Replica Of Old Wooden Boat To Navigate World

Butuan City, Philippines - The replica of a historical wooden boat which did not use a single nail and was built in a lashed lug technique believed to have been used by Malay settlers in their vast sea travel during pre-Hispanic times will be used once more to circumnavigate the world.

The boat, completed recently after 40 days of construction, will be transferred to Manila Bay on June 12, in time for the Philippines` 111th Independence Day Celebration.

The boat will finally sail on June 24, in time for the Araw ng Maynila celebration and the new moon.

Former transportation undersecretary Art Valdez said the team would attempt to set a record by traveling around the world using the ancient historical Filipino sailing vessel called Balanghai or Butuan Boat.

The first phase of the travel will consist of seven legs around Philippine waters namely Manila, Boracay, Mactan in Cebu, Cagayan de Oro, Zamboanga, General Santos, Davao City and Siluag in Tawi-Tawi before it begins to retrace the trading routes in Southeast Asia in 2010.

By 2011, Voyage Balanghay is expected to reach Micronesian nations and Madagascar as the boat continues to navigate the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans by 2012 and hopefully be back in the Philippines by 2013.

“The ancient Balanghai Boat is not only environment-friendly but we can also show to the world, the Filipinos and Butuanons` expertise in sea travel even before the Spaniards and Europeans came to our shores,” Valdez said.

Valdez, who served as RP`s Mt. Everest Team Captain, will head the team with experienced master sailors.

The same group of men and women who had set the record as the first Filipinos to have reached the summit of Mount Everest in 2006, and the first Filipino women, who carried out the same feat a year later will make up the Balanghai circumnavigation team.

Aside from Valdez, the team is composed of Leo Oracion, Edwin “Pastor” Emata, Noelle Wenceslao, Carina Dayondon, Janet Belarmino-Sardena, Dr. Ted Esguerra, Fred Jamili, and Dr. Voltaire Velasco.

The new Balanghai Boat was created using ancient construction methods. The shell is made of Dungon, which is the wood used by Philippine ancestors, while the planks are connected with pegs. To make the Balanghai water-tight, the builders used natural resin from mangrove trees.

The replica of the ancient boat is measured 15 meters long and 3 meters wide and is now placed near Folk Arts Theater in Pasay City.

Last April 24, 2009, Kaya Ng Pinoy Foundation, together with Mt. Everest Expedition-Philippine team, spearheaded the ceremonial laying of the keel at the CCP grounds with Former President Fidel Ramos who served as the keynote speaker.

The event signals the start of the construction with the age-old tradition in boat building that is expected bring good fortune and safe voyage.

In late 1976, Butuan Boat 1 was discovered near the east bank of the Libertad River in Barangay Libertad here. A year later, in 1977, Butuan Boat 2 was found about a kilometer southwest of the first site and nine years later, Butuan Boat 5 was discovered.

The National Museum excavated and conserved the three boats, despite the furious commercial digging activities for imported ceramics in the mid-1970s and later for processed gold.

The radiocarbon (C-14) tests on the three boats (numbered according to the order of their discovery) gave the following results: Boat 1 is 1630+-110 years 320 AD, Boat 2 is 700+-790 years 1250 AD and Boat 5 is 900+-70 years 900AD.

A flotilla of prehistoric wooden boats are known to exist only in the Philippines. Ben Serrano

Source: http://www.philstar.com (8 June 2009)
Photo: http://www.nasipitsite.com

Share

Write your comment !