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Couta Boats: An Aussie part of the living tradition of “Viking” ships

(1) The largest of the ships that most people today would see as being typically “Viking” dates from before the actual Viking period. This is the Sutton Hoo ship, buried in Suffolk, England, probably in the 620s. It is a keeled vessel, clinker-built, with nine strakes a side and twenty-six ribs. Its original length overall was approximately 89 ft (27 m), with a maximum beam of 14 ft (4.25 m). It drew about 2 ft (0.6 m) of water, was steered by a steering oar on the starboard side, and was presumably square-rigged. An illustration of how it may have looked when under sail is given below.

(2) The smallest vessel yet discovered from the actual Viking period is the faering that was buried with the Gokstad ship. It was 21ft 4 in (6.5 m) in length and 4 ft 7 in (1.4 m) in breadth. In plan it is very much like a miniature Sutton Hoo, but with less of an upright curve at the bow and stern. Below is an authentic reconstruction by Richard Amy. (For the purpose of sea trials Richard has used an alternative rigging.)

(3) In various parts of the British Isles, from which Australia’s earliest fishermen originated, ships of this tradition remained in use to modern times, often undergoing modification over the centuries. The drawing below is of a Shetland sixareen of about the 1880s. It will be readily seen that it is an organic growth of the “Viking” nautical tradition. The only significant difference is that the old steering oar has been replaced by a rudder. Otherwise, the proportions and general lines remain familiar, and it is still square-rigged. It was typically 30 ft long, with a beam of 8 ft 1 in and a draft amidships of 2ft 4 in.

(4) The Shetland sixareen was used for long-line fishing in very difficult conditions. The Northumbrian coble, still in use today in NE England, was one of several other small British fishing boats that also evolved from the same “Viking” tradition to satisfy local needs – in this case, the wild North Sea. From the illustration below it is obvious that in the coble the angle of the bow has become more upright, and the stern – still traditionally canoe-like and “Viking” in the Shetland sixareen – has been truncated. In general lines, however, the coble still resembles the Gokstad faering. It was traditionally 30 ft long, with an 8 ft beam. The extra width was required in order to bring home as many fish as possible. Note that it is still clinker-built and square-rigged.

(5) While the sixareen and the coble (and other similar small vessels) were still in use in Britain, Australian fishermen had begun to face their own local challenges. In Queenscliff from about 1850 local shipwrights began to develop a vessel of their own to answer the practical needs of their own fishing community. What they eventually created was the classic “couta boat”. This vessel was typically 26 ft LOA, with a 10 ft beam and a draft of 3 ft 3 in. The main difference from a coble was that the couta boat was carvel-built – designed for speed in supplying the Melbourne fish-markets. The old clinker tradition lived on for some time, however, with the top three planks often remaining clinker-built to reduce spray. Here is a photo of a modern couta boat.

(6) It is obvious from the photo above that the couta boat is an organic Australian development of the “Viking” boat-building tradition that we have traced from Sutton Hoo through to the Shetland sixareen and the Northumbrian coble. The famous Port Fairy couta boat is as authentic a part of this tradition as the coble in which Grace Darling rescued the survivors of the wreckage of the Forfarshire on the Farne Islands off Northumberland in 1838.

(7) All aspects of our heritage are important to our sense of who we are and where we have come from. That is no less true with regard to our maritime heritage. The iconic Aussie couta boat is directly descended from the Sutton Hoo ship, through the better-known examples of “Viking” vessels as seen in Scandinavian museums, and even more especially the smaller British regional fishing vessels that developed from this tradition. A mature Australian public realises that our heritage did not begin abruptly in 1788, and that a sensible understanding of our place in the world involves acknowledging all our ancestral traditions, however “ancient” they may seem.