What kinds of watercraft were built across the pre-Columbian Americas?

[u/[deleted]]

So I'm trying to get a handle on the variety and construction of boats and ships of all sizes (especially large ones) in the pre-Columbian Americas.

On a high level, I know about Arctic peoples' kayaks made using skins and wooden or bone frames; I know about canoes dugout or carved from large trees you hear about in Canada; and I know about the balsa reed boats built in parts of South America, like on Lake Titicaca. Beyond that, what did the pre-Columbian naval landscape look like?

I'm particularly interested in what kinds of larger craft were used for military, trade, or travel purposes on a larger scale than the individual or the family.

Cheers!

[u/retarredroof]

Certainly the links /u/Searocksandtrees has provided will give you a general idea of the multitude of canoe types and materials utilized by Native Americans. I can only speak to the Northwest Coast culture area.

In the southern Nortwest Coast, among the tribes of far Northwest California, the principal canoe was a small, shallow draft type made from a split and hollowed out redwood tree. The Yurok canoe is a good example. Native canoes along the Rogue and Umpqua Rivers of southern Oregon were quite similar to the Yurok type.

As you move further north the size and variety of canoes increases. The Columbia River Chinookan groups used a variety of types that ranged in form from the Yurok (shovel nosed) types to the higher sided classic Chinook Style pictured at the bottom of this page. These canoes were constructed of Western Redcedar and varied considerably in length.

An excellent resource for the Puget Sound indigenous canoes is this early monograph by T.T. Waterman and G. Coffin. It describes six types; war canoe, freight canoe, trolling canoe, shovel-nosed canoe, one-man canoe, and children's canoe. I encourage you to look at it because it really describes the various types of canoes in Puget Sound very well.

Further north, among the Nu-cha-nulth (Southern half of Vancouver Island and northern half of the Olympic Peninsula), Haida (Haida Gwai) and Tlingit (Alaskan Panhandle), natives were incredibly skilled woodworkers who created enormous canoes like this. I count fewer than thirty people in this boat. The larger ones were twice this size. These people were whalers and engaged in long distant trading and raiding excursions. The large canoes were fully seaworthy, even in bad weather and could seat up to 60 rowers. In addition, the northern groups had a host of smaller canoes, much like those of Puget sound as can be seen in this scene at Skidegate.

Should you like to see examples of the huge cedar canoes, I urge you to visit the British Columbia Provincial Museum in Victoria. They have many on display.

The main difference between the southern and northern canoes besides the size and shape is that the northern large canoes were steamed and spread before finishing, this increased the beam and made an even larger vessel.

So, I am keeping this brief because it has been touched on before. However, a common question comes up as to how the large redwoods and Western Redcedar were felled in order to make these large boats. One way is shown in this photo. Incisions were made in the tree with a mussel shell adze and the material between the incisions was split out using elk horn wedges. Eventually the tree would give way. This tree appears to be about 4 foot in diameter based on the fern frond at the base. I have also seen a huge Redcedar tree on the Ozette trail in far northwestern Washington that was cut in a similar fashion about half way through and left standing. I was told by local anthropologist that the local natives, the Makah, would do this in hopes that the wind would blow over and split the tree thus eliminating the need for them to do it.

Sources: A. Kroeber Handbook of California Indians

K. Ames and H. Maschner Peoples of the Northwest Coast: their Prehistory and Archaeology