The Sambuk is a small coasting vessel from 15 to 50 tons burden, trading in the Red Sea.
The Doni of the Coromandel coast is a huge vessel of the ark-like form, about 70 feet long, 20 feet broad, and 12 feet deep, with a flat bottom or keel part, which at the broadest place is 7 feet, and at the fore and after parts of the vessel it breaks into 10 inches, which is the siding of the stem and stern post. The fore and after bodies are similar in form from midships. \ Their light draught of water is about 4 feet, and when loaded about9 feet. These rude, unshapely vessels trade from Madras and the east coast to the island of Ceylon and Gulf of Manar. They have only one mast, with a long sail, and are navigated from land to land and coastwise in the fine season only. The rate of current in the Bay of Bengal is very great at the change of the season or monsoon, as much as sixty miles in twenty-four hours. When they are off a port in a calm, their sailors throw a handful of sand or shells and feathers in the calm sea, and by the drifting of the feathers on the surface, and sinking of the sand or shells, a calculation of the rate of current is formed, and they anchor off the coast accordingly. The anchor is made by lashing together three crooked branches of a tree, which are then loaded with heavy stones, and their cable is formed from coir yarns. In fact, the whole equipment of these rude vessels, as well as their construction, is most coarse and unseaworthy, and far behind those of any other part of India.
Mr. Edye remarks that among all the numerous vessels of every class and description which traverse the ocean, there is a peculiarity of form and construction intended to meet the various locali ties of the ports or seas in which they are navigated ; and perhaps in no part of the globe is this prin ciple more fully displayed than in the Indian seas, and on the coasts of the southern Peninsula of India, including the island of Ceylon, where the nature and change of the season, the monsoons, and the navigation of the seas and rivers, are singularly well provided for by the truly ingenious and efficient means adopted by the natives in the formation of their rude but most useful vessels.
Catamarans of Ceylon, and of the Eastern and TVestern Coasts of the Peninsula, are formed of three logs of timber, and are used by the natives for similar purposes ; the timber preferred for their construction is of the dup wood, or cherne mama (piney tree). Their length is from twenty to twenty-five feet, and breadth two and a half to three and a half feet, secured together by means of three spreaders and cross-lashings, through small holes ; the centre log being much the largest, with a curved surface at the fore-end, which trends and finishes upwards to a point. The side logs are similar in form, but smaller, having their sides straight, and fitted to the centre log. The Catamaran is generally navigated by two men, sometimes by one only, but with great skill and dexterity ; they think nothing of passing through the surf on the beach at Madras, and at other parts of the coast, where the boats of the country could not live in the breakers ; and they are propelled through the water to ships on the coast, when boats of the best construction and form would swamp. In Ceylon, in the monsoons, when a sail can be got on them, a small outrigger is placed at the end of two poles as a balance, with a bamboo mat and yard, and a mat or cotton cloth sail, all three parts of which are connected ; and when the tack and sheet of the sail are let go, it all falls fore and aft alongside, and, being light, it is easily managed. In carrying a press of sail, they are trimmed by the balance lever by going out on the poles, so as to keep the log on the surface of the water, and not impede its velocity, which in a strong wind is very great– They are frequently met in with ten or fifteen miles off the southern part of the island of Ceylon, and will convey any letter or despatch to the shore with safety ; but as to its dryness, the man who takes it has nothing but a pocket made from the leaf of the areca tree (A. eatechu, Linn.), which is tied round his waist, and is the only article about him. These are the persons who are employed in the pearl fishery.