Danes Build Baidarkas

Danish kayak builder and teacher Svend Ulstrup,  sent me some photos of the work he is doing in Denmark. Apparently, his students just finished building 48 baidarkas or iqyan.

One of Svend's innovations is to put hatches like miniature cockpit coamings on his boats.  He also has his students add sea socks which keep sand out of the boats and can double as backpacks.
Unlike most builders in the US, Svend uses all plant derived products products for building his kayaks, lashings are hemp or jute, sewing twine is cotton, boat skins are linen and sealant is linseed oil.  Although he seems to be adding some synthetic colorings these days.
For more info on Svend, see his website

Plywood, the other boat skin

One of my ongoing research areas is what to cover a skin on frame boat with other than industrial fabrics sealed with modern sealants.  Yes, there are animal skins, and I know that people have covered their boats with cow hides, but you see, we live in an industrial society and the imaginary scenario I am creating for myself is that the factories have shut down and one has to operate as boat builders of old did, that is, to find boat building materials in their immediate surroundings.
Perhaps we have to broaden our definition of skin on frame a bit and allow a boat where the skin is the main structural material and the frame is of secondary importance.  Enter the plywood boat.
In my case, not a boat exactly but a plywood pool punt.  The main idea was to not spend a lot of money.  The secondary idea was to provide a stable lounging platform for a pool in an environment that is too cold for swimming for most of the year.

Here is the punt under construction.  One sheet of plywood formed the bottom, another formed the sides.  Height of the sides was just a bit under 16 inches.  Early trials established that 16 inch sides were too high so I trimmed them down to 13. Perfect. The sheets of plywood are screwed to battens inside the punt for additional support.  Water proofing of the screw holes courtesy of 3M 5200. Water proofing of the seams was done with a layer of glass adhered by epoxy. 

Initial trials also established that the sides of the pool abraded the fiberglass that I sealed the seams with so I added some wooden bumpers at the corners and some skid rails at the bottom for dragging the punt in and out of the pool. Then a few coats of gray paint from a five gallon bucket that a friend was tossing away, or rather, giving away. And oh yes, we realize that the pool is greener than it should be. 

The same day we launched the new improved punt we also ran into a small futon and some quilts that a neighbor was discarding.  These are now lining the bottom of the punt.  Very comfortable and stable to boot for someone used to sitting in narrow kayaks.  Sometimes it is OK to trade speed for comfort.

Fire as an Alternative to TV

I don't want to make too much of the making of and sitting by campfires mainly because it is something that most people who go camping have probably experienced for themselves,and that sitting by a good camp fire is vastly superior to watching TV.  Still, it is something that needs to be said. And I have some theories about why a campfire is better than TV and I will share them with you.  Feel free to disagree.
First of all, the obvious - fire is entertaining in and of itself.  There is drama in a fire.  One knows the plot well enough but never the details.  Wood, at first reluctant to burn for a variety of reasons like wind, lack of kindling, moisture, etc. eventually is made to burn.  Then the fire burns, produces coals and maintenance of the fire becomes easy, one simply throws more wood on the fire and at some point becomes tired of the process and lets the fire die for lack of fuel or actively snuffs it out.  This is the plot of the entertainment known as fire. And there are many variations on it.
The primary reason I prefer fire over TV is that fire has no political or social agenda.  It does what it does. It burns according to various basic rules and thus is educational about the laws of thermodynamics.  Not that looking at fires is what inspired thermodynamicists to come up with their theories, but looking at fires does give one a sense of how fire works and that in itself may give rise to many useful metaphors.  TV on the other hand is almost entirely agenda driven.  Someone is selling you something constantly, obviously through commercials but also in the content that the commercials enable.  Implicit in all story telling is a viewpoint, a lesson, a moral.  Even if nothing obviously new is being communicated, the very fact that the TV portrays some activity is some kind of endorsement for it or a polemic against it.  If you don't agree with the lifestyle choices of the people portrayed on TV then TV watching is a chore.  So fire, much better.
Finally, sitting by a fire with other people is a social affair and as such, becomes a lab experiment in social dynamics.  For one thing, the progress of the fire needs to be managed and as someone once famously said, no two people can ever agree on the right way to poke a fire.  If more than one person wants to manage the fire, a struggle invariably ensues, covertly or overtly.  Words will be said about the management of the fire and a winner in the struggle will emerge.
Enough for now, I have found that the internet has lots of campfire pictures.  I will comment on some of them in future posts since the pictures raise specific points such as preferred ways to arrange the logs, what to wear to a campfire, safety issues around the campfire, what to talk about at a campfire, how to cook on a campfire and more.

Chagudax^

It used to be that the only way to get your memoir published was to be a famous person or an interesting writer or to have such an interesting life that someone else wanted to write your memoir for you, as told to style. The truth is that a lot of people have had interesting lives and it is too bad that more of them don't write memoirs, but then, what would we do with billions of memoirs.  Where would we store them all?  And if you think about it, a lot of the memoirs would be more or less similar or at least that is what people think.  And so, hardly anyone writes memoirs at least in statistically significant numbers and instead of there being a vast and repetitive glut of memoirs, there's a vast array of lives that have never been documented in print.
So it seems that Andrew Gronholdt had the sense that his life lived mostly in the Aleutians during a time when traditional Aleut culture was rapidly being overcome by the mainstream American culture might be worth putting down in writing.  Apparently, Gronholdt worked at his memoirs but but died without getting them published.  According to the book, Gronholdt's daugher, Sharon Gronholdt and her friend, Mike Livingston decided to edit Andrew's writings, lay out the book, add photos, many of them taken by Andrew and publish the book themselves though Blurb, a print on demand publisher.
So there it is.  Mike Livingston sent me a copy.  I have leafed through it, looked at the pictures and started reading it.
The title and the cover picture both made me think that the book was primarily about bent wood hat making.  But it isn't.  It's about Andrew Gronholdt's life just off the Alaska Peninsula in the north Pacific in the Shumagin Islands, the place where Vitus Bering discovered Alaska and sea otters and set off the chain reaction that led to the colonization of Alaska by the Russians.
The Russians sold Alaska to the Americans who then began to work on Americanizing the native population.  By the time that Andrew Gronholdt was born, the Americanization was just about complete and much or even most of the Aleut culture was disappearing.  Andrew Gronholdt, however, must have had a sense that the culture needed preserving or in the case of wooden hat making, reviving from the death it had suffered a few decades earlier.
The book is lavishly illustrated with photos as well as some of Andrew Gronholdt's sketches and working designs for various Aleut inventions, not only the hats but also bailing pumps, fox traps and other things that Andrew was interested in.
The book at a price of $109 a copy is probably not within everyone's budget, but if you are interested in Aleut or Alaskan history at the beginning of the twentieth century, you may want to talk your library into getting a copy. Or if you do have the $109 you can get a copy at Blurb.
By the way if you think your own life or the life of someone you know is worth documenting, co-editor Mike Livingston encourages readers to just do it and put together a book and publish it through Blurb or one of the other self-publishing houses.  We probably don't need everyone to write a memoir but a few more might give the humans of the future a bigger window into the past.

Why Are Sea Otters so Cute?

The sea otter post on my blog is the all-time most popular. No other post even comes close. I guess there are a lot of people out there who want to look at pictures of sea otters. Sea otters are probably the cutest animals there are, cuter than pandas even. 
What makes them so cute? I think that the key to sea otter cuteness is the fact that they look like cuddly baby animals even as full grown adults.  I think it's all that fur that makes them look so cuddly.  And they lay on their back and they stick their furry paws up in the air and the fur makes their eyes look like little buttons and that black furry nose, so cute.  Makes you want to just pick them up and squeeze them.

Whatever Happend to Do It Yourself?

Boat plans from Popular Mechanics Magazine

Whenever I am giving a kayak building demonstration somewhere in a public space, some guy in his sixties or seventies will come up and say, "Yeah, I remember building one of these in the Boy Scouts."  The point worth mentioning here is that it is never a forty or thirty year old or even a fifty year old that comes up and says, "Yeah, I remember building one of these in the Boy Scouts."  My statistical sample isn't very large, but it seems to me that sometime in the post-WWII era, people built stuff and then they stopped.

So what happened? 
I have some theories. 
One of the factors that encouraged the do it yourself movement was prosperity and the high cost of wages.  Since most things consumed in the US were made in the US rather than imported, manufactured goods were relatively expensive because of the cost of labor.  So if you made something yourself, you could save on the cost of labor. Also, since manufacturing was still a big part of the US economy, the skills to make things were still valued and encouraged.  Schools were still expected to turn out graduates that could enter a job market where manual skills were valued. 

Folding kayak built from Popular Mechanics plans

And there were magazines like Popular Mechanics and Mechanix Illustrated to cater to do-it-yourselfers with plans and instructions. It seems like the golden age of  home made projects.
The other factor working against home made boats is the invention of roto-molded boats. This process eliminates most of the human labor from the making of a boat.  Kayaks and canoes can be made in a mold.  A little clean-up and some trim is all that needs to be added to make a finished boat.  The cost of these boats is so low compared to making your own that the effort hardly seems justified from a cost perspective.
Still, various plywood boat kit manufacturers seem to be making a living turning out kits for home builders. But a kit is not the same thing as making something off a set of plans out of a magazine.  I suspect that kits are popular because the general level of confidence to make something by hand has declined considerably since the middle of the twentieth century. 

On the Evolution of Kayaks

There is a notion drifting around the skin on frame kayak world that skin on frame kayaks benefit from 4000 years or so of evolution.  The implication is that skin on frame kayaks were about as well adapted to their environment as could be.  Well, maybe.  But I want to express some contrary opinions on the topic. 
First of all, kayaks were designed and not evolved.  Evolution is imagined to proceed by random changes to a design which is then approved or rejected by the environment.  Kayaks are built by humans who by virtue of experience and ability to communicate with other kayak builders have some knowledge of what makes them work.  As a consequence, changes to kayak design are not random but rather, directed. So human designs can change rapidly and become optimized in a much shorter time than evolved designs. 
Secondly, evolution as imagined, only benefits current conditions.  That is, evolutionary fitness is potentially lost if conditions change.  If there was a major change in conditions, say 500 years ago, then both the 4000 year old and 1000 year old design would have to adapt, one design having to throw 3500 years of evolution on the junk pile and the other only 500 years of evolution. 
Actually, this is what happened.  All kayak designs were thrown on the junk pile when modern petroleum powered boats were developed.  Kayaks as a species went extinct in the arctic but mutated into recreational craft and migrated into industrial cultures to the south.

In addition, little is known about kayaks older than 400 years.  So whether they evolved in the sense of "improved" in the last 4000 years is strictly speculation.  I would imagine that kayaks of 3000 years ago were probably as good as kayaks 1000 years ago. I would think that one hundred to two hundred years would be sufficient to refine a design about as much as was possible.  After that, improvements would be minimal.
What did probably happen in the Arctic was that conditions changed periodically.  Since the kayak was a hunting craft its success had to be judged by its ability to bring its builder within range of prey.  If prey changed or hunting conditions changed old adaptations might have to be discarded and replaced by new designs. 
And the last big change to kayak designs happened roughly 400 years ago when European whalers showed up in the arctic, bringing with them steel tools and later, milled lumber.  Steel tools allowed a range of joinery in kayak frames that was previously inaccessible.

Iqyax^ (Baidarka) Flexibility Revisited

One more time now. Back to the topic of what makes baidarkas flexible and why one would make a baidarka flexible. This I hope to be a definitive treatment of the topic, by me anyway. 
I touched on this in a previous post prompted by a visit to the Phoebe Hearst Museum of Anthropology at the University of California in Berkeley. What I discovered on that visit were a bunch of modification to the Atkan Iqyax^ in the museum collection, apparently made to reduce the flexibility of its frame.
There are some accounts on the topic of flexibility that indicate that the Unangan builders tuned the flexibility of their iqyan to suit conditions.  High flex iqyan were built for rough water conditions and low flex iqyan were built for smooth water conditions.  The flex of any given iqyax^ couldn't be modified on the fly but as the frame in the Hearst museum indicates, flex of a flexible iqyax^ could be reduced by modifications to the frame when the skin was off.
On a related note, Father Veniaminov commissioned the building of an iqyax^ with bone shims in Unalaska roughly 200 years ago when there were still people who knew how to build such boats.  His informants told him that the shims increased the speed of the boats. When he tested the iqyax^ with the shims, he found that it was no faster than an iqyax^ lacking the shims. But even though the test was inconclusive, it may be that he tested the boat only in smooth water conditions where the shims would offer no advantage.  In addition, we do not know if his builders tuned the flex of the commissioned iqyax^ to take advantage of the shims.
So without further ado, on to the details of how to tune the flex of an iqyax. Let us start with a picture.

The picture shows two aspects of the iqyax^ frame.  The top frame is shown in roughly neutral position such as the iqyax^ would assume on flat water.  The bottom frame is shown in flexed position with the ends pushed up such as it might look at the bottom of a wave trough.  Not shown is the frame with the ends flexed down, a configuration the frame would assume when going over the crest of a wave.
The important thing to note is that the keelson is slightly curved in the relaxed position. Flexing the keelson more as in the bottom picture would move the tail fin and bow assembly closer together, closing their respective gaps between them and the deck end cross blocks. Likewise, if the ends of the frame flexed down, the keelson would straighten out and the tail fin and bow assembly would move away from the deck, increasing the size of the gaps.
The question for the builder is how to tune the flex.  Should the kayak in the neutral, unstressed position have gaps at the tail fin and bow assembly or should they be tight up against the deck cross blocks?  My guess is that for optimum flex, there should be about a half inch gap both at the tail fin and bow assembly in the neutral position.  This allows flexing of the keelson upward and downward.
If there is no gap in the neutral position and the ends of the keelson flex upward, the keelson would exert pressure on the ribs and flatten them, thus distorting the hull.  If the gap is there, the keelson ends can flex up and close the gaps without distorting the ribs. 
The parts of the frame are joined in such a fashion that the keelson, the bow assembly and the tail fin are all lashed or pegged together tightly so that they act as a single unit. That is, the parts of this assembly do not move with respect to one another.  The keelson is lashed to the ribs, however, the ribs are loosely set into their mortises so they can pivot forward or backward as the keelson flexes.  Also, the tail fin is slotted into the back of the rear cross block but is free to move forward or backward.  Likewise, the rear deck stringer is not lashed to the tail fin to allow it freedom to move forward and backward.
At the bow, the bow assembly joins the deck.  The deck plate joins up with the ends of the gunwales but like the tail fin, can move forward or backward, opening up a gap in the process.

 

The picture shows the gap between the end of the deck on the left and the bow plate on the right.  The deck stringer has been lashed to the bow assembly, a modification to limit the motion of the bow assembly away from the end of the deck.

The notch in the tail fin mates up with the tail cross block.  The lashings between the tail fin and the cross block are an add-on and limit the ability of the tail fin to move forward and backward.

 

This picture shows one of the two lashings that join the tail fin to the keelson.  This joint is quite rigid so that the tail fin would move with the keelson rather than sliding back and forth on the keelson.
So to recap, to build a flexible iqyax^ the key is to allow the tail fin and the bow assembly to move closer to or away from the ends of the deck as the keelson shortens as it is flexed or lengthens as it is straightened.
To allow internal movement of the frame also requires the cooperation of the skin.  If the ends of the kayak are to move in and out, the skin must have enough stretch to allow this motion.
Modern synthetic skins may or may not have enough stretch to allow motion of the frame.  Also painting the synthetic skin with a sealer that penetrates the skin tends to glue the skin to the frame, essentially preventing internal motion of the frame and cancelling any structural allowances for frame motion.

How Many Kayaks Are There?

I lifted this photo off facebook.  It shows a bunch of kayaks and canoes all rafted up together to set a Guiness Book world record.  The photo came with the following info:
"The largest raft of canoes and kayaks consisted of 1,902 boats and was achieved at the event "One Square Mile of Hope". The event was sponsored by the Central Adirondack Paddlers Society, and took place on Fourth Lake in Inlet, New York, USA!"
The photo got me to thinking, how many kayaks are there in the world right now?  Probably lots and lots, maybe even millions, thanks to the miracle of injecting plastic into a mold.  This is not intended to be a slam on plastic kayaks by the way.  Even home built skin on frame kayaks in the world right now must come close to the number of skin kayaks that existed at the peak of population in the Arctic. 
Aleut population at its maximum was estimated to be about 20,000.  Perhaps a third of that population was adult males each of whom supposedly had a kayak. So at its peak, there were perhaps 7000 kayaks in the Aleutians. 

What's Popular - More Stats

In a previous post I was musing on what makes certain posts more popular than others.  I looked at the stats that google provides to the blogger in more detail and found that my initial suspicion was correct.
The reason that the Iqyax^ and the Sea Otter post is popular is that it has pictures of cute sea otters.  "sea otter" is the search term that brings the most visitors to my blog. It beats the next nearest search term "frilled lizard" by about a factor of 20.  "Aleut paddle" as a search term in various combinations is about as popular as the frilled lizard.
Another interesting statistic is that traffic was down over the Easter weekend but picked right up again on Monday.  I'm not sure of this, but I suspect that a lot of people do their internet time wasting at work, that is, people who sit at a computer monitor at work. If you're working a cash register, stocking merchandise, driving a car or truck, busing tables or mowing a lawn or shoveling snow or pounding nails or pouring cement, then you probably don't visit my blog when you're at work.

Post Apocalyptic Boat Skin

I periodically visit my friend and neighbor Tim Anderson at the Control Tower of the former Alameda Naval Air Station where he both lives and works.  Most recently, I delivered some sawdust to him for use in his composting toilet and as is usually the case, Tim offers me something in return, in this case, a vinyl banner.  I am not exactly sure where these large sheets of plastic are used, but they have the look of something that hangs up in an exhibition hall at a trade show.  Once the trade show is over, the banners get tossed or at least recycled and that is how Tim got them.  And then I got one.  
So far, this is all very boring, but wait, the plot thickens. 
One of the challenges of skin boat building is to use opportunistically gotten materials to build them.  Old wood or even new wood that does not come from a lumber yard is fairly easy to come by.  So is string.  The only thing I typically have to buy and can't easily get in a pre-used form is the skin.  So enter Tim Anderson with the vinyl banners.  I haven't tried them yet as a skin boat cover but imagine that they will work, even if the are a little heavy. 
So this is the tie in with the post apocalyptic theme.  In a world where industrial manufacturing has collapsed
where does one get materials from?  If the manufacturing system has just collapsed, the most obvious way to get materials is to scavenge.  All the stuff that was manufactured will still be available, only not necessarily in stores.  One may have to re-purpose goods made for other applications.
And if you haven't been following the blog for long and you are wondering where the post apocalyptic theme intersects with skin boat building, let me explain.  Skin boat building is a technology developed in a pre-industrial environment.  No manufactured goods were available.  All materials had to be scavenged.  In the current state of our society, skin boats can and typically are constructed out of materials that are the output of an industrial manufacturing stream.  But occasionally, I try to build boats that could conceivably be built in an environment where the industrial manufacturing stream has ceased to flow.

I haven't tried the vinyl banners as a boat skin yet, but am currently using one to keep the UV off my skin boats.  I am also thinking of the vinyl as a potential yurt cover.  More on that later.

Iqyax^ (Baidarka) Research

I am currently working on the improved Bay Boat, that is, San Francisco Bay Boat.  The baidarka I had been paddling most frequently is about 20 years old, re-ribbed once and reskinned a number of times and a fairly close replica of an Atka baidarka.  This particular boat just got a paint job.  The old paint job consisted of a varnish base covered some time later by a color coat.  The color coat was peeling badly, probably because I never sanded the base coat before putting on the color coat.  The re-paint is done now.

 

The baidarka is on the left with its new coat of gray latex house paint.  I store my boats outside so the most critical job of the paint is to keep the UV rays from degrading the nylon skin.  Opaque paint does a good job of that and more cheaply than exterior varnish.  That's my King Islander to the right of the baidarka.

The only drawback of the old baidarka is its narrow width and fairly deep hull which makes it a challenge to keep upright.  It's actually not that bad once you get used to it, but it's not a boat that you can just sit in and relax.  When you're not moving, you need to brace or have the paddle out as an outrigger.  

So, enter a wider version of the Atka iqyax^.  The idea behind this boat is sufficient width to allow lounging without constant bracing but not enough width to make it slow, a boat suited for longer stays on the water, like a bay crossing, about a one hour affair.

Inside view of the hull.  Good width and flat rib profile to make the boat stable. 

And an outside view of the hull with the stringers temporarily taped and lashed in place.  Also note the open jawed bow, a configuration I have been playing with, mostly because this configuration makes it easier to align the keelson with the bow assembly.

Also the upturned nose of the other bow configuration is more prone to breaking because the grain runs across the upturned part instead of in line with it. 

What's Popular?

One of the things that the Google blogger software provides you with is statistics on how many hits the blog gets.  Aside from total page views, there is a ranking of pages in order of hits received.  This particular statistic has always struck me as inexplicable - why do people go to one page more than to another?  But I am starting to form some theories.  First a list of the three all-time highest hit getting postings that I have made. Ready?

 

Number one is The Iqyax^ and the Sea Otter with roughly 7000 hits. 

Number two is The Frilled Lizard Boat with roughly 1500 hits.

And number three is Aleut Bent Wood Hat making with roughly 1000 hits.
How to explain this? 
Here is my theory.
Until I posted about the sea otter, the frilled lizard page was the most popular.  The reason I think is that somewhere in grade school, kids learn about funny looking animals and encounter the frilled lizard.  So then they go on the internet and search for frilled lizard pictures for their school report and voila, they find my page.  Same goes for the sea otter page.  Sea otters are possibly the cutest animals ever and so any page with sea otters will get hits. Bent wood hat making has no cute animals in it, but this may also be a legitimate search topic in Alaska.
So what does this all mean? 
What it means is that cute animals drive up total hits but falsely inflate hit rates and give me a false sense of how much interest there is in skin boats. So if  I  throw in the occasional sea otter or baby goat in a future post, it will be to investigate whether my theory is correct, or maybe I will just be looking for an ego boost.

Alaska Gravy Spill and Sweet Potato that looks like a seal

I know there are blogs out there which handle the resemblance of one thing to another whether it be film stars or funny vegetables or kittens, but just for the sake of convenience, I chose two to display two of these things right here on this blog as a relief from the tyranny of the same thing all the time.
First, a gravy spill that looks like a map of Alaska. Well, sort of, but I think it got pretty close.  See for yourself.

Number two is a sweet potato that looks like a seal.  This one you have to admit is good.

The Education of the Self Taught Designer

A Rube Goldberg design.  The term "Rube Goldberg" has come to mean any overly complicated contraption.  I think Rube was drawing parodies of products produced in the gizmo enamored society that he lived in.

Someone once said that you can't design a thing that you've never built before.  Experience has taught me that this is true.  What that pronouncement means is that to design a thing, you know ahead of time how each design decision will affect the performance of the finished product.  The rub is that until you actually build a thing for the first time there is little chance that it will actually work.
You can of course go to a school where they teach you how to design stuff and you get the benefit of someone else telling you what works and what doesn't so you don't have to figure it out for yourself.
But as I recently observed with the business of designing kayak paddles,  there's nothing like building something that doesn't work to teach you why you should build things that work.  Building things that don't work draw the border on what is possible.  Stray outside that border and you get stuff that doesn't work.  Stay inside the border and you get stuff the works.
So mistakes and bad designs are important because they provide the designer with a better understanding why stuff that works works.  If everything worked then there wouldn't be a need for designers. Designers, good ones at least have a good mental map of the territory of what is possible and what isn't.  The more things the designer has actually built and failed at, the fewer bad designs he / she is likely to pass off on customers.

Paddle Design - Stability

In this post I want to focus on ways to design a paddle so it orients itself in the proper direction for paddling without a lot of effort on the part of the paddler. A paddle that requires a tight grip to keep it in control will sap the energy of the paddler and cause fatigue and diminished efficiency.
Not surprisingly, there is more than one way to make paddle orientation easier to control. I will examine three different ways all of which can be used in various combinations. I should also mention that the intended use of the paddle, whether it is meant for racing, cruising, surfing or rolling will have an impact on how it should best be held.
Most traditional paddles have oval or egg shaped looms with the longer dimension of the oval perpendicular to the face of the paddle blade. The oval shape makes it easier to keep the loom from twisting in the hand than a loom with a circular cross section.
A second way to keep the loom from twisting in the hands of the paddler is to hold the paddle at least partly by the root of the blade where it joins the loom. For instance, in a shouldered Greenland paddle, the index finger and the thumb circle the loom while the other fingers and the rest of the palm circle the root of the paddle blade. The flat part of the blade resting against the flat of the palm gives the paddle stability and keeps it from rotating in the hands of the paddler.
I thought at one time that it was only the Greenland paddles that were held this way, but there are some photos of Unangan (Aleut paddlers) that also show them holding their paddles so that at least part of their hand is on the root of the blade and part on the loom.
A third way to stabilize a paddle is to design it so that the paddle blade naturally wants to orient itself in the right direction when the paddler pulls on the loom. This trick only works for paddles that are asymmetrical, that is paddles that have a front face that is different from the back face. When you pull this kind of paddle through the water at some random angle, it will have one face that will naturally orient itself in the direction of travel while the other face orients itself away from the direction of travel. It is like a wind vane which if put sideways into the wind will turn its head into the wind and its tail out of the wind. Examples of this kind of paddle are the Unangan (Aleut) paddle and bent shaft paddles in which the face of the blade slightly trails the loom as the paddle is being pulled through the water.

In these two closeups of Unangan paddlers from the same boat, both paddlers are holding the paddles with the flat face toward the back.  The interesting thing with these paddles is that the weather vane effect would favor holding the paddles flat face toward the front but the shape of the paddle in the areas where paddlers held it also make the opposite orientation stable. The photo was no doubt posed and both paddlers are just holding the boat in position rather than paddling forward.  They may actually be paddling backward. So it is hard to tell whether this is the way they held their paddles when moving along, but regardless of what was happening when the picture was taken, it seems that the shape of the loom allows the paddle to be held in a stable manner regardless of orientation.
This also brings us to the question why so many commercial paddles have looms with round cross sections while traditional paddles almost without exception have looms with oval cross sections.  I suspect the reason is that is simply so much easier and cheaper to manufacture looms with round cross sections.

Paddle Design - Prologue

I've had two different prototype paddles kicking around for a while that I was not able to get to the point where I liked them.  What I typically do when I build new paddle designs is to overbuild them and then whittle away at them until they work to my satisfaction, or at least until their performance does not improve any more. Sometimes, it is just not possible to rescue a paddle design.  I have to walk away from some paddles and simply write them off as a learning experience. I generally have no idea how a new paddle will work until I actually try it out.  I would like to say that the more paddles I build, the better I get at predicting paddle performance, but I would be lying.  The only way I can tell what design will work is to actually build it and try it out. 

 

I should also mention that a paddle must be matched to the boat as well as the paddler to perform well.  A paddle is not a good paddle in the abstract.  A paddle is a good paddle only for a specific set of conditions.  In this case, I happened to have my King Island kayak readily available and that became the test platform.  The King Island kayak was fairly well suited to this particular paddle test because the King Island kayak's high deck calls for long paddles and the set of paddles I was testing were fairly long, 98 inches.  I had already modified both paddles based on previous tests. One paddle had started out at 102 inches long and I cut it down and the other had a loom that was way too fat for comfortable use and I had slimmed down the loom on it.  The thing about the fat loom was that it felt good in the shop, but out on the water in action, it was just too bulky.

Here's a shot of the inside of the King Island kayak. Note the high deck ridge.  The thing about a high deck is that it forces you to hold the paddle up higher which means that it has to be longer to reach the water.

And here is a shot of the two test paddles on the deck of the kayak.  The lower paddle was based on a paddle shown in an old illustration. The upper paddle is a breakdown version of a more conventional Unangan shape except for the loom.

Both paddles are versions of an Unangan (Aleut) design. The Unangan paddles are asymmetrical with the loom offset from the plane of the blades. 
And so I had my test paddles, test boat and test pond, San Francisco Bay.  Even though I had whittled away at both paddles and tried to improve their feel, I preferred the one piece paddle because it was lighter and seemed to move the boat with less effort.  The breakdown paddle felt heavy and more ponderous in the water. 
After the initial test I did a little more whittling and then took out both paddles again and this time I had my GPS with me.  The GPS gives me a speed readout which I can use to measure top speed for a boat or paddle and if I have two or more paddles, it gives me top speed for comparative effort.  Effort expended is pretty much a subjective measure but on a given outing, swapping paddles back and forth several times gives me a pretty good idea of comparative efficiency of two paddles.
And this is where the GPS comes in.  Although one paddle may feel better than another the one that feels worse may actually be giving me a better top speed. It may feel worse because it moves more water and makes me work harder.  But if I am simply cruising, comfortable feel of a paddle may be more important than top speed. Comfortable feel may also be an indication of better efficiency of one paddle over another. 
So to sum up, paddle design for me is a pragmatic exercise.  I have to test paddles on the water to tell whether they are any good and results are often surprising.  In a future blog, I will get more specific on factors that make for a good match between paddler, boat and paddle.

Yurt or Skin on Frame Portable Dwelling

I haven't done much boat building lately since I have been busy working on a yurt.  Though this blog is supposed to be all about skin on frame boats, I thought it would be OK to indulge in some related skin on frame construction, namely, the yurt or portable dwelling.
The idea of building a yurt came to me after last year's October camping trip.  We were pretty far south but at high elevation and so we encountered snow and cold nights at times.  We had an adequate tent and warm sleeping bags but the sun went down early each day and then stayed away for twelve hours so that once it got dark there was little to do but crawl into the bags and listen to books on our mp3 players.  Camp fires and eating are usually good camping entertainments, but most campsites have fire rings that keep the heat of the fire away from the camper and otherwise hamper what should be a good entertainment.  Likewise, cooking food when it is near freezing is possible but once the food is done, it gets cold in a hurry and then you have to clean up in the dark and cold.
So the idea of a tent that was big enough to stand up in and build a fire or set up a camp stove in and cook in and eat in, all in comfort and warmth wormed its way into my consciousness.  The idea of a tipi came to mind, but those require long poles and a lot of canvas and would add a lot of bulk to an already bulky camping load. So then I thought about yurts.  And as a little research showed, there were lots of articles on the topic on the internet. 
In addition, my neighbor, Tim Anderson had built a yurt and so I could use him as a technical adviser.  So off I went on the yurt adventure.  I quickly found out when doing the research that everyone builds yurts their own way and nobody seems to tell you much about general principles like how strong to make the walls or what the pitch of the roof should be, whether the thing will hold up to a snow load, heavy winds and so on.  And so I decided to build a prototype yurt that could sit behind the shop.  I would use it to work out the design details and once that was done, I would build a smaller more portable and lightweight yurt for camping.
So here goes with the photos.

 The target diameter of the yurt is 16 feet so I needed to construct 48 feet of wall.  Circumference of a circles is pi times diameter of the circle, remember?

Here's a closer up view of the wall with another semi-nomadic structure behind it.  Nomadic if movable by fork lift fits your definition of nomadic.  In any case, for the sake of convenience the wall of a yurt is usually constructed in sections so that each section is of a size that is easy to lift and not too wide to transport.

And here's a shot that tries to show the curvature of the lattice wall.  Hard to visualize this sort of thing until you actually build the wall.

Intersections of the wall slats are held together with clinched nails, that is nails whose tips are bent over and hammered down and buried in the wood.

Here's a view of the junction from the other side where the tip of the nail is buried in the slat.

And here is one section of the wall, all folded up into a 30 inch wide section.  When unfolded, this represents 24 feet of wall.

When the two sections of wall are joined as shown here (temporary joint made with clamps) the wall is complete.  And the 96 inch long slats at an angle make the wall 72 inches tall.

The other two ends of the two wall sections will get connected to a door frame, not yet built.  Note alternating colors of wood.  I had enough old redwood deck boards to make almost the whole wall but had to buy a few extra doug fir two by fours to top off the number.  The redwood was free and light.  The doug fir was about ten dollars total and stronger than the redwood but also heavier.  We will see how they hold up over time.
Stay tuned for door frame, roof and canvas cover yet to come.

Hot Springs Village Archaeological Site

Since we just got done looking at traditional Unangan beliefs I thought I would mention a website that features amulets from The Hot Springs Village archaeological site.   The site lets you rotate the pictures so you can view the amulets from all sides. If you're interested in carving your own, this is a great place to go for source material.
As the home page indicates, the source culture of the amulets is uncertain.  Apparently the place where they were found is right on the border of the Alutiiq and Unangan territories and so which culture made the amulets or whether more than one culture influence them is uncertain.  All the same, there they are, regardless of who made them.

Traditional Unangan (Aleut) Beliefs

Jeff Dickrell who teaches history at Unalaska High School in the Aleutians has been working on a history of the region.  The following material is an excerpt (with permission from Jeff) from his as yet unpublished book on the topic of traditional Unangan (Aleut) beliefs.

This carving was collected by archaeologist William Laughlin, probably near Umnak Island. .  It is possible that the groove was used to attach hair to the head of the figure.

As I read the list of beliefs, it occurred to me that beliefs and ritual or religious practices and charms and amulets were as much a part of paddling a small kayak on a large ocean as the more mundane kayaks and paddles themselves.  Obviously,  the paddler's craft and personal skill and strength did much to keep him alive on the ocean, but in spite of this, people still drowned or were blown into oblivion and so, the prudent paddler sought out help from the supernatural realm to augment what help there was from the natural realm.
So, without further ado, here is the excerpt from Jeff's book.  The excerpts are followed by a set of notes on the origins of various quotes which are followed by a bibliography.

Aleut Traditional Beliefs
(Jeff Dickrell, Author)
The superstitions of the Aleuts were innumerable. Every activity or undertaking and almost every step required its own and often elaborate signs and talismans[1].

Mixing Different Elements
Like all other cultures on earth, the Aleut people had an elaborate array of spiritual guidelines to assist them in thriving in a harsh environment. This, of course, extended to kayaks and their owners. There were things to do to assure success in hunting, things not to do to stay on the good side of nature, things to carry to bring luck but probably the most important guideline was to keep pure by never mixing different elements together.

Separating Environment and Gender
 There were two main elements that required separation, environment and gender.
This meant could not be mixed, nor could things from the sea and things from the land. For example, stones which came from the land and were placed in the kayak for ballast, had to be returned to the beach.

Never Throw Ballast Stones into the Sea
It is regarded as a sin to throw the ballast into the sea. The stones must be brought to land from where they were taken, otherwise the boatman, it is believed, will be drowned. Even when the load of the skin-boat becomes too heavy from the returns of fishing or hunting, the stones have to be brought to the shore.[2]

Clean Feet Before Entering Kayak
This meant that when a kayaker was leaving the beach he had to make sure he wasn’t inadvertently bringing grass, sticks or any vestige of the islands.  Often washing the bottoms of the feet was part of the preparation ritual. In 1909, Arseniy Kryukov of Umnak, told Jochelson that sea otters would not be afraid of a hunter who, in the early morning before he went hunting, rubbed himself with seaweed or shellfish, or at least walked the shore.[3] This would allow the hunter to blur the line between the sea and land.

Keep Anything Female Away from Hunter and Kayak
Just as important as keeping the land and sea separate, was keeping anything remotely female away from the hunter and his boat. This means physical things, like hair, which, if sewn into the seams (sometimes intentionally) of a boat’s skin or his kamleika, would cause him to have bad luck in hunting. It was said that if a bit of woman’s juju remained on a hunter, a sea lion would bite out the offending piece, and perhaps a chunk of the paddler as well.[4] Merck noted the same was true if a man’s hunting gear was in the vicinity of a childbirth.[5]

Men Sew the Last Seam of the Kayak
One counter to this, since women sewed the skin of the kayak, was for the man to sew the last seam after the skin was pulled on the frame. This seam, just behind the cockpit, is very noticeable when looking at museum specimens. All the other seams are beautifully done, flawless in their lines, tufts of wool or feathers sewn into them and then ‘man’s’ seam, sloppy, wandering and obvious.

Women Are Very Powerful
  A woman’s sexual organs were so powerful that it was forbidden for females to even step over a kayak, exposing the boat to the negative powers. A woman who experienced her first menstruation was so powerful that she was quarantined so that she would not inadvertently contaminate anything. Interestingly, such an isolated girl could relieve seasickness by warming the patient’s food in her hands.[6] Subsequent to the first menstruation, women were considered unclean during their periods, and were to be avoided, especially sexually.

Abstinence Before Major Undertaking
Having sex with a woman was considered taboo before a major undertaking, “otherwise frightful misfortunes and a cruel death befell the transgressor.”[7] That is, unless you were going sea otter hunting,

Only the sea-otter hunter was not subject to such penalties, but he had no luck in the event. Even when surrounded by sea otters he could not kill a single one. The sea otters, as it were, mocked him. Cavorting around his baidarka, they would tease him and splash him with water but they would not let him hit them with a [cast]. The sea otters do exactly the same to him whose wife, during his absence, does not remain faithful or whose sister, before her marriage, does not preserve her virginity.[8]

Share with Your Kayak
If a man did have sex the night before he was to paddle, there was a very important ritual that had to be performed the next morning.  An important obligation of the hunter was sharing his sexual life with his kayak. After having slept with his wife or other female the male hunter was obliged to "rub" his kayak the next day. Failure to share the experience resulted in damage to the kayak and failure of the man to return to shore.[9]

The Little Thing She Gave Me
There was a way to have your cake and eat it too, that is have sex the night before a sea otter hunt and still be successful. In 1909, Isidor Solovyov told Jochelson about a hunting trip, the night before which he had had a woman, “as his wife”. But the next day, while hunting, he killed six otters. The difference, “the little thing she gave me”, was an amulet of some kind.[10]

Powerful Amulet
Amulets or talismans were carried or worn by the individual. They could be crafted, or something rare from nature, a stone or piece of animal or the most powerful, something from an esteemed elder or better yet, a deceased strongman. They could be something made, given or found, something shown or something hidden. Many of the things had ying and yang characteristics, if great powers were derived from the amulet, it may reduce one’s lifespan.

Mysterious Belt Knot
According to Veniaminov, the most common was “a belt, plaited of sinew or grass, spoken over [with an incantation] and with mysterious knots”.[11] According to Laughlin, one of the most powerful was, “was the caul in which a person had been born: this was carefully dried and, important, kept dry”.[12] Khlebnikov stated in 1823 that, “Pieces of hematite were used as amulets under the name of a’xsix’. They were worn by every hunter, and are said to have the power of attracting sea-mammals particularly whales and sea-otters”.[13]

Cagax̂
Khlebnikov compiled quite a list of cagax’ used by the Aleuts. Some of these were put on fishing nets, carried while fox hunting or tied to a fishing pole. Herbs were tied to fishing hooks, and incantations spoken over them. [14]

Bird Feathers
Feathers or wings of birds such as the Albatross, Rosy Finch or the beaks of a raven were carried or attached to spear points.

Falcon Feathers
They believe the feathers of falcons have special attraction for the otters. Whoever has these feathers attached to the outside of his boat is unusually fortunate on the sea otter hunt. But it happens very seldom that anyone has these feathers, because they fear killing the falcon, because of their taboos. Not only are the otters supposed to be without fear of boats, which are adorned with such feathers, but they are actually supposed to be attracted to that boat.[15]
The power of the falcon’s feathers was evident when Vitus Bering first encountered Aleut’s in kayak off the Shumagin Islands. They were approached by two men in single boats, one of whom raised a staff with two falcon’s wings tied on the end. With a laugh he threw the staff into the water towards the Russian ship.

Chimkiix
A stone found on the beach called, chimkiix, was “exceedingly rare and therefore very highly prized”.[16] It was shaped like a turnip or sea urchin, and was hollow and smooth on the outside. There were two color patterns, white with yellow stripes (considered the male) and red with white stripes (female). Stones found inside sea lion stomachs were kept as used as talismans.[17]

Amber
Amber, which is naturally found on just a few islands, was highly prized. On Umnak Island, it was collected in a unique way.  The method of procuring it was as follows: on massed baidarkas, they approached the very wall of the cliff, and by use of long poles dislodged the amber from above, letting it fall onto sea otter skins, spread over the baidarkas, fur-side up.[18]
This source of amber was highly desired and was fiercely guarded by the local Aleuts and trespassers were killed.[19]

Sea Otter Rituals
As sea otter hunting became the most important economic activity, it developed many rituals. Because sea otters were considered transformed humans, they were attracted to things humans liked so, “they made every effort to decorate their baidarkas, their kamleikas, and spears as finely as possible, supposing the sea otter, loving women’s handiwork, would come of his own accord to the hunter who is a dandy”.[20]

Sea Otter Amulets
In addition to looking good, sea otter hunters must be pure, disciplined and shun women. One of the most common elements of the sea otter hunt was a small, four-inch or so, carved figure of a sea otter on its back, hands to its face. These carvings of bone or ivory are placed inside kayaks, on the deck or carried by the hunter himself. There are many samples in museums around the world.

Asxinan
All sources agree that the most powerful talismans that could be used were pieces of the asxinan, the departed ones, sometimes called ‘the dried ones’ or as we know them, mummies. Entombed in caves and secreted away in nooks and rock overhangs or buried under house floors, the mummified bodies of deceased Aleuts were full of immense power.

It is from these corpses that the hunters sought especially to cut off a portion of the body, preferably a joint of a hand, or the small finger, or at least a fragment of clothing. The person who possessed this item was, indeed more fortunate in the hunt, but he almost always died prematurely and a horrible death, his body beginning to putrify while he was yet in his best years.[21]

After a prominent person had died, they would have been eviscerated, placed in the fetal position and wrapped in skins and placed in a protected place, sometimes even within the house. A bentwood bowl was placed underneath to collect the dripping. This too was used as a talisman.
The fluid obtained from the tissues of a dead body was regarded as a most powerful charm. A man whose hands were anointed with such a fluid was able to fight everything and everyone, but this charm was harmful to its owner -his life was short.[22]

Part of the ritual process of gaining power from the supernatural was to have a secret spot to store the amulets away from contamination by women (especially menstruating women) or moisture.[23] These places must be accessed only stealthily, so that no one sees the hunter accessing it.

Audagadax (Sacred Sites)
          In addition to the hiding places, each village had its audagadax, or sacred sites which were, …some mound or an off-shore rock or some outstanding feature, on a cliff, which were strictly prohibited to all women and young men. Particularly prohibited was taking even a blade of grass or taking a pebble from there. If any young man, either out of audacity or curiosity, violated this restriction, such a person did not escape punishment.[24]

According to Veniaminov, these sites were used on occasion for the giving of offerings. Individuals (mature men only) would usually leave skins to receive luck in war or hunting. Other offerings were the feathers of rare birds for more general blessings of safe journeys or the calming of the wind.

The rite itself consisted in the following: the [person who] made the offering, having taken the indicated feathers, dipped each one in a pigment, mostly green or red, and threw them toward all four quarters. Each time when he threw a feather, just then he made his request to the invisible spirits, that is, asked for success either in war or in the hunt or for calming the wind, etc. Then he tossed a feather into the air, exclaiming, “nung aqasaxtxin”, that is, “Bring me or Give me”.[25]

Weather Ritual
In 1791, G. Sarychev took a kayak trip around Unalaska. When he got to the small village of Kashega, the weather turned bad. The storm lasted several days and the villagers took action.
The Aleutians becoming at length quite tired of bad weather, they one day collected themselves together, men women and children, and repaired to an open field, where having lighted a fire, and turned themselves towards the wind, they clapped their hands and screamed with all their might, quietly returning in the full expectation of a favorable change.[26]

Shaman Weather Ritual
Just to be sure, later in the evening a shaman and the toions beat a drum and danced in the barabara to change the weather. Merck observed a similar ritual. [27]

Russian Orthodox View of Aleut Shamans
The role of the Shaman in the Aleutian kayak culture is unclear. They existed, to be sure, but did they, “enjoy great respect,” as Netsvetov, the priest at Atka in the 1830’s recorded, or were they, “not held in great respect,” as Veniaminov, the priest in Unalaska at the same time”?[28] However, Veniaminov admitted that, “[Shamans] were asked for good luck in hunting, longevity, miraculous rescue from dangers at sea, the calming of storms and winds, etc”.[29] As the resident priest, it was in Veniaminov’s best interest to diminish the importance of the shamans.

This may have been why he also stated, “They have no temples or idols.”[30] In the same volume, he notes several examples of destructive idols which shamans placed in caves in central Aleutians.[31] Shelikoff noted that while the Aleuts had no concept of an Omnipotent God, they had belief in a spiritual world.

They have no conception of Divinity, although they say that there are two beings in the world or two Spirits, the one good the other evil. However they have no images of them, nor do they worship them, in other words they have no idols. All they say to describe the two spirits is to say that the good one taught them how to make baidaras and the evil one how to damage and break them.[32]

Kaathaagaathagh (Deity Figure)
The idea Aleuts didn’t have some sort of idols was dispelled by archaeologist William Laughlin working on Umnak island from the 1930’s-1970’s. There he found a carved ivory figure about six inches tall called a, kaathaagaathagh, which was identified by Afenogin Ermeloff in 1948[33].
According to Ermeloff, these were deity figures which were suspended from the ceiling of a house and that, “the hunter spoke to the image before venturing out on the ocean and the image spoke back with useful information about weather and the hunt”. The oldest of these figures is 4000 years old. More were found dating up to the Russian period.

Sin of Pagan Ancestors ~ Visiting the Dry One
Another Russian priest, Laverenty Salamatov who was in Atka  in the 1860’s, had trouble with the old ways.[34] In the summer of 1862 thirteen men from neighboring Amlia were drowned while hunting around Tanaga Island. They requested a requiem mass form the priest.  With my sexton, Aksenov, I went to Amlia……I was met by  weeping and wailing inhabitants who were mourning the loss of their brothers, children, husbands and other relatives. What was I to do? All came to me for consolation and I wept with them and consoled them with the words of the Holy Scripture and examples from the lives of certain saints…

But there was a problem. The priest found out that the men, who had been fox trapping on Kanaga Island, visited a renowned mummy cave there, and “were guilty of pagan superstition. I am recording this case as it was reported to me.”  Always being afraid of some kind of misfortune befalling them on their enterprises, some of those Aleuts (who were drowned in the sea) committed a sin of their pagan ancestors, namely, they went to visit the Dry One.

The pagan Aleuts paid the same homage to these mummies as to their idols and brought sacrifices to them. When anybody wished to learn about the success of a hunting expedition, he prepared himself with strict fasting, even keeping away from his wife for a definite time; then washed in the river and dressed in his best clothing, he went to the Dry One.

Approaching the cave of the mummy, he cried loudly, “I am coming to you to find out about so and so.” Show me what is to be” He proceeded fearfully to the cave, carrying with him a gift to the Dry One. (Sparkling black paint or ochre and a wing or a feather of a hawk was usually brought as a present) Devotedly he put the gift before the Dry One and left the cave for a while.
The Dry One was supposed to display objects, which, upon his return to the cave, the man observed as signs indicating his future.

Salamatov took the opportunity to preach sermons against paganism and false idol worship.
Finding seal’s hair in the mummy cave the Aleuts concluded that they would have a successful seal hunt before returning home to Atka. Consequently, from Tanaga Island they went to Ulak Island. The forecast of the Dry One did not materialize and they all became victims of the sea. Thus God punishes for the disobedience of his Commandment!

Another parishioner confessed to having consulted the Dried One, “out of curiosity and to find out whether the ancient pagan tradition was correct”. It was, and the priest, “laid a penitence on him and I told him not to believe, not even to listen to, the superstitions and to keep others from doing so.” This penitence lasted nine months.

Charm Seeker
One of the stories recorded by Jochelson in 1909, told by Isidor Solovyov, was called, “The Charm Seeker”. In it, a man, a “weakling”, went on a quest to obtain some “charms”. To do so he paddled to a village, hid his kayak and pretended to be a dead body washed ashore. When the people there brought him into their house, he created a distraction, then leapt up and grabbed the charms from a ceiling beam. He quickly paddled home. From then on, he stayed away from the villagers from whom he stole the amulets. But relying on the charms, he became a successful hunter. “Being paid attention to as a provider, he enjoyed catching sea animals, and his wife was happy too, and his child was happy.”[35]

[1] Veniaminov p. 222
[2] Jochelson p 55
[3] Narratives p399
[4] Laughlin in Cont. p.200
[5] Merck p.175
[6] Laughlin p104
[7] Veniaminov p. 225
For instance, a whale-hunter who violated this rule, before the whale he had wounded died, was immediately afflicted by violent nosebleeds, then swellings over his entire body. Ultimately, he lost his mind and died.
[8] Veniaminov p.225
[9] Laughlin in Cont. p. 200, Narratives p. 225, Old Time Stories p. 209
[10] Narratives p. 81
[11] Veniaminov p222
[12] Laughlin in cont. p. 179
[13] Jochelson p.77
[14] Veniaminov p. 223
This is contradicted by Khlebnikov 1823 p.77
[15] Merck p.171
[16] Veniaminov p.223
[17] Litke p.114
[18] Veniaminov p.75
[19] Veniaminov p.204
“As not everyone could or wanted to buy or exchange these for something, many attempted to get them by stealth. Consequently, the owners of these localities, by right of possession, guarded them and killed the trespassers.”
[20] Veniaminov p 224
[21] Veniaminov p223
[22] Jochelson p 77
[23] Jochelson p77
    Veniaminov p218
[24] Veniaminov p. 218
The punishment was, “without fail, a terrible savage disease or speedy death befell him. At the very least, he lost his sanity”
[25] Veniaminov p218
[26] Sarychev p. 67
[27] Merck p169
Young men and women engage in a vigil after sundown. They steal away from the hut with some coal and a few handfuls of straw. A short distance from the hut toward the sea they light a small fire. Around the fire they hop and dance very fast. And as they do they clear their throats with loud shouting as if to frighten the strong storms, or to resist them. And the great calm after the howling of the wind is attributed by them to the great effect of their strenuous activity.
[28] Veniaminov p. 219 and p.367
[29] Veniaminov p. 219
[30] Veniaminov p. 219
[31] Veniaminov p. 366
[32] Shelikoff p. 56
[33] Laughlin in Cont. p174
The ending of this Aleut word, aathaagh, is a diminutive, which implies it is a smaller version of a larger deity.
[34] Documents Relative to the History of Alaska (Vol. II) manuscripts at UAF Polar Collection
[35] Narratives p. 89

Veniaminov: Notes on the Islands of the Unalaska District
Jochelson: Archeology of the Aleutians (reprint) by Waldmar Jochelson
Narratives: Aleut Tales and Narratives by Bergsland and Dirks
Laughlin in Cont. : Bill Laughlin writing in “Contributions to kayak Studies”
Merck: Siberia and northwestern America, 1788-1792 : the journal of Carl Heinrich Merck
Laughlin: Survivors of the Bering Land Bridge
Khlebnikov 1823 Notes on Russian America
Litke : A Voyage around the world, 1826-1829
Sarychev : Gavriil Sarychev Account of a voyage of discovery to the north-east of Siberia, the
frozen ocean, and the north-east sea
Shelikoff: A Voyage to America, 1783-1786
The priest who admonishes his flock is from:
Documents Relative to the History of Alaska (Vol. II) manuscripts at UAF Polar Collection