Coracle

[5] Oval in shape and very similar to half a walnut shell, the coracle has a keel-less flat bottom to evenly spread the load across the structure and to reduce the required depth of water; often to only a few inches.

Teifi coracles are made from locally harvested wood: willow for the laths (body of the boat), hazel for the weave (Y bleth in Welsh.)

[citation needed] Designed for use in swiftly flowing streams, the coracle has been in use in the British Isles for millennia, having been noted by Julius Caesar[4] in his invasion of Britain in the mid first century BC, and used in his military campaigns in Spain.

Remains interpreted as a possible coracle were found in an Early Bronze Age grave at Barns Farm near Dalgety Bay, and others have been described, from Corbridge and from near North Ferriby.

[citation needed] A new tax was introduced in 1863 on the commercial capture of migratory fish in Wales; this led to a decline in the number of coracles.

He documented the tradition in his book British Coracles and the Curraghs of Ireland (The Society for Nautical Research, 1938) containing drawings, diagrams and construction details gleaned from regular makers.

[citation needed] In 1974, a Welsh coracle piloted by Bernard Thomas (c. 1923–2014) of Llechryd crossed the English Channel to France in 13+1⁄2 hours.

[12] The journey was undertaken to support a claim that Bull Boats of the Mandan Indians of North Dakota in the US could have been copied from coracles introduced by Prince Madog in the 12th century.

[16] The oldest instructions yet found for construction of a coracle are contained in precise directions on a four-thousand-year-old cuneiform tablet supposedly dictated by the Mesopotamian god Enki to Atra-Hasis on how to build a round "ark".

The framework [in Gaelic] is called crannghail, a word now used in Uist to signify a frail boat.The currachs in the River Spey were particularly similar to Welsh coracles.

Other related craft include: Indian coracles (Tamil: பரிசல் parisal; Kannada: ಹರಗೋಲು, ತೆಪ್ಪ, aragōlu, tep, 'crab') are commonly found on the rivers Kaveri and Tungabhadra in Southern India.

[22] Indian coracles are considered to have been in existence since prehistoric times,[22] and are a major tourist attraction at the Hogenakkal falls on the Kaveri river.

Once the bottom is structurally sound, the lowest points of the sides are defined by a circumferential band of three flat strips of bamboo woven into the existing lattice.

[26][28] Iraqi coracles, called quffa or kuphar (Arabic: قفة), have been used as ferries, lighters, fishing vessels, and water taxis on the Tigris and Euphrates rivers since at least the 9th century BC.

[32] Modern quffas are of similar size and construction as their ancient counterparts, with both being made from woven bundles of reeds or basketry waterproofed with bitumen.

However, thuyen thung were probably strongly developed during the French colonial period when the colonialists imposed high taxes on seafaring, local fishermen built coracles to avoid the regulations on boats.