The discovery of the balangay boats in Buturan, Agusan del Norte in the late 1970s served as further testimony to the ingenuity of the early Filipino.
What were the balangays? These were the first wooden watercraft excavated in Southeast Asia. When first announced to the media in 1977, the find was described by the National Museum of the Philippines using Antonio Pigafetta’s early 16th-century Italian spelling “balanghai†for “barangayâ€, a term which has been adopted by the Philippine government as a name for the smallest of political units. This was perhaps in deference to the unique brand of unity evident among the builders of these boats.
There are nine existing balangays, three of which have been systematically excavated by National Museum archaeologist, with others still waterlogged in specific sites in Butuan Ciy. Keeping the remaining boats in situ has proven to be the best way to preserve them, while they await eventual excavation.
The first boat, now preserved and displayed in a site museum in Libertad, Butuan City, had a carbon-14 date of 320, while the second boat, which has been transferred to the Maritime Hall of the National Museum in Manila, was dated to 1250. The third boat remains in a conservation vat the at the Butuan Regional Museum, undergoing preservative measures.
The balangay was basically a plank boat put together by joining the carved-out planks edge to edge, using pins or dowels. The planks, which were made from a hardwood called doongon in the Philippines (Heritiera littoralis), were fastened together every 12 centimeters long, which were driven into holes on the edge of each plank. On the inner side of the boat the planks were provided, at regular intervals, with raised rectangular lugs, carved from the same plank, through which holes were bored diagonally from the sides to the surface.
Rib-like structures made of lengths of wood were then lashed against these lughs to proved a flexible bulkhead, to reinforce and literally sew the boat together. Cordage knows as cabo negro (Arenga pinnata) was used for the purpose. The hull, measuring about 15 meters long and 4 meters wide, was ordinally semicircular in cross-section and with no marked keel. Provided with huge outriggers, the boat was propelled either by a sail or by paddling. The boats were finely manufactured without any blueprints, using a technique still employed by the boatmakers of Sibutu Island in the southern Philippines.
There is no basic difference in the technology of boatbuilding seen in the first two dated balangays, suggesting the stability of this construction technique over the last 900 years. The third boat, which was recovered in 1986, likewise exhibits the same mode of construction. This is a style of boatbuilding which was once popular from Scandinavia to the South Pacific, from the 3rd century B.C. to the present time in a few remote islands.
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