Overview
The fleet of Thakombau sailed out this morning with not less than 200 warriors on board each canoe.
Rev. Walter Lawry, a missionary, 1847
The Fijian canoes referred to in the quote above were drua. Large and fast, some drua could reach speed of up to fifteen knots in a good wind. They were among the most finely crafted vessels in Fiji, identical in design to the Samoan ‘alia and the Tongan kalia.
Drua were built from planks and powered by huge triangular sails of pandanus matting. Either end could be the bow (front), so to change direction, the entire rig was shifted to the opposite end of the boat.
Inside a drua
Fijian drua could reach thirty-six metres in length, and had room for many passengers, as well as supplies and livestock. In some of the larger drua, a person could easily stand in the hold without their head touching the ceiling.
A European visitor to Fiji wrote of one drua that ‘a pig could be roasted whole in the open cooking place, and the food and water were easily stowed away for long voyages. On one occasion a canoe carried 12 head of cattle in her holds … and another carried on deck from Tailevu to Suva a cargo of bagged maize sufficient to load the Alarm ketch of 30 tons, and the Xerifa of 20 tons burden.’
The steering paddles on a drua were enormous. One was over ten metres long. Its blade was over four metres in length and around half a metre wide. In a strong wind, several people would operate one of these paddles.
Quote from Catalogue of the Fiji Museum by C Wall, cited in Canoes of Oceania, Vol. 1 by A.C. Haddon and James Hornell, published by Bishop Museum Special Publications, 1936–38.
Quote from The Friendly and Feejee Islands – A Missionary Visit to Various Stations in the South Seas, in the year 1847 by Rev. Walter Lawry, published by Charles Gilpin, 1850.