A device used and some methods practised by Tamil mariners in the mid-19th century: notes of Harry Congreve, Madras Infantry, 1850

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Abstract

An article entitled ‘A brief notice of some contrivances practiced by the native mariners of the Coromandel coast, in navigating, sailing, and repairing vessels’ by a Madras-based British military engineer Harry Congreve is available in the Madras Journal of Literature and Science (1850). In this article, Congreve refers to ‘ra-ppalakai’ a miniature version of the device known as ‘kamãl’ and ‘al-ḳaśãbã’ (Arabic) and ‘tábua da Índia’ and ‘tavoleta náuticas’ (Portuguese), which was introduced by Arab mariners into southern India in the 9th‒10th centuries. Congreve qualifies the ra-p-palakai as ‘ingenious’, probably because of its smallness and simplicity in relation to the kamãl of the Arabs. Additionally, he briefly speaks of the methods employed by Tamil mariners of the Coromandel coast to measure the rate of sailing, assess the direction of the ocean-surface currents, evaluate sites suitable for docking a vessel and how the vessel was undocked. Except for the assessment of the direction of the surface currents using a moist ball of ash, the other methods seem to have been transmitted by European mariners who came to the Coromandel coast. Congreve’s article offers interesting peeks into some of the creative practices – although of rudimentary science – of the Tamil mariners in the 1840s.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)111-119
Number of pages9
JournalCurrent Science
Volume123
Issue number1
Publication statusPublished - 2022

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