Dictionary:

dhow

  (dou)

Any of various lateen-rigged sailing vessels, typically having a raised poop, a raked stem, and one or two masts, used along the coasts of the Indian Ocean.

[Perhaps of eastern African origin.]

Ahoy, me hearties! Chalk one up for the good guys as piratical sailing vessel meets US Navy destroyer:

"The U.S. Navy boarded an apparent pirate ship in the Indian Ocean and detained 26 men for questioning, the Navy said Sunday. The 16 Indians and 10 Somali men were aboard a traditional dhow that was chased and seized Saturday by the U.S. guided missile destroyer USS Winston S. Churchill..."

Link: ABC News: U.S. Navy Seizes Pirate Ship Off Somalia

Posted January 23, 2006.

See our Word Overheard blog to see interesting uses of strange words.

For more information on dhow, visit Britannica.com.

A term, probably of Swahili origin, referring to several types of sailing vessels (many now outfitted with motors) common to the Gulf Arab states.

Arabs refer to dhows by names specific to each type, determined principally by size and hull design. Four kinds of dhows account for most of these vessels. The sambuk (or sambook), perhaps the most widely represented, is a graceful craft with a tapered bow and a high, squared stern; it was often used for pearling, and today is used for fishing and commerce. A larger vessel, the boom, is still common in the Gulf. It ranges from 50 to 120 feet (15 - 35 m) in length, 15 to 30 (5 - 9 m) feet in width, and up to 400 tons (363 metric tons) displacement. Like early Arab ships it is double-ended (pointed at both ends) with a straight stem post. It is important in Gulf commerce. Now rare is another large ship, the baggala, formerly an important deep-sea vessel. Sometimes over 300 tons (272 metric tons) and with a crew of 150, it was built with a high, squared poop, reflecting the influence of sixteenth- and seventeenth-century Portuguese vessels. Like the sambuk and baggala, it has two masts. The jalboot, a single-masted vessel and much smaller (20 - 50 tons [18 - 45 metric tons]), formerly was widely used on the pearling banks of the Gulf. Its name and its features, notably an upright bow stem and transom stern, indicate its probable derivation from the British jolly boat. Other smaller craft, all single masted, occasionally found in Gulf or adjacent waters include the bedan, shuʿi, and zarook.

Dhows were well adapted to Gulf waters because of their shallow draft and maneuverability. Their la-teen sails, long stems, and sharp bows equipped them well for running before the monsoon winds of the Indian Ocean, toward India in summer and toward Africa in winter. Wood for planking and masts was imported from the Malabar Coast of India or from East Africa. Traditionally no nails were used; cord made from coconut husks was used to lash together the planks of the decks and gunwales. By the eighth century Arab fleets of such ships were part of a commercial maritime network not matched or superseded until the European circumnavigation of the globe. In the latter part of the eighteenth century, the Qawasim Emirate of the lower Gulf created a maritime empire that displaced earlier Omani dominance. Their power rested on the large fleets of dhows and the skill and ferocity of their crews. The attacks of these "pirates" on Anglo - Indian shipping brought Britain's naval intervention in the early nineteenth century and the eventual establishment of a trucial system under Britain's oversight. Until the 1930s hundreds of dhows made up the fleets that sailed over the pearling banks from June to September. Today a considerable number of commercial cargoes are carried in motorized dhows between Dubai, especially as a transshipment point, and Iran. Some dhows are used for recreational purposes. Traditionally the Gulf's most important manufacturing industry was the construction and outfitting of dhows. In the early twentieth century there were some 2,000 dhows in Bahrain alone, and 130 were built there yearly. Small numbers continue to be built in Bahrain and elsewhere in the Gulf, still with the planks of the hull formed into a shell and the ribs then fitted to them.

Bibliography

Kay, Shirley. Bahrain: Island Heritage. Dubai, United Arab Emirates: Motivate, 1989.

Vine, Peter. Pearls in Arabian Waters: The Heritage of Bahrain. London: Immel, 1986.

— MALCOLM C. PECK

A Dhow near Dar es Salaam, Tanzania.

A dhow is a traditional Arab sailing vessel with one or more lateen sails. It is primarily used along the coasts of the Arabian Peninsula, India, and East Africa. A larger dhow may have a crew of approximately thirty while smaller dhows have crews typically ranging around twelve.

1937 stamp of Aden depicting a dhow.

For celestial navigation, dhow sailors have traditionally used the kamal. This observation device determines latitude by finding the angle of the Pole Star above the horizon.

Up to the 1960s, dhows made commercial journeys between the Persian Gulf and East Africa using only sails as a means of propulsion. The freight was mostly dates and fish to East Africa and mangrove timber to the lands in the Persian Gulf. They sailed south with the monsoon in winter or early spring and back again to Arabia in late spring or early summer.

Present-day

A present-day dhow in the Indian Ocean

Dhow ferrying passengers near Inhambane, Mozambique.

The term "dhow" is also applied to small, traditionally-constructed vessels used for trade in the Red Sea and the Persian Gulf area and the Indian Ocean from Madagascar to the Gulf of Bengal. Such vessels typically weigh 300 to 500 tons, and have a long, thin hull design.

These dhows are often implicated in the drug trade and piracy ^{[citation needed]}.

Types of dhow

• Ghanjah - a large vessel with a curved stem and a sloping, ornately carved transom.
• Baghlah - the traditional deep-sea dhow
• Battil - featured long stems topped by large, club-shaped stem heads
• Badan - a smaller vessel requiring a shallow draught

See also

• Dhoni

External links

• http://www.archaeology.org/9705/abstracts/dhow.html
• http://www.sfusd.k12.ca.us/schwww/sch618/Ibn_Battuta/Ibn_Battuta_Trip_Four.html
• Dhows of Kuwait
• Dubai Dhow Cruise - TEN Travel
• Dhow cruise dinner in Dubai

Types of sailing vessels and rigs

Barca-longa · Barque · Barquentine · Bermuda rig · Bilander · Brig · Brigantine · Caravel · Carrack · Catamaran · Catboat · Clipper · Dutch Clipper · Cog · Corvette · Cutter · Dhow · Fifie · Fluyt · Fore & Aft Rig · Frigate · Full Rigged Ship · Gaff Rig · Galeas · Galiot · Galleon · Gunter Rig · Hermaphrodite Brig · Jackass-barque · Junk · Ketch · Longship · Lugger · Mersey Flat · Multihull · Nao · Norfolk Wherry · Pink · Pocket Cruiser · Polacca · Pram · Proa · Sailing hydrofoil · Schooner · Ship of the Line · Sloop · Smack · Snow · Square Rig · Tall Ship · Thames Sailing Barge · Trimaran · Vinta · Wherry · Windjammer · Windsurfer · Xebec · Yacht · Yawl

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