Proas are various types of multi-hull outrigger sailboats of the Austronesian peoples. The terms were used for native Austronesian ships in European records during the Colonial era indiscriminately, and thus can confusingly refer to the double-ended single-outrigger boats of Oceania, the double-outrigger boats of Island Southeast Asia, and sometimes ships with no outriggers or sails at all.
In its most common usage, the term proa refers to the Pacific proas, which consist of two (usually) unequal-length parallel hulls. It is sailed so that one hull is kept to windward, and the other to leeward. It is double-ended, since it needs to "shunt" to reverse direction when tacking. It is most famously used for the sakman ships of the Chamorro people of the Northern Marianas, which were known as the "flying proas" for their remarkable speed.
In Island Southeast Asia, the term proa may also sometimes be used, but the terms perahu, prau, prahu, paraw and prow are more common. These differ from the Pacific proas in that they are not double-ended and have a trimaran configuration with two outriggers. These are widely used in the native ships of Indonesia, Malaysia, and the Philippines, and continue to be used today as traditional fishing, cargo, and transport vessels.
Proas are traditionally rigged with the crab claw or tanja sails. The modern proa exists in a wide variety of forms, from the traditional archetype still common in areas described, to high-technology interpretations specifically designed for breaking speed-sailing records.
Etymology The term "proa" originates from Early Modern English "prow" or "praw". It probably entered the English language via Dutch prauw and Portuguese parau, similar to Spanish proa, meaning "bow". It is likely ultimately derived from Malay perahu meaning "boat", from the Proto-Western-Malayo-Polynesian doublets *parahu and *padaw (the former derived from Proto-Malayo-Polynesian *paraqu), both meaning "sailboat". Its cognates in other Austronesian languages include Javanese prau, Sundanese parahu, Kadazan padau, Maranao padaw, Cebuano and Tagalog paráw, Ngadha barau, Kiribati baurua, Samoan folau, Hawaiian halau, and Māori wharau.
History
Catamarans and outrigger boats were very early innovations of the Austronesian peoples and were the first true ocean-going ships capable of crossing vast distances of water. This enabled the Austronesian peoples to rapidly spread from Taiwan and colonise the islands of both the Pacific and Indian oceans since at least 2200 BC. The first outriggers evolved from the more primitive double-hulled catamarans. There are two types of outrigger ships based on the number of outriggers: the single-outriggers (which include catamarans with unequal hulls) and the double-outriggers (sometimes called trimarans). Single-outriggers evolved first and are the dominant form of Austronesians ships in Oceania and Madagascar. They have largely been replaced by the more versatile double-outrigger ships in Island Southeast Asia. Double-outrigger forms, however, are absent entirely in Oceania.
Catamaran and outrigger technologies were introduced by Austronesian traders from Southeast Asia to the Dravidian-speaking peoples of Sri Lanka and Southern India as early as 1000 to 600 BC. This is still evident in the terms for "boat" in Tamil, Telugu, and Kannada (paṭavu, paḍava, and paḍahu, respectively), which are all cognates of Proto-Western-Malayo-Polynesian *padaw. Early contact by Austronesians with Arab sailors may have also influenced the development of the lateen sail in western ship traditions, derived from the more ancient Austronesian crab claw sail.
Many of these traditional vessels are now extinct. Either lost during the colonial period or supplanted in modern times by western boat designs or fitted with motor engines.
Historical descriptions of the proa
The Portuguese were the first Europeans to encounter the double-outrigger Southeast Asian ships, initially with derivative vessels from the Malabar Coast, which they called the parau. They applied the same name to similar ships in their colonies in Southeast Asia. Similarly, the Dutch encountered them when they colonised the islands of Indonesia, calling them prauw. This was rendered as "praw" by the British, later evolving to "proa". In French territories in the Pacific Islands, they were known by the more general term pirogue. Although technically restricted to outrigger sailing vessels, European sources often applied the term indiscriminately to any native ships of Southeast Asia.
The earliest written accounts of the single-outrigger Pacific proa (though not by name) were by the Venetian scholar Antonio Pigafetta, who was part of Ferdinand Magellan's 1519–1522 circumnavigation. They encountered the native sakman ships of the Chamorro people in the Islas de los Ladrones (Mariana Islands). Pigafetta describes the outrigger layout of the sakman, and ability to switch bow for stern, and also notes its speed and manoeuvrability, noting, "And although the ships were under full sail, they passed between them and the small boats (fastened astern), very adroitly in those small boats of theirs." Pigafetta likened the sakman to the Venetian fisolere, a narrow variety of gondola.
The accounts of Magellan's crew were the first to describe the Chamorro proas as "flying". The subsequent colonisation of the Micronesia and the Philippines provided further references to proas in Spanish records. They also described double-outrigger ships from the Philippines, like the account of the karakoa in Francisco Ignacio Alcina's Historia de las islas e indios de Bisayas (1668) which describes them as "sailing like birds."
During his 1740–1744 circumnavigation, Lord Anson applied the term proa to the double-ended Micronesian single-outrigger ships. His fleet captured one in 1742, and Lt. Peircy Brett of made a detailed sketch of the proa. Rev. Richard Walter, chaplain of Centurion, estimated the speed of the proa at . Although aware of earlier Spanish accounts of the boats of the Spanish East Indies, Anson's account was the first detailed description of a Pacific proa to the English-speaking world. In the subsequent voyages of James Cook in Polynesia, he referred to the similar native single-outrigger canoes there as "proes", differentiating them from the double-hulled catamarans which he called "pahee" (Tahitian pahi).
These accounts fascinated both the British and American public, ushering in a period of interest in the design by sports sailors. Working from the drawings and descriptions of explorers, western builders often took liberties with the traditional designs, merging their interpretation of native designs with Western boat building methods. Thus this Western "proa" often diverged radically from the traditional "proa" to the point that the only shared feature was the windward/leeward hull arrangement. The Proa darted like a shooting star Lord Byron, "The Island", 1823
Modern variations
In the Marshall Islands, where the craft were traditionally built, there has been a resurgence of interest in the proa. People hold annual kor-kor races in the lagoon at Majuro, along with events such as a children's riwut race. The kor-kors are built in traditional style out of traditional materials, though the sails are made with modern materials (often inexpensive polyethylene tarpaulins, commonly known as polytarp).
A loose group of individuals from all over the world has formed from those interested in the proa, including people with a historical perspective and those with a scientific and engineering perspective. Many such individuals are members of the Amateur Yacht Research Society.
Early Western proas
In the late 19th century and early 20th century, many in Europe and America became interested in the proa. Western boat builders such as R. M. Munroe and Robert Barnwell Roosevelt (Theodore Roosevelt's uncle) reflected its influence. Into the 20th century, the proa was one of the fastest sailing craft that existed. The proa design is still the basis for many boats involved in speed sailing.
The first well-documented Western version of the proa was built in 1898 by Commodore Ralph Middleton Munroe of the Biscayne Bay Yacht Club. Yacht-design giant Nathanael Herreshoff, a friend of Munroe, may have also had an interest in the project. A small model of the Anson-Brett proa is collected at the Herreshoff Marine Museum in Rhode Island; its maker is uncertain.
Over the following years, Munroe built several more. They were all destroyed by the mid-1930s, when a severe hurricane levelled Munroe's bayside boatshop. At least two of his designs were documented in articles in The Rudder, as was one by Robert B. Roosevelt. Small proas may have been brought back to the United States in the late 19th century, but documentation is sparse. Munroe and Roosevelt appeared to be the first two builders to adapt the proa to Western building techniques.
Royal Mersey Yacht Club In 1860 a member of the Royal Mersey Yacht Club in England built a copy of a Micronesian proa. He used the traditional asymmetric hull, flat on the lee side, and a decked dugout ama (outrigger). While no quantitative record was made of its speed, it was noted that the proa would run at speeds that would bury the bows of any other vessel. It carried three times the ratio of sail area to immersed midships section than the fastest yachts in the club and yet drew only .
Munroe's 1898 proa
Since Munroe had no direct experience with proas, all he had to work with was the widely distributed and incorrect plan drawing from about 1742, made during Admiral Lord Anson's circumnavigation of the globe. This drawing had been circulated in the press, for example in William Alden's articles in Harper's Magazine. (These were reprinted in a small book called The Canoe and the Flying Proa.) This proa was one of several either captured or seen under sail when Anson stopped at Tinian during a Pacific crossing. Brett, the draughtsman of the plan, is thought by some to have misinterpreted one key element, showing the mast fixed vertically in the centre of the boat. This view as based on the fact that other Micronesian proa masts were raked end-to-end as the vessel shunted and the fact that a raked mast shifts the centre of effort of the sail which would influence helm balance. However, Brett's placing of the mast in a vertical position has found to be accurate when replicas of the "Anson" proa were built and sailed by the Marinas-based organisation 500 Sails that found that in many points of sail under many conditions the proa sailed well with the mast in a vertical position.500 Sails Executive Director and Chamorro Proa Builder Pete Perez 500 Sails also found that the mast could be raked to advantage in many situations and noted that the mast step depicted in the "Anson" drawing could be interpreted as depicting a rotational point rather than a rigid mast step that would not allow raking. 500 Sails canoes employ rotational mast steps that allow mast raking.
Munroe, however, was a talented boat designer who was able to work around any problems with the drawings. His adaptations can be seen in successive proas. Rather than the deep, asymmetric hull of a traditional proa, Munroe created flat-bottomed hulls (similar to the fisolera referred to by Pigafetta), with keels or centreboards for lateral resistance. His first iteration had an iron centre fin with a half-oval profile. Rather than the traditional crab-claw sail's spars which meet at the front, Munroe's sails used what could be described as a triangular lug sail or spritsail with a boom, similar to the modern lateen sail with a shorter upper spar.