1 00:00:00,240 --> 00:00:05,730 My name is Morgan Breen and I am a doctoral student in history at Oriel College. 2 00:00:05,730 --> 00:00:11,640 But I am also a maritime archaeologist and I am excited by all things boats. 3 00:00:11,640 --> 00:00:15,810 If it floats, can hold weight and carries you from A to B over water. 4 00:00:15,810 --> 00:00:19,610 I'm there. My enthusiasm isn't always returned in kind. 5 00:00:19,610 --> 00:00:24,540 Though during the first term of my doctorate at a high table dinner, 6 00:00:24,540 --> 00:00:31,200 I finished explaining my new project about the role of native boats and the development of the British Empire. 7 00:00:31,200 --> 00:00:36,900 The older man next to me, it replied with the worst three words that I could have imagined. 8 00:00:36,900 --> 00:00:44,490 Boats are boring today, imagining myself standing in the main hall of the Pitt Rivers Museum. 9 00:00:44,490 --> 00:00:54,810 I can almost see his point. If you look up from the busy collection of wood and glass cases, you will see hanging from the middle balcony. 10 00:00:54,810 --> 00:01:02,910 A collection of watercraft from around the world. These boats are still frozen in space and time without their culture, 11 00:01:02,910 --> 00:01:08,280 their history or their watery context staring up at they're never meant to be seen. 12 00:01:08,280 --> 00:01:12,840 Underbellies makes me wonder if this is how I knew about boats. 13 00:01:12,840 --> 00:01:21,120 Would I find them boring too? But this absence of sensory information presents an opportunity to explore multiple perspectives, 14 00:01:21,120 --> 00:01:26,760 to think about why these boats might be important and how different people might come to appreciate them. 15 00:01:26,760 --> 00:01:34,050 I am picturing one vote from the collection in particular, and I invite you to stand in front of it or look at the pictures attached. 16 00:01:34,050 --> 00:01:37,980 I'm going to be telling you about the Core Amando Coast catamaran, 17 00:01:37,980 --> 00:01:46,080 which is a full sized example of a boat type from southeastern India used along the coast of the Bay of Bengal for centuries. 18 00:01:46,080 --> 00:01:52,890 Catamarans were originally developed as a fishing craft and vary greatly in appearance and size along the coast. 19 00:01:52,890 --> 00:01:57,030 This example is of the type used at Madras or modern Chennai. 20 00:01:57,030 --> 00:02:05,970 In the early 20th century, catamarans were constructed out of three shaped logs and lashed together using coconut fibre rope. 21 00:02:05,970 --> 00:02:15,360 The middle log would be longer than the two side logs and shaped to form a prow, which would help keep the boat stable while cutting through waves. 22 00:02:15,360 --> 00:02:20,190 During the British occupation of Madras in the 18th and 19th centuries, 23 00:02:20,190 --> 00:02:26,340 catamarans were also used to maintain communication between the town and ships anchored off shore. 24 00:02:26,340 --> 00:02:32,820 Catamaran men would carry correspondence, act as lifeguards recover, lost cargo and transport. 25 00:02:32,820 --> 00:02:37,200 Heavy or unwieldy objects such as chain or anchors. 26 00:02:37,200 --> 00:02:43,800 Catamarans that were used for fishing, such as the one here, were also equipped with a mast and sail. 27 00:02:43,800 --> 00:02:52,380 Although these elements are not on display when not sailed, catamarans are paddled by one or two men depending on the size of the boat. 28 00:02:52,380 --> 00:03:02,100 Looking at the boat as it hangs, try to imagine it in the environment for which it was built and perhaps used in before making its way to the rivers. 29 00:03:02,100 --> 00:03:07,800 Imagine the salty smell of the ocean and listen for the waves crashing on the beach. 30 00:03:07,800 --> 00:03:16,110 The conversation of busy people preparing to head out to sea to fish, or coming back in again to prepare and sell their catch. 31 00:03:16,110 --> 00:03:23,670 The Coromandel coastline at Chennai remains very shallow, almost two miles out to sea, 32 00:03:23,670 --> 00:03:31,560 and therefore is subjected to near constant waves that reach an average daily height of one and a half metres. 33 00:03:31,560 --> 00:03:39,540 That's five foot waves. At any given time, there are sharks in the water and multiple reported shark attacks. 34 00:03:39,540 --> 00:03:44,160 In the 19th century, Sydney would have been a concern for catamaran then. 35 00:03:44,160 --> 00:03:50,130 Catamarans are also very heavy, especially when saturated with water. 36 00:03:50,130 --> 00:03:59,910 The example before you weighs a whopping hundred and three kilograms or two hundred and twenty seven pounds instead of a dried out chunk of wood. 37 00:03:59,910 --> 00:04:08,670 Picture this craft being paddled through big crashing waves multiple times a day by just one or two men. 38 00:04:08,670 --> 00:04:19,620 Do you think you could do it? This catamaran is a monument to skill, environmental knowledge and ingenuity, even if it looks quite simple and stayed. 39 00:04:19,620 --> 00:04:28,290 At first glance. But where catamarans were used. Why and how are not the only reason that I find this boat to be important. 40 00:04:28,290 --> 00:04:37,080 While ostensibly on display as an example of a type, this particular catamaran also has a fascinating life story, 41 00:04:37,080 --> 00:04:43,530 especially for those interested in the breakdown of the colonial relationship between Britain and India. 42 00:04:43,530 --> 00:04:49,740 This catamaran was brought to Britain in 1924 by the Fisheries Department of the Madras 43 00:04:49,740 --> 00:04:55,650 presidency and originally displayed at the British Empire Exhibition at Wembley. 44 00:04:55,650 --> 00:04:59,810 The exhibition was meant to celebrate and strengthen the ties of. 45 00:04:59,810 --> 00:05:05,390 Or in the post-World War One period, it was extremely unpopular in India. 46 00:05:05,390 --> 00:05:15,530 However, as it coincided with a failure on the part of the British government to recognise the rights of Indian settlers in Kenya and a realisation 47 00:05:15,530 --> 00:05:25,340 amongst even the most dedicated proponents of imperial cooperation that the British professions of racial unity across the Empire were a farce. 48 00:05:25,340 --> 00:05:34,190 Indian commentators who attended the exhibition criticised the Indian display for primitive ising the technology of India, 49 00:05:34,190 --> 00:05:39,020 and this catamaran could easily have been one of the objects they had in mind. 50 00:05:39,020 --> 00:05:49,070 A Travel Guide to Madras, published just a few years earlier in 1919, classified the boats of the city as crude and antediluvian. 51 00:05:49,070 --> 00:05:53,780 The skill required to manoeuvre them, quote, akin to instinct. 52 00:05:53,780 --> 00:06:02,330 After the exhibition closed in 1924, the catamaran was donated to the Pitt Rivers to take its place in a watercraft 53 00:06:02,330 --> 00:06:08,360 collection that was being collated for the purpose of creating a notion of progress. 54 00:06:08,360 --> 00:06:17,870 Drawing lines between the ancient or basic designs of non European societies and the wonders of British nautical engineering to wrap up. 55 00:06:17,870 --> 00:06:21,650 Look at the catamaran. One more time. Think about all. 56 00:06:21,650 --> 00:06:27,650 Its display represents efforts to project a non-existent imperial unity. 57 00:06:27,650 --> 00:06:35,900 In the 1920s, the persistence of racist stereotypes about the skills and knowledge of non Europeans, 58 00:06:35,900 --> 00:06:45,800 a disregard for indigenous technologies and Eurocentric qualification schemes for determining what is primitive versus what is advanced, 59 00:06:45,800 --> 00:06:52,490 as opposed to what is useful. What is an effective solution to a difficult and dynamic environment? 60 00:06:52,490 --> 00:06:58,910 Our experience of the catamaran and of the watercraft collection as a whole, suspended above us, 61 00:06:58,910 --> 00:07:05,150 frozen in time and space is just a starting point for appreciating these objects. 62 00:07:05,150 --> 00:07:10,130 They not only have rich life histories of their own just waiting to be shared, 63 00:07:10,130 --> 00:07:15,980 but stand in as powerful representations of colonial relationships and attitudes towards 64 00:07:15,980 --> 00:07:21,950 non European technologies and skilled practitioners in the 19th and 20th centuries. 65 00:07:21,950 --> 00:07:29,300 Thank you for listening. If you're interested in learning more about the catamaran, its display and the British Empire exhibition, 66 00:07:29,300 --> 00:07:34,018 you can find my blog post on the topic on the Oxford and Empire Project Web site.