The assembly of hulls in Southeast Asian shipbuilding traditions: from lashings to treenails

Abstract

This article describes the techniques used in Southeast Asian boats and ships to assemble planks and frames as observed over the past two millennia in archaeological and ethnographical contexts. Planks were first lashed with vegetal fibre and dowelled, with frames also lashed to planks. The sewing of the planks later gave way to treenails only, with frames still lashed to planks. In large ships, the lashings of planks to frames were finally also replaced by treenails, as could still be observed in Indonesia in the late 20th century.