Sampan panjang

[5] Some years later the Sultan of Lingga acquired a fine sailing sampan panjang, ordered from Trengganu, which had a long and most successful racing career.

The latter also appear in Gray's engraving of the Singapore water front, and would seem to have been in fairly general use from this period onwards, if not earlier.

The lines became finer, the hull rather longer, and a bowsprit was added to set a headsail: a light rudder was also introduced in this period, and occasionally passenger boats were built with "counter" type stern or narrow transom.

The opening of the Suez canal made many steamers flood the area of the sampan panjang, which resulted in the decrease of their number.

Mitman (1923: p. 258) writes rather condescendingly of the maker of sampan panjang:[7] These boats are perhaps among the most remarkable examples of the wave-line form in the world; their midship section closely resembles that of modern yachts.

It is little less than marvelous that the semicivilized builders of these craft should have arrived so near perfection in designing by "rule-of-thumb" methods.By the last quarter of the century it was being made with hull lengths of 40 ft. (12.2 m) and over, and some example had 3 masts.

The size of the crew required to man them, the ease with which they shipped water and the lack of finish inside the hull, made them useless for cruising purposes.