Subject: baidarka Leaf-shaped and single Paddles - More musings
From: Samson family (Bill.Samson@tesco.net)
Date: Sun Mar 05 2000 - 06:48:33 EST
Hi,
I just whiled away a half hour with George Dyson's excellent book on my lap
and drew a few 5-bar gates.
The contemporary woodcuts, etchings, drawings, paintings and photographs in
the first part of George's book form a substantial (representative?) body of
evidence on historical practice in baidarkas. I realise, of course, that
this covers several centuries and that fashions change. However, the raw
data is intriguing:
There are 20 images where double-paddle blades are seen more or less
clearly.
Of these, there are 12 clearly showing leaf-shaped blades, 5 showing
broad-tipped blades, and 3 where it's hard to decide.
Double blades on the photographs are all broad-tipped, so the leaf-shaped
double-paddles must have more-or-less stopped being used by the time
photography came along. However, several leaf-shaped SINGLE paddle blades
are in evidence on the photos.
On the relative frequencies of double and single paddles, 15 images show
single paddles and 23 images show double paddles. Where they are visible,
the single paddle blades ALL seem to be leaf shaped.
IF these images form a representative sample, and the artists weren't
altogether incompetent, the paddles we are using today are not
representative of the full range of paddles used historically.
Bill
PS - Does anybody know why, in the earliest images, most baidarka paddlers
seem to be holding a feather duster?
-
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