"Ndrua of the Fiji Islands"
Collection: Hawai'i State Foundation on Culture and the Arts.
This picture is available as a stock image. Phone: 808-935-3082

The Fijian ndrua (double canoe) was known in Tonga as the kalia, and in Samoa as the 'alia. Developed in the 17th or 18th centuries, these were the swiftest sailing vessels of Polynesia. Double-ended, these canoes were tacked by reversing the positions of the sail, spars, and steering sweeps from one end of the canoe to the other.

"It had a magnificent appearance with its immense sail of white mats; its velocity was almost inconceivable." (Wilkes, 1840).

"Up went the huge sail, down went the great steering oars, splashing into the sea, and away we shot like a racehorse. Owing to the great rate at which we were going, the sea was like a hissing cauldron on either side of our course, and the vessel, instead of having time to mount over the smaller waves, cut its way through them." (West, 1869).

A ndrua named Rusi i vanua (cursed is the land) was measured at 118 feet in length. Its deck was 50 feet by 24 feet, length of mast 68 feet, and length of yards 90 feet. A steering oar in the Suva Museum is 33 feet long.

Page 23, Voyagers