditary right the doubtful honour of supplying the victims for these occasions, as for instance the island of Laucala for the launching of the vessels of the Cakaundrove chiefs. "
Sailing performance
The speed of druas became a legend for western sailors, who sometimes confused "fijian canoes" with "flying proas" (the latter being the original Micronesian design). The low freeboard of the hulls outside the central platform predates the "wave-piercing" bows of modern racing designs. The one course that could not be sailed, was with the wind directly aft; otherwise her bows would be driven underwater. Her performance upwind is unclear, with some authors claiming it to be fast and close to the wind, and others describing it as making too much leeway with the wind in the quarter. 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 steersman (or men) risked being crippled or killed when hitting big waves. The chief used to stand on the platform's top, being responsible for cutting the sheet to avoid capsize.Heritage
"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 Cakobau, 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"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
Fiji Museum
The Fiji Museum is a museum in Suva, Fiji located in the capital city's botanical gardens, Thurston Gardens.The museum houses an extensive archaeological collection dating back 3,700 years and relics of Fiji's indigenous cultural history...
in Suva
Suva
Suva features a tropical rainforest climate under the Koppen climate classification. The city sees a copious amount of precipitation during the course of the year. Suva averages 3,000 mm of precipitation annually with its driest month, July averaging 125 mm of rain per year. In fact,...
.
Today, druas are still a symbol of Fiji, and Fiji's telephone booths are decorated with the characteristic mast-tops of druas.