| The Sami Boat (one section of an issue devoted to
boats) by Mel Olsen  The specific characteristics of Sami boatbuilding - the second "art" (next to hunting) of which Sami men had command - are quite difficult to describe in detail for two reasons: First of all, as a people with different areas of settlement and ways of life, the Sami do not form a uniform ethnic group. Secondly the majority of Sami boat finds are fragmentary. Nevertheless, the archaeological and ethnographic sources appear to present two more or less compatible pictures. The employment of lacing or sewing techniques rather than iron for a vessel's construction and the function the vessel fulfilled (fishing, transport of animal skins or a passenger through the rapids) are the two primary means of identifying its Sami origins. Boat figures on Sami shaman divination drums from the 17th-18th centuries, probably representing offerings but in certain cases perhaps actual vessels for journeying. Boat images are found only on Nordland and other South Sami drums, (Manker, 1950). Aside from the relatively insignificant special forms such as the raft boats or the deep-sea rowing boats and sailboats of the ocean-going Sami, two boat types are primarily typical of Sami boatbuilding - the small boat, made in certain circumstances even of birch bark, and the larger boat. There are basically three categories of sewn boats;
Vessels of the Sea Sami It is highly probable that at least the Late Iron Age sewn boats of Northern Norway were all built by Sami boatbuilders. It is possible that they also built boats which agreed better with the then current tradition of their Norwegian customers. The Sami proficiency in sewn boat building is attested by the famous Icelandic historian Snorri Sturluson, while dealing with the 12th century pretenders to the Norwegian throne. Two 24-oared sewn ships were built for King Sigurd Slembe(djakn), when he was in the North. A poem was even composed on the elegant swiftness of the ships. "Only few can follow the Helgeland ship when bound with sinews it flies with the wind"  The only known photo of a Sami boat being constructed The Sea Sami of that area are known from the 16th century onwards in written sources to build boats regularly for their Norwegian neighbors. Norwegian settlers of the day were generally involved in fishing and settled in the relatively barren outlying islands. Sami, on the other hand, dwelt along the mainland shore and up into the river courses where they had sole access to the timber resources, which they had worked for hundreds of years. While the Norwegian fishermen were most eager to exploit the fisheries, the Sami developed another sort of specialization related to the new economy. The great demand for fishing boats at the coast had to be met, and the Sami became skillful boat builders. From the first centuries AD when Helgeland (Nordland) had been governed by chieftains, they were maintained there through commerce in furs, products from whales, walrus and seals, as well as fish, all obtained through trade with the Sami, a relationship that greatly expanded in the 1200s. Through the 19th Century, the boats needed came from the Nordland boat building districts. Undoubtedly the Coastal Sami themselves adopted the sailing boat about 950, and by c. 1000 AD Sami boatbuilders in the fjords were producing sailing boats for their customers among the farming communities. Indeed it is possible that the origins of the distinctive 'Nordland' boat can be found in the boatbuilding traditions of the Coastal Sami. The Nordland boat continued to be built for over 1000 years, and in the early 20th century it was still used for fishing and coastal transport. This basic design was almost unchanged over nearly 50 generations of boatbuilders, and the long continuity can be attributed to a successful design and to a strong conservatism. The boat had a single midship mast, a square sail, six or seven oars per side, and was open from end to end with high stem and stern posts. East Finnmark and Russian Sami had their own types of boats which they used for fishing cod in spring and for catching salmon in the river estuaries. Here boatbuilders continued to sew their various types of boats long after the rest of Scandinavia had adopted rivets. The six-oared Skolt Sami boat from Pasvik, Finnmark is typical of sewn boats built for cod fishing, and small enough to be versatile in varying tasks. The boat has three strakes on a side, all hewn from logs. The fastening material is hemp twine, and caulked with moss. Sails in this region are smaller at the foot, something unknown further south along the coast. The largest fishing boat built by the Skolt Sami and their Kola neighbors was the schnjaka. These boats were put to the same use as the seagoing boats being built in Nordland - generally net fishing and hand-lining for cod and net fishing for herring. The actual schnjaka in the diagram is 11.37 meters long and 2.65 m broad. Except for a few iron nails in the ends, the entire boat is sewn. Twine runs through a double row of holes - all pegged to secure the twine and protect against leaks. The caulking is moss. In use, this boat had a mast and a square-rigged sail. Considering the design and detail, the origin of the schnjaka design seems derived from the coastal boats originating in Nordland. Sources Bjorklund, Jarle ,The Boat Hall, Manual , ND, Norwegian Maritime Museum Christensen, Arne, Boats of the North, 1968, Oslo: Samlaget Fjellheim, Rune Sverre, Traditional Occupations of Indigenous and Tribal Peoples, Case Study from Sápmi, 1999 Nielssen, Alf Rgnar, Indigenous and Early Fisheries in North Norway, Univerisity of Tromsø Paine, R. Coastal Lapp Society I, A Study of a Neighborhood in Revsbotn Fjord, 1957 Smyth, H. Warington, Mast and Sail in Europe, 1906, London: John Murray Westerdahl, Christer, Sewn Boats of the North, from The International Journal of Nautical Archeology, 1985, 14.1:33-62 Further online reading on Sami boats: Saami technique - sewn boat reconstruction |
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