"A War Pahi or Cerimonial Va'a Ti'i of Tahiti"
Collection: Hawai'i State Foundation on Culture and the Arts.
This picture is available as a stock image. Phone: 808-935-3082

In 1774 Captain Cook witnessed 160 of these vessels accompanied by 170 smaller double-hulled sailing canoes carrying "not less than 7,760 men" to battle. Used for ceremonial purposes as well as war, such vessels took years to build. Hulls were of carved breadfruit planks built up over dugout keelpieces and assembled with sennit lashings.

Page 27, Voyagers