Structural stitching
Introduction
Ancient shipbuilding techniques can be categorized as leather, log, stitched, lashed planks, lashed hull (and inverted lashed hull), first the shell and then the structure. While the “frame first” technique dominates the modern boat building industry, the ancients relied primarily on the other techniques to build their boats. In many cases, these techniques were very labor intensive and/or inefficient in their use of raw materials. Regardless of the differences in shipbuilding techniques, the vessels of the ancient world, particularly those that plied the waters of the Mediterranean Sea and the islands of Southeast Asia, were seaworthy vessels, capable of allowing people to engage in large-scale maritime trade.[1].
History
The first archaeological evidence comes from canoes excavated in peat bogs in Pesse, Holland, and dates back to around 8,000 years ago.[2] Navigation is found throughout the world,[3] and many of these techniques are still used today.[4].
Frame boats
leather boats
Leather boats dominated navigation in places where wood was scarce, including the Arctic and Sub-Arctic. They were made by stretching skin or leather over wooden or bone frames. These included kayaks and umiaks, coracles and currachs.
bark canoes
Bark canoes were made by stretching the bark of trees over wooden frames, and were used by Native Americans in North America.[5].
First early wooden boats
Rafts
Rafts "Balsa (boat)") were made in places where wood was available but not large enough to carve the canoes and could also be made from reeds. The first Egyptian boats" were papyrus rafts; wooden ones did not replace rafts until the period of Naqada II.[6].