Curragh (boat type)

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1986: Fisherman in an outboard motor curragh returning to her port in Western Ireland
An aran-type curragh
A drawing from the 17th century shows a sailing curragh and, in the picture below, the size of these leather boats

A curragh , also called currach , more rarely curagh or curach , is a traditional Irish boat made of a light wooden frame that is covered with leather or canvas and tarred . It was originally covered with leather similar to the Umiaks of Greenland . The curragh were 4.80 to 5.5 m long, a little less than 1 m wide, and could also have a keel. They have long been used for fishing and angling on the west coast of Ireland, especially in the Aran Islands . According to a representation from the 17th century, the Curragh were transportable seaworthy vehicles of the "Wild Irish".

The "Navigatio"

In Chapter 4 of the Navigatio Sancti Brendani , the author describes how St. Brendan and his monks build a curragh for the planned sea voyage across the open sea to the "Isle of the Blessed". Exactly the material is described below: resin-impregnated, in oak bark tanned oxhides for the cover, ash for the frames and oak for gunwale , rudder , belt and Mast , all with ( sheep made impermeable to water) fat. Then a hull was constructed from longitudinal and transverse ribs connected with leather strips, the skins pulled over it and sewn together with flax fiber threads. Oars, mast, leather straps (for the shrouds and sheets ), leather sails, as well as reserve hides, woods and fat completed the equipment.

A similarly constructed boat is described in the mythical tales Immram Curaig Maíle Dúin (“The Voyage of the Boat of Máel Dúin”) and Immram Brain (“Bran Seafaring”).

In 1976 the British adventurer, historian and writer Tim Severin built an Old Irish leather curragh to repeat the Navigatio exactly according to these medieval plans and from the same materials. The length was 11 m and the width almost 3 m. With a few companions, he sailed the North Atlantic in two stages in the footsteps of Saint Brendan. While driving along the west coast of Ireland, he got to know two types of curragh: the Aran type with a straight tail (see picture above) and the Dingle type with a pointed tail that can be steered in both directions.

literature

  • Seán McGrail: Boats of the World from the stone age to medival times. Oxford University Press. Oxford 2001. ISBN 0199271860 .
  • Timothy Severin: A thousand years before Columbus. In the footsteps of the Irish seafaring monks. Hoffmann and Campe , Hamburg 1979, ISBN 3-455-08883-X .

Web links

Commons : Currachs  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Footnotes

  1. ^ Contemporary writing on the drawing from Magdalene College, Cambridge; illustrated in McGrail, Boats of the World, p. 183.
  2. ↑ Timothy Severin: A Thousand Years Before Columbus. In the footsteps of the Irish seafaring monks.
  3. ↑ Timothy Severin: A Thousand Years Before Columbus. In the footsteps of the Irish seafaring monks. P. 91.