Wa (watercraft)

[A] They are made from hewn-out hulls, typically breadfruit trunks,[B] with single wide top-strakes, and carved head and stern pieces.

The open-ocean type with the two-pronged "tails" are called powpow (linguistically similar to the Polynesian paopao but different in design and purpose).

[K] Edwin Doran, author of Wangka: Austronesian Canoe Origins (1981), cited a 14-knot (26 km/h; 16 mph) average for a wa traveling from Guam to Manila.

[L] In the past, voyages of 150 miles (240 km) across open ocean were commonplace,[1] and a "brisk trade" was carried on with the Mariana Islands to the north.

[M] Trade items included shells, tapa cloth, wooden vessels, cordage, iron, copper, nails and knives.

"[S] In 1821, Adelbert von Chamisso recorded a voyage of 2,300 miles (3,700 km) from Yap to Aur Atoll in the Ratak Chain of the Marshall Islands.

[W] According to the contentious[23] historian Andrew Sharp, earlier observers Otto von Kotzebue and Louis de Freycinet's information suggests that long distance voyaging was seasonally limited, that "the seasonal south-west monsoon was feared by the Caroline voyagers", that normal steady trade winds from the north-east were preferred, and that the boats – once turtled – were troublesome to right.

[X] The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York holds an artifact – called a "hos" that has a stylized human figure attached to Stingray spines (the purported sources of its power) – they describe as being used in "weather magic, believed to have the ability to prevent or alter the path of approaching storms", which is tentatively ascribed to Yap.

[25][26] After the German–Spanish Treaty of 1899, inter-island voyaging was discouraged by the German New Guinea and Japanese colonial governments and by the commercial availability of trade goods.

[Y] A 1966 Peace Corps volunteer reported a fleet of 20 canoes of various sizes, that sailed from five islands within the Woleai atoll to greet an arriving ship, and stated there was only one motorboat at the time.

[AA] In 2012, the charity Habele and community-based organization Waa'gey were supporting younger outer-islanders from Lamotrek to gain experience in wa building.

Wa in the Marshall Islands / Caroline Islands area, prior to 1911
Model of a wa from Woleai in the National Museum of Ethnology (Japan)
Islander of Tobi , Palau , making a paddle with an adze
Plan of a Caroline Islands wa featuring sunshades. Lithograph by Admiral François-Edmond Pâris , ca. 1826–1829.
Close up of wa beached at Truk Lagoon , 1899-1900.
Village of Caroline Islanders near Agana , Guam , Mariana Islands , 1899–1900
Historic German colonial era map of the Caroline, Marshall, Mariana and Palau island groups, showing an approximate domain of local wa voyaging
Two Chuuk islanders sitting on a wa , circa 1899–1914
Wa at Fengal Village, Port Lottin, Kusaie , 1899–1900
Wa on Truk Lagoon , Moen Island thought to be trading with the steamship Albatross , 1899–1900. Multiple wa have masts up, cordage for mast stays clearly visible to left.
Wa on the Kiti River, Ponape, 1899–1900. Note man and boy in traditional dress.
Wa at Port Lottin, Kusaie Island , 1899–1900
Wa at rest on mangrove mud flat, Kusaie Island , 1899–1900
Wa on the Kiti River, Ponape, 1899–1900. Note distribution of passengers.