The Chompreng is a river cargo boat.
The Sekong is made of one log of wood, very sharp fore and aft, with long outriggers to prevent its upsetting.
Pantjallang, of the Malay, is a canoe made from a tree iu Palembang ; some of them are 42 feet long. The paddlers were liable to be seized by crocodiles.—Court.
The Biduk is a canoe of Sumatra similar to the Pantjallang, but with gunwales raised by additional planks. It is a safe boat ; used for goods.
The Malay war Praha is built of timber at the lower part ; the upper is of bamboo, rattan, and kajan (the dried leaf of the Nipa palm). Out side the bends, about a foot from the water line, runs a strong gallery, in which the rowers sit cross-legged. At the after part of the boat is a cabin for the chief who commands, and the whole of the vessel is surmounted by a strong flat roof, upon which they fight, their principal weapons being the kris and spear, both of which, to be used with effect, require elbow-room.— ,lforreat's Ind. Arch.
The ordinary Praha made use of by the Malay pirates at the present day, are from eight to ten tons burden, very well manned, and exceedingly fast. Usually they are armed on the bows, centre, and stern with swivel pieces.
The most common pirate vessels made use of among the floating communities from the Straits to the south-eastern groups, are the Penjajap and Kakap, with Paduakan, and Malay boats of venom size and construction.
The Penjajap Prahu is of light build, straight, and very long, of various dimensions, and carrying usually two masts, with square kajan sails. This boat is entirely open, except that aft a kind of awning, under which the head-manints, and where the magazine of arms and ammunition is stowed away. In front it carries two gnus of greater or less calibre, of which the muzzles peer through a wooden bulwark, always parallel to the line of the keel. Penjajap of large size generally carry, in addition to these, some swivel pieces, mounted along the timber parapet ; while boats of inferior tonnage are armed only with two lelab, elevated on a beam or upright. From twenty to
thirty rowers, sitting on benches well covered with mats, communicate to the vergel with their short oars a steady and rapid motion, the snore swift. in proportion as the Prahu is small. 'Argo ones. therefore, are often left hidden in some creek, or little maze of Wets, while tho light skiffs, flying through tho water, proceed on their marauding errand.
The Kakap Prahu is a small light boat, provided with a rudder oar, but with no other oars or sculls. It carries only one mast, with a single pralran gular sail. Like the Penjajap, it is built of very buoyant timber, planks being held together by wooden pins, and lashed with rattans. The pirate never goes to sea with a Kakap alone, and the voyager may be sure, whenever he descries a Knkap, that a Penjajap is not far behind, moving along, perhaps iu the shadow of tho high coast, or lurking behind some island, or lying within the seclusion of some woody creek. Eight or ten of the best fighters are usually chosen to man those light skiffs, which remind us of those flying Prahus of the Ladrones. In calm weather, the pirates row in these buoyant galleys along the shore, or mount the small rivers, confiding in their agility; and, knowing well that if surprised they may fly into the woods, they bear their little skiff with them, and launch it again at some spot unknown to their pursuers.—Kolff, Rapport, 18:1l.
The I'aduakan have a single mast III the form of a tripod, and carry a large lateen sail of mat. They are from twenty to fifty tons burden, and of great beam, with lofty sides, and little hold in the water. They are steered by two long rudders, which are lifted up when the vessel is moored or passing through a shallow.
The trade with New Guinea and the Eastern Islands (commonly called the Bugis trade), and the trepang fishery on the north coast of Australia, is carried on chiefly in the Paduakan. These leave Macassar and tho other arts of ce....oes for the Eastern Islands during the westerly monsoon, returning with the south-east trade wind.