Somalis' Sewn-boats

[Darood]

@Al-Ma'mun @The alchemist @Hargeysa @Som @Clllam


Any future posts I do will be more on the smaller fishing boats and accounts, models and images I've seen on those as well as descriptions of them and their size and I'll also try to get into medieval and classical accounts of sailing and fishing along our coast. If I never get around to doing so on this thread I'll inshallah blog about it or make a YouTube video someday. For now I hope exploring this part of our heritage was interesting.

I think it’s a great idea to compile all the documents in one place.

It’s really interesting to read about Somali seafaring history. These threads are helpful but it can become confusing with the back and forth. As an observer you’re not always sure of person’s true intentions with the selection and presentation of source material.

 

[Shangani]

Thanks! Could you link me the sources for each of these? Wanna download and keep them on hand. I'm still working on my posts sometimes. I keep getting sidetracked. Will post them soon. There's a lot of info to share. But this is good stuff. That adds Massawa to the list. So from the sources I've found Somali dhows went to all the following locations in the last 200 or so years:

• Aden
• Mocha
• al-Mukalla
• Muscat
• Dubai
• Sharjah
• Jeddah
• Bombay
• Mombasa
• Zanzibar
• Mauritius

And now that adds Massawa. So they went everywhere from India to the Red Sea to the Persian Gulf to the Swahili coast. Quite a range.

My grandfather Allah yarxim owned a day in Xamar and would go from Zanizbar to Kuwait the last journey they took was in the late sixties.

 

[𐒁𐒚𐒒𐒂𐒘𐒂𐒗 𐒎𐒚𐒗𐒗𐒒]

Beden Boat being constructed in Caluula, Bari.

 

[Hamzza]

@Shimbiris I don't know if you have seen this but it looks interesting. Trading Dhows of the various ports in the Northeast of Somalia and their respective owners.

 

[Internet Nomad]

For a people who were able to create such marvellous ships and I think the only ones in sub-Sahara Africa to make them this big.

Why don’t we have more written about the process of building these vessels? We have photos of them being indigenously made all over Somalia so people can’t claim it was made by carabs.

These images highlight a rich maritime heritage that is lost to time.

Small​

Medium​

Large​

 

[Internet Nomad]

Im sure the process of making these are still known but not favoured due to mechanical and foreign made ships being easier to procure.

 

[Emir of Zayla]

 

[Internet Nomad]

View attachment 334003View attachment 334004View attachment 334005

It’s hard to believe that somali coasts with such rich economic activity doesn’t have any greater architectural features like massive ports and such for us to find.

I’m a heavy believer that much of it is underwater.

 

[Emir of Zayla]

 

[Internet Nomad]

View attachment 334006
View attachment 334007
View attachment 334008

That first image shows the 3 types of ships I highlighted in my first post the small, medium and large.

We could’ve had naval wars with ships that big.

I still wonder why we just made a small gold mine on the tip of Madagascar and never tried to take over the whole thing?

Somalis love money and have a superiority complex.

 

[Internet Nomad]

The port of Berbera was a larger exporter to Jeddah than the closer Massawa port. Just highlighting the significance of the Berbera port.

 

[Idilinaa]

That first image shows the 3 types of ships I highlighted in my first post the small, medium and large.

We could’ve had naval wars with ships that big.

I still wonder why we just made a small gold mine on the tip of Madagascar and never tried to take over the whole thing?

Somalis love money and have a superiority complex.

We love money and have superiority complex? what the hell looool

Such a golden thread by @Shimbiris on this topic.
Thread 'Somalis' Sewn-boats'
https://www.somalispot.com/threads/somalis-sewn-boats.105831/

If you know there is already a thread on this you should post those photos there ,instead of making a seperate one.

I don't know what spamming photos without context or information behind them at random will hope to prove.
But it's sounds to me that you guys are trying to ridicule it and make it all seem like exaggeration.

It’s hard to believe that somali coasts with such rich economic activity doesn’t have any greater architectural features like massive ports and such for us to find.

I’m a heavy believer that much of it is underwater.

Not hard to believe at all , there is a long coastline what else do you expect?
Massive ports lmaao, Some were bigger important ports many were small. None of it's underwater, maybe you will find shipwrecks under there.

The commercial activity in the past was significant this is documented. You can take Majerteen coast for example. They owned a dozen large merchant fleets called ''Dooni'' in Somali that was capable of carrying large cargo spread out across different ports and earned lot of revenue from seaborn trade.

Fishing via for example beden which means fishing-boat in Somali was particularly lucrative

Before the civil war Somalia had the largest merchant fleet in the Muslim world and major developments were made to various ports by the previous government. A new port in Mogadishu, Merka and the Berbera port was expanded as well.

Pakistan Economist

In fact , the Republic of Somalia possesses the largest merchant fleet in the Muslim world . It consists of 12 Oil tankers ( ave- rage size 1300 tons ) 15 Bulk ore carriers ( average size 15000 tons ) and 207 other crafts with an average tonnage of 5000 to 10000.

 

[Internet Nomad]

We love money and have superiority complex? what the hell looool

I mean you laugh but you can never deny.

If you know there is already a thread on this you should post those photos there ,instead of making a seperate one.

I don't know what spamming photos without context or information behind them at random will hope to prove.
But it's seem like yall are trynna riducule it and make it all seem exaggerative.

Yeah that thread seemed more intellectual I didn’t wanna just spam random photos in it.

Before the civil war Somalia had the largest merchant fleet in the Muslim world and major developments were made to various ports by the previous government. A new port in Mogadishu, Merka and the Berbera port was expanded as well.

Damn we really could’ve conquered the entire Indian Ocean trade.

 

[Idilinaa]

I mean you laugh but you can never deny.

I am laughing because what you said is ridiculous. It seems like they moved the post to the other thread in question

Yeah that thread seemed more intellectual I didn’t wanna just spam random photos in it.

I mean exporting and importing tons of cargo gotta mean these main ports were big to the point they are out competing nearer ports.
View attachment 334039
View attachment 334040

Damn we really could’ve conquered the entire Indian Ocean trade.

Berbera was particularly at a center of economic important it used to have an annual fair as well. Where traders from all over used to gather together . During this trading season, the port town swelled up to 70,000 people, and upwards of 6,000 camels laden with goods arrived from the interior within a single day.

A French visitor Charles-Xavier Rochet d'Héricourt estimated that the total exports of the season to be around thirteen times greater than that of Massawa

A newspaper ad on it.

 

[Idilinaa]

From an old picture catalogue book of Somalia featuring quotes next to vintage photos from late 1800 and late 1900s.

This one features the ''Sailor Poet''

Some more on this i read in another poetry collection book:

 

[therandomone]

We lost so much, no one in Somalia knows how to build these. We need start reverse engineer them and build replicas in the future

 

[Idilinaa]

We lost so much, no one in Somalia knows how to build these. We need start reverse engineer them and build replicas in the future

They still build traditional wooden boats in Puntland coast from what i've read.

 

[therandomone]

They still build traditional wooden boats in Puntland coast from what i've read.

The big ones?

 

[Idilinaa]

The big ones?

Yeah and Shimbiris shared a few of the modern ones on the first page.

I've even seen many Somali Sambuks/Dhows in recent times though they're not really sailboats nowadays and are made to run on motors. Here is one off the coast of Mombasa:

Somali coast.

 

[therandomone]

Yeah and Shimbiris shared a few of the modern ones on the first page.

The picture looks old tho.