The raft boat
Rafts and raft boats are widely used in warmer climates. This is due to the fact that they float partly under the water and as a result the sea is liable to break over the raft. Rafts therefore, fail to provide sufficient protection for human survival and in cold sea areas such as Northern Europe it is not surprising that they have not evolved in these areas on a big scale. However, rafts have been used on big rivers in Europe. (Johnstone, 1980, 9) The simplest rafts comprise of a few logs or bundles of reeds or inflated skins, joined together and paddled to a fishing ground. The sophisticated versions comprise of beams and logs assembled in a more intricate fashion. These are often equipped with sails and drop keels. In many parts of the world the raft probably had only slight local influence on the development of boats. Boats were much more likely to develop in a society building dugouts or one with the materials for skin boats than among raft users. However, Hornell (1970) and Needham (1971) have argued that the raft influenced the development of Chinese boats while others suggest that the raft made of a bundle of reeds may have played a part in the development of the boat in Ancient Egypt (Greenhill, 1976, 97). If these ascertains are true then the first boats were riverine. It would appear therefore that factors such as climate, geographical location and the intended function are all considered when constructing a boat. There is a good deal of evidence about one type of boat which was in use in one local area of Britain from the period of the middle of the second millennium B.C. to the middle of the first millennium B.C., during part of the North European Bronze Age. This evidence takes the form of four wooden boats, which have been excavated, from the area of the River Humber in the County of Humberside. Wright (1972, 6) has argued that these remains are the oldest of ancient plank-built boats to be found in Europe. The finds of the Ferriby boats illustrate that sophisticated wooden crafts were also in use in Britain at this early period of North European civilisation. The fourth boat of this grouping was excavated in 1974 and has been dated to the middle of the first millenium B.C. This find is known universally as the Brigg raft. The Ferriby boats each had a flat keel plank. They were smooth skinned and there appeared to be no developed ‘frames’*. Wright (1972) suggests that the remains were of boats built with massive oak planks that were edge-joined by sewing them together using yew or willow and ‘caulked’* with moss. Two of the Ferriby boats and the Brigg Raft have ‘cleats’* left standing on the surface of their massive planks through which passes transverse bars. In all four boats the planks were sewn together and the seams filled with moss. From the evidence retrieved it can be deduced that the Ferriby boats were the products of a highly organised group working with great skill and a readily available supply of timber. The boat building tradition they represent however, was strong and persistent for it continued in the Humber valley (Greenhill, 1976). It is unlikely that these boats were of the kind to make sea-voyages and it is more conceivable that the Ferriby boats were employed to travel across the Humber around the middle of the first millennium B.C.
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