BALLOU'S PICTORIAL DRAWING-ROOM COMPANION, 1856
FLYING PROAS OF THE LADRONE ISLANDS.
To the mariner accustomed to European rigs, a fleet of these queer craft hurrying along shore affords a singular spectacle.
All the navigators who made known to us the existence of groups of islands in the Pacific, the Indian and other oceans, accompanied their narratives with descriptions of the canoes or other kinds of boats in use among the natives; and means are thus afforded for observing the various ways in which ingenuity is brought to bear on such matters.
Whether each nation or tribe made its own discoveries, and applied its own inventive skill, or whether one borrowed ideas from another and modified them according to circumstances, can now hardly be known; but it is probable that both causes led to the production of the object in view.
The proa we have delineated is used among the Ladrones and other eastern islands. In the account of Anson’s voyage, this proa is spoken of with marked commendation, "Whether we consider its aptitude to the particular navigation of these islands, or the uncommon simplicity and ingenuity of its fabric and contrivance, or the extraordinary velocity with which it moves, we shall find it worthy of our admiration, and meriting a place among the mechanical productions of the most civilized nations."
The proa seems to be constructed on a principle the very reverse of American vessels; for, while we make the head of the vessel different from the stern, and the two sides alike, the proa has the head and stern alike, but the two sides different.
There is one side of the vessel which is intended always to be kept to leeward, and this is flat, whereas the other side is rounded.
To prevent her oversetting, which is liable to happen from her narrowness of beam, and the straitness of her leeward side, there is a frame extending from her to windward, to the end of which is fastened a log, shaped like a small boat, and made hollow, The weight of the frame is intended to balance the proa, and the small boat, by its buoyancy, prevents the oversetting.
The body of the proa is made of two pieces joined endwise, and sewed together with bark -- there being no iron used about her; it is always about two inches thick at the bottom, and about one at the gunwale, the proa generally carries six or seven men, two of them placed in the head and stern to steer the vessel alternately with a paddle, according to the direction in which it is going; the other men being employed in baling out the water which she accidentally ships, or in setting and trimming the sail. The peculiar construction of these vessels arises out of the sort of navigation for which they are intended.
The Ladrones are a string of islands lying nearly north and south of each other, and the proas have scarcely to follow any other points of the compass than these two in maintaining intercourse between one island and another. Either end of the vessel may at pleasure make the head, and thus, by simply shifting the sail, it may go to and fro without ever "putting about" or turning round.
By the flatness of their lee side and small breadth, they are able to be much nearer the wind than other vessels, They have been known to progress, when a brisk tradewind was with them, at the rate of twenty miles an hour, and their amazing swiftness has earned for them the name of "flying proas."
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