Locally known as padagu or salangu among the fisher folks, the masula boat is a large, flat-bottomed, high-sided, open boat with a clumsy design consisting of mango wood planks sewed together with strands of coir which cross over a wadding of the same material, but without frames or ribs, so that the shock due to surf is much reduced.
It is specially designed for use where there are no harbours of refuge, chiefly upon the surf-beaten Coromandel Coast of India.
Its range extends along the whole of the eastern coast of India northwards of Cape Calimere.
[2] The masula boats were mainly used by Europeans in the 19th century before the building of Chennai Port.
They are rowed by a crew varying from 8 to 12 men using bamboo or casuarina paddles, which consist of a board measuring about 10 inches in width and 14 inches in length, fixed at the end of a bamboo or young casuarina tree.