208 © 2009 The Authors. Journal Compilation © 2009 The Nautical Archaeology Society

NAUTICAL ARCHAEOLOGY, 38.1

(Barland’s Farm). This explanation seems to fit theknown facts: some future excavation may well givefurther support to Dr McCaughan’s hypothesis.

Irish skin-boats (known also as ‘hide-boats’), thecurach and naomhog of the western coast and the rivercurachs, are also built ‘frame-first’: this appears to bethe case worldwide, except for the small, single-hideboats of the Americas and Tibet. In a generalintroduction to the subject, Criostóir Mac Cárthaighdiscusses the early Irish evidence for skin-boats, anddraws particular attention to the 1684–5 colourwashsketch of a large sailing curach (now in the PepysianLibrary, Magdalene College, Cambridge) by the militaryengineer Captain Thomas Philips. Mac Cárthaighcriticises Philips’ drawing on two counts: first,following Hornell (Curraghs of Ireland, Mariner’sMirror 24: 5–39), he considers that the curach shouldhave been depicted being built upside-down, as is thepractice nowadays; and, secondly, that Phillips waswrong to give the boat stem- and sternposts and aprominent keel outside the hide, since these are alsonot features of today’s curachs.

Whether that particular boat was or was not builtupside-down is a moot point, but need not cast doubton the general accuracy of Philips’ painting. MacCárthaigh’s second point is potentially more important.It should be noted, however, that the Roman authorsCaesar, Lucan, Pliny and Dio Cassus described Britishand Irish hide-boats with prominent keels: such a keelwould have made those early curachs more resistant toleeway than are today’s sailing curachs. Moreover,Philips’ painting shows other features not seen in Irishhide-boats today: his curach is steered by a centre-linerudder and propelled by a square sail on a maststepped near amidships, and the framework is ofinter-woven basketry, rather than the fastened-lathframework of today. Roman authors also note thatcurachs were built on an osier or woven-wickerframework, and such a woven framework is visible inthe mouth wale of a Boyne curach now in the NationalMuseum, Dublin, and in the 19th-century similarly-rounded curach displayed in the Moray Society’sMuseum in Elgin, north-east Scotland. Such a woven-wicker framing would have meant that early curachswould have been stronger yet more resilient thantoday’s craft.

A second paper in this section, that by HolgerLonze, takes an analytical look at the curach and gives‘do-it-yourself ’ instructions for building one. Thereare then 14 papers on individual types of curach usedin the River Boyne and in the sea off Donegal, Mayo,Conamara, Clare, Kerry and the offshore islands.These superb seagoing vessels, which could be ‘madefrom nothing’, have not been without their critics. Inearlier days, many were built with whatever materialswere available and, as a fisherman put it to DonalMacPolin, they were ‘as rough as a badger’s arse’. Awitness at the 1836 Fishery Enquiry described thecurachs of Port an Chloidh in Co. Mayo as being ‘so

clumsily constructed that they would make a NewZealander smile’. Nevertheless, Criostóir Mac Cárthaighconsiders that ‘for reasons of economy and scale, thecurach was, and remains, ideally suited to the largelyseasonal, part-time nature of fishing’ and ‘It is the easewith which a curach can be beached and secured inplaces where piers and slipways are not present whichmakes it so attractive’.

Nowadays some working curachs carry a smalllugsail forward, generally used on a broad reach,seldom when running. Others have a fibreglass outercover and are driven by an outboard engine.Nevertheless, the curach shape and proportions havenot been changed in any significant way. They are,however, changing their role: as Padraig O Duinninconcludes, these boats are now ‘making a transitionfrom a necessity for survival to a leisure and culturalactivity’.

Almost the last paper in this absorbing volume is onthe ‘Bundle Rafts of Ireland’ by Seamas Mac Philib.Such rafts were first brought to academic attention in1870 by William Wakeman in an article in the Journalof the Royal Historical and Archaeological Associationof Ireland. They were documented in 1976 by JamesDelaney of the Folklore Commission. Within livingmemory, these rafts (cliath thulca or ‘flood-raft’) weremade from bundles of rushes and propelled by pole orpaddle in winter when the River Suck in Co.Roscommon regularly flooded.

Every paper in this volume is worthy of attentionbut I have already exceeded the length of reviewallotted. In my opinion, it would be worth buying thisbook merely to study the excellent illustrations; I haveno doubt, however, that, were one to do that, it wouldbe impossible to avoid being drawn into reading theenthralling text.

SEÁN McGRAILCentre for Maritime Archaeology,

University of Southampton, UK381Book ReviewREVIEWSNAUTICAL ARCHAEOLOGY, 38.1

Deutsches Schiffahrtsarchiv 29 (2006)ERIK HOOPS and URSULA FELDKAMP (eds)

336 pp., 235 illustrations (76 in colour)

Convent Verlag, Hamburg, for Deutsches Schiffahrts-museum, Bremerhaven, D-27568, 2007, $23.50 (hbk),ISBN 978–3866330115

As usual, this annual miscellany (with summaries inEnglish and French) is full of interest, andconsiderably enhanced by the quality and quantity ofits illustrations (see reviews of previous volumes inIJNA). There are 14 papers divided into ten topics.The first essay (pp.7–58) is by Torsten Capelle on ‘The

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© 2009 The Authors. Journal Compilation © 2009 The Nautical Archaeology Society 209

Vikings in Western Europe: Norman Campaigns andCarolingian Reactions—Historical-ArchaeologicalDetective Work along Rivers’. The author addresseswritten sources for the ‘cataclysmic events that occurredthroughout the ninth century’ from an archaeologicalperspective, looking for the evidence for Vikinginfiltration inland which is often missing fromarchaeology. Lots of clear maps illustrate the potentialViking sites along the river systems of France,Belgium and the Netherlands.

The second paper, and the only one not in German,is by Christer Westerdahl, entitled ‘The Relationshipbetween Land Roads and Sea Routes in the past—Some Reflections’ (pp.59–114), where he usesScandinavian examples to demonstrate ‘the parallelsbetween land roads and sea routes’. He first demon-strates the relationship of networks of roads andbridges to strong rulers, and the cyclical nature of suchprovision. He uses the example of a 10th-centurywooden bridge which, because there is no evidence oflater repairs, must have been a short-lived symbol ofthe prestige of the ruler who built it. Travel-relatedconstructions such as this have often been used todemonstrate the degree of central control achieved atvarious periods. Church locations are often related totraditional travel networks, both inland and on thecoast. Portages create interfaces between land andsea routes, and because of their strategic importancemay also be sites for churches. Roads are often markedby standing stones, grave-markers, or, later, milestones;sea-routes may be marked by cairns on headlands.However, in general, sea routes are harder to map.Shipwrecks are not necessarily a guide, as ships mayhave been driven off course in the process of wrecking.Harbour sites are a guide, as are navigation-marks, andplace-names. ‘There is seldom a principal road, especiallyon the coast, which does not have an alternative in acoastal sea route’ (p.100). Other land and sea routesmeet or overlap at harbours, ferry points and portages.

Robert DomZal provides a paper (pp.115–36) on‘Medieval harbours, Shipping and Ship-Masters ofMarienburg’, a small port on the Nogat river, withinthe Vistula delta system, south-south-east of Gdansk.There was a small town-port, a fishing port, and aseparate harbour belonging to the Teutonic Orderwhich traded mainly in timber (some used forshipbuilding). The piece (pp.283–306) by DetlevEllmers, formative influence on the Museum who hasonly recently relinquished the directorship, will be ofinterest to Journal readers. ‘Prestige Objects of theFishermen, Shipmasters and Raftsmen on the UpperDanube and Main Rivers in the Eighteenth andNineteenth Centuries’ is based on six faience jugs inthe Museum’s collections, all once privately owned butbearing guild marks. These were symbols of status,and can tell us about both the occupation and therank of the owner. The final paper in the volume(pp.241–66) by Frits Loomeijer presents ‘The Jutland—Biography of a “Modern Dutchman” ’, being ‘one of

the few historic German-Dutch coastal vessels to havebeen returned to her original structural condition’.

Other papers generally have little or no archaeo-logical content, and cover relatively modern material,but some are listed here as they may be of interest tosome readers. How Hamburg harbour conceived ofand presented itself between 1900 and 1970 as ‘WorldPort’ and ‘Gateway to the World’ is discussed by LarsAmenda (pp.137–58). Harald Focke and Frank Scerer(pp.181–218) in ‘Two Liners—one Concept? TheStructural Conversions of the Passenger Ships Bremenand Hanseatic, 1958/59’ provide many illustrations ofthe interior design of these vessels as converted forthe North Atlantic run—a fascinating piece of designhistory. Wolfgang Rudolph (pp.247–66) writes about‘The Development of the Maritime Culture on theSouthern and Eastern Coast of the Baltic (1920–2000)’. This article is Part 1, the result of ethnographicresearch by a group of Danish, Polish and Germanacademics in Poland and Lithuania (Part 2 in a laterissue will cover Latvia, Estonia and Russia).

Lars Scholl and Rüdiger von Ancken (pp.267–82)present ‘The Graphic Artist and Naval Painter OskarDolhart: a Biographical Essay’, with many colourimages. Dolhart flourished in the 1930s, one of ‘agroup of artists who focused on Germany’s massively-enlarged naval fleet’. Lars Scholl (pp.331–40) discusses‘Space Art on Lloyd Ships’, namely the first-classchildren’s playroom aboard the Bremen IV, decoratedby Walter Trier. The Bremen was launched in 1929,and destroyed by fire in 1941. Trier was a caricaturistand illustrator of children’s books, including ErichKästner’s Emil and the Detectives, which was enjoyedby children in many countries.

This miscellany is evidence of a lively culture ofresearch based on the Deutsches Schiffahrtsmuseumand its collections. The editors are to be congratulatedonce again on the quality of the production andparticularly of the illustrations. The English and Frenchsummaries are full and well-written, allowing access tothe work of the Museum and its associates for a muchwider public.

PAULA MARTINInstitute of Archaeology, University College London

381Book ReviewREVIEWSNAUTICAL ARCHAEOLOGY, 38.1

The Sail of Cardiff Bay, Vols 1 and 2ALAN ROY THORNE

129 pp., 117 b&w photographs, 1 map (Vol. 1, atpresent out of print)

117 pp., 136 b&w photographs (Vol. 2)

Ashley Drake Publishing Ltd, St David’s Press, POBox 733, Cardiff CF14 7ZY, Wales, Vol. 1, 2002,£12.95, ISBN 978–1903532041, Vol. 2, 2007, £13.99(sbk), ISBN 978–1902719191