Waqa Tabu Sacred Ships: the Fijian Drua

Peter Nuttall
We carry the cultural and historical inheritance of ocean navigators of
peerless skill and their courageous kin who crossed vast distances before
the tribes of Europe had ventured forth from their small part of the earth.
Ratu Kamisese Mara, 1999
This paper details the results of a literature survey and analysis of written records and
discussion of knowledge on Fijis sailing heritage and focuses on the Waqa Tabu (literally
sacred ship) or Drua. The fleets of great Lauan built drua or waqa tabu found throughout
central Oceania were the most technologically advanced of the Oceania bluewater ships,
some over 100 long, carrying complements of more than 200, capable of speeds of 15 knots
and of sailing within four points of the wind. John Twyning of the whaling brig Minerva,
which was wrecked in Fiji in 1829, describes the process of building a large ship at Lakeba in
the Lau Islands, where he and others were given refuge. He concluded that the design and the
building of the ship would have received the admiration of even the most skilful and
scientific naval architect in Europe (quoted in Couper, 2009:28).
The research started with a standard literature search from which was compiled a
compendium of acknowledged written sources to drua and related Fijian sailing culture and
history1. There is currently no single comprehensive literature source for drua and the wider
subject of Fijian sailing culture is dispersed across a variety of sources. This was then
distilled for areas of agreement and divergence and for gaps in the canvas. The literature on
Fijian sailing culture is sparse and scattered relative to other canoe2 cultures of Oceania.

1

The phrase drua culture is used throughout as shorthand for this and includes vessels, sailing, navigation,
and all related aspects of culture. Morphologically there is little design difference between the later vessels
of Fijian, Tongan, and Samoan ownership. This is not to say there are no differences in the operational or
socio-cultural attributes of drua between the cultures. Where there is no necessity to distinguish between the
country (or culture) of ownership, the class of drua/kalia/`alia collectively is referred to as drua. Ndrua and
drua are interchangeable spellings as are thamakau and camakau in the archival material.

Hornell notes the inadequacy of the term canoe to describe what were often massive, bluewater, longrange, planked-hull sailing vessels but concludes the term is so ingrained in the literature and generally
accepted as to defy re-branding. The term vessel is used here rather than canoe where possible.


Neither Fijis drua culture nor the related culture in central Oceania has been the subject of
the intensive research of Eastern Polynesia with its focus on long distance migration and
debate over drift versus planned migration and return voyaging capacity.
There is disagreement between authors as to the historical and pre-historical extent, ability,
and source of Fijian sailing culture. As the drua is agreed by all commentators to be virtually
identical in design and handling to the Tongan kalia and Samoan `alia references pertaining
to kalia and `alia were also included were references to Tongan, Samoan, and Fijian
relationships in the critical mid 1700 1900 period.
Goetzfridts 1992 review of references to Pacific navigation and voyaging was used as the
starting point for the literature search. There were only two Fiji-specific sources out of more
than 650 articles reviewed though several sources included reference to Fijian-related matters.
By comparison Goetzfridt lists 114 sources for the General Pacific, 363 for Polynesia, 160 for
Micronesia and 20 for Melanesia3. To these were added additional written sources, some pre1992 but not included in Goetzfridts review and others that have been published since. There
is an extensive, well-reviewed but again scattered pictorial record. It is important to note with
the exception of a tiny minority of sources, all comment on drua culture has been recorded
through a Western lens. Even the indigenous records in the autobiography of Bulu (1876)
and the 1915 paper by Toganivalu are translations, the first by Fison and the latter by
Beauclerc.
There are a limited number of primary sources but remarkable consistency amongst these as
to vessel form, construction, and functionality what Tippet describes as morphological
study (Tippet, 1968:81). Such commentaries are largely records of professional seamen (e.g.
Anderson, Cook, Erskine, Jackson4, Mariner, Samwell, Wilkes) or missionaries (e.g. Bulu,
Lawry, Thomas, Williams,). Then there is a body of work post the era of the great drua
(waqa tabu, musu waqa, tabetebete) but within the period when drua culture was still being
practiced (e.g., Haddon and Hornell, Kramer, Thompson, Tippet, Toganivalu). These must
be considered a mixture of primary and secondary sources and the commentators primarily
professional academics. Finally there is the body of work from the past four decades,

3

The artificial and externally imposed demarcation of Oceania into these categories is particularly distracting
when examining Fijian records.

John Jackson is most probably a pseudonym for William Diaper 1820-1891 (Legge, 1966).


coinciding with the current renaissance in Oceanic sailing/voyaging beginning with Lewis
and the early work of Finney (e.g. Banack and Cox, Clunie, Couper, DArcy, Finney, Hage
and Harary, Howe, Irwin, Kane, Lewis, Neich, Neyret, Sahlins).
The drua of central Oceania were arguably the greatest of the Pacific double-hulled vessels
and arguably the finest bluewater sailing ships of their age. While there is widespread
agreement among commentators on many issues pertaining to drua, there is also marked
divergence on critical points.

Two main schools of thought exist.

The first proposes

evolution of a Fijian or Melanesian technology and design origin route after exposure to
Micronesian rigs and hull configurations. The hypothesis is that the resultant vessel class was
subsequently adopted and finished by Tongan and Samoan craftsmen after it had travelled
east to the Lau Group, who in turn came to dominate the resultant drua building industry,
particularly in the Lau.
The alternate view is that the evolutionary design breakthrough was performed by Samoan
craftsmen under Tongan instruction blending Micronesian rigs with adapted Tongan hulls,
with the introduction of iron as a possible catalytic factor. In the latter theory, Fijian sailing
and ship design/construction capacity is held to be minimal until the recent period of Tongan
influence. Fiji gains the drua by default as a result of a geographical accident. The primary
resource extraction site for construction of this new technology was the southern Lau due to
the limestone derived vesi loa from which these craft were built. While neither theory can be
conclusively proved on available evidence, this review finds that there is reason to doubt
some of the reasoning offered for the latter theory.
Consensus Within the Literature
The following areas of consensus can be adduced, either because there is total or near total
agreement amongst the various commentators or because there is no comment or
contradiction offered by other commentators.
Drua, Kalia, Alia were, in respect of design and handling, largely identical. The vessel
class is characterised by a Micronesian-designed 5 Oceanic lateen sail and rig unused
elsewhere in Polynesia on two true hulls of unequal length sailed by shunting end-for-end as
opposed to tacking through the wind with the smaller hull always to windward. Detail of

5

But see also further discussion.


design and construction is reasonably well characterised (Hornell, 1975; Thompson, 1940;
Toganivalu, 1915; Williams, 1870) and the existence of preserved examples of drua and
numerous museum models and artefacts leaves little doubt as to the reliability of this
information. There are a number of first-hand reports of the methods of sailing and general
operation and a strong pictorial record. There is near total, but not unanimous, consensus that
the Tongan shipwright achieved a superior finish of vessels to the Fijian. In 1777 Cook and
his officers declared Tongan canoe building to be the best craftsmanship they found in the
Pacific (Beaglehole, 1934). Hornell (1975) details the Samoan hull construction method
which is considered more complex than the methods employed in Fiji and quotes descriptions
and figures by Kramer (1902-3) and Buck (1930).
Two separate classes of drua are documented, although this classification is not realised by
all recorders. Small drua were constructed saucoko style; a single hollowed log forms the
base of each hull with a single lashed strake used to raise the height of the hull. This is the
construction style of the Ratu Finau, the 1913 fourteen metre example preserved in the Fiji
Museum, and is probably close to the limit of size capable for this form. Much larger vessels,
also known as Waqa Tabu and Musu Waqa, were built using the tabetebete design where the
takele (keel) is formed from two or even three scarfed planks and then the hulls built up using
several planks per side. It is commonly reported (e.g. Thompson, 1940) that no tabetebete
drua has been built since the end of the 19th century. There have been a number of saucoko
drua built over the past century, although none are believed to be operational today.
The drua class were the finest and technologically most advanced double-hulled canoes
of Oceania. In addition to the glowing praise of Cook and his colleagues for Tongan kalia
and tongiaki, Alden (1877) describes drua as a product of barbarian genius, the fastest
sailing boat in existence and capable of sailing nearer the wind than any European vessel.
Clunie (1987) offers that [t]he massive drua or kalia made last century in Fiji is justly
celebrated as the most remarkable voyaging canoe ever to ply the Pacific. Hornell (1975)
describes the drua as the largest and finest sea-going vessel ever designed and built by the
natives of Oceania before contact with Europeans. Lewis (1980) described both drua and
camakau vessels as the pinnacle of Oceanic canoe technology. Finney (2006) states that
the kalia has been lavishly praised as a stunningly fast shunting hybrid made by joining the
double ended hull form and pivoting Oceanic lateen sail rig of Micronesian flying proas to a
pair of hulls.


Drua achieved great size, were fast, could perform to windward, had great load carrying
ability, and were built in large numbers. Their hulls were fashioned from a timber described
as the titanium of Pacific boat building timbers (Banack and Cox, 1987:161) vesi loa (Intsia
bijuga), a toredo worm resistant greenheart, which comes only from the limestone belt of
islands in the southern Lau group, and is still considered superior to all other timbers. The
vessels home range included at least Fiji, Tonga, Samoa, Uvea, and Futuna. They easily
outperformed the equivalent European ships they met and there is evidence that they were the
preferred vessels by Fijians, even into the start of the 20th century (Thompson, 1940;
Toganivalu, 1915; Tippet, 1968). They displayed greater windward ability than any other
double-hull Oceanic design, in particular the tongiaki they quickly displaced in Tonga. They
were highly prized, arguably the highest prized asset.

The skill displayed in design,

construction and operation awed the European recorders, some of them skilled naval
architects. The following extracts confirm these assertions and are only a sample of the
available evidence.
The next day we proceeded towards our destination, calling at the island of Ovalau
even Tongan and Walliss Island canoes had come from Lakeba and other places to the
long anticipated banquet at Bau, on the occasion of the arrival of this new canoe which
had been building seven years, and was at least one hundred feet long, and sufficiently
large to carry three hundred men (Jackson in Erskine, 1858:453).
The following are the dimensions of the largest canoe I know Extreme length, 118
feet; length of deck, 50 feet; width of deck, 24 feet; length of mast, 68 feet; length of
yards, 90 feet (Williams, 1870:63).
These [49] canoes [seen in Tongatapu] are from one hundred to one hundred and forty
feet long, and carry two hundred to four hundred people each; they are double, with a
deck and house or houses, and with one enormous sail, scud along at twenty miles an
hour. These canoes are wonderful pieces of naval architecture; they are made of
different pieces and jointed together in a most curious fashion, with so close a joint as
to be hardly perceptible, and not a nail being used in any part; they are sewn with
signot, made from the cocoanut, on the inside, the outside presenting a smooth and
polished surface (15 March, 1864, Otago Daily Times, Issue 699:6.).
In one of the lofty canoe-sheds on the beach [at Lifuka] we inspected the kings great


double canoe, as those of the largest class are called by the Europeans The canoe in
question was upwards of a hundred feet in length, and like all of those dimensions, had
been built in the Feejees, these islands affording no timber fit for the purpose. It is a
proof of no little courage and dexterity that these apparently fragile and unwieldy
vessels must be navigated in the face of the usual trade-wind between two and three
hundred miles (Erskine, 1858:132).
Drua were fast. Thomson (1908:292) gives the speed of the drua as from 10 to 15 knots
with the wind on the quarter and Hornell (1975:327) notes that drua with a wind on the
quarter could attain under favourable conditions a speed of about 12 miles an hour and
quotes West (1865) who describes undertaking a 38nm trip on a drua in three hours and also
noted that they are highly adapted for sailing close upon a wind ... within even three points
of the wind.
Others contend that while capable of achieving such windward performance they didn't in
practice. Although it could lie remarkably close to the wind within about three points of
the wind as opposed to about six points for the English square-rigger of the day the kalia
through its shallow draft was driven down wind and could not head into heavy sea, which
forced the hulls asunder. An expert crew could beat home to Tonga under even quite fresh
conditions, but some idea of the difficulty can be gained from the 77 tacks Tu`ihalafatai is
recorded as making on his last voyage from Fiji in the teeth of the Southeast Trades (Clunie,
1987:15).
The missionary Williams (1870:76) who travelled extensively by drua found that a canoe in
good condition makes very little water, and such as have just been described would safely
convey 100 persons and several tons of goods over 1,000 miles of ocean. Lawry (1850:
144) on October 10, 1847 witnessed the fleet of Thakombau sailed out this morning with not
less than 200 warriors on board each canoe. Coppinger (1883:163) describes a drua he saw
in Bau in 1880, as 72 feet long, with a depth of hold about 5 feet; it was intended to carry
250 men and he entertained no doubt about the correctness of this number.
In a double canoe about 100 feet long the beam would be 6 to 8 feet and ... a man could
easily walk in the hold without touching the deck. A pig could be roasted whole in the open
cooking place and the food and water were easily stowed away for long voyages. On one
occasion a canoe carried 12 head of cattle in her holds from Natewa Bay in Vanua Levu to


Levuka, a trip of 120 miles, and another carried on deck from Tailevu to Suva a cargo of
bagged maize sufficient to load the Alarm ketch of 30 tons and the Xerifa of 20 tons burden
(Wall, 1916, quoted in Haddon, 1975:326).
Fleet sizes could be large. A fleet of canoes and the warriors transported by it were known as
bola, the Fijian term for a hundred canoes (Clunie, 1987: 34). Fijian canoe fleets numbering
scores and often a hundred or more vessels.

An allied fleet which ran down William

Lockerby in Wailea Bay in 1808 was composed of some 150 canoes (Imthurn and Wharton,
1925:39). A Bauan fleet in the Bau-Rewa wars of the mid century consisted of about 200,
counting together the double canoes, those with outriggers and sailing canoes ... when they
sailed away, Laucala Bay was absolutely crowded with canoes (Toganivalu, 1912).
Another Bauan canoe fleet which took Charlie Savage, Paddy Connell and other
beachcombers on a raid in 1809 (Turpins Narratives:94) was hardly less impressive,
comprising 64 drua or double canoes, 36 large camakau outrigger sailing canoes, 26 tabilai
fighting canoes; and 10 small takia sailing canoes; in all 136 canoes transporting some 2,700
men Clunie (2003: 35). And from a report made in 1847: The spot over which we are now
sailing (en route from Ngainge (sic) past the island of Malagai (sic) to Bua) is one which
Varani will not soon forget. He was here, a short time since, in his terrible character of
warrior and cannibal: and in one canoe he met and encountered a fleet of sixty canoes, one of
which had a small cannon on board (Lawry, 1850:80).
Upward of 50 sail, coming from as far away as Tonga and Uvea were counted in Bau waters
for the commissioning of the Ra Marama in 1849 by Jackson who had earlier sailed in a
similar sized fleet. In a few days we accordingly started, a great fleet of canoes consisting of
about forty, and the number of natives about two thousand and then we were mostly
obliged to sleep in the canoes, jammed up in such a manner to be actually lying in two and
three layers on top of each other (Erskine, 1858:423).
Similar sized fleets of kalia were recorded in Tonga. Wall, (1909) recounts an 1855 fleet of
30 canoes from Tonga that sailed to attack parts of Fiji and returned safely (quoted in
Goefridzt, 1992:51). An unnamed correspondent visiting Tongatapu recorded: a small speck
in the horizon indicated a canoe, and soon another, and another followed These 49 canoes
came bounding along with their living freight like racehorses (Otago Daily Times, 15
March, 1864).


Mariner was a castaway in Tonga from 1806 to 1810 and repeatedly recorded large fleet sizes
from this period.

The large canoes of Lefooga, about fourteen in number, were then

launched, which with Toobo Nuhas fleet from Vavaoo, made together about fifty sail
(Mariner, 1827:91). All things being in readiness, the following morning the king embarked
with the whole of his forces, about 5000 men, besides 1000 women, in fifty large canoes,
containing also the four carronades, ammunition, and every thing necessary for a vigorous
attack upon the strong fortress of Vavaoo (Mariner, 1827:159).
Tippet (1968:83) describes the autobiographies of early Fijian missionaries Jemesa Havea
and Joeli Bulu as being, to a large extent, nautical narratives. Bulu (1871) graphically
describes sailing from Tonga to Moce in two days, sailing drua from Viti Levu to Kadavu in
atrocious conditions and even surviving a hurricane in the Lomaiviti group. His accounts
describe his missionaries, Tongan teachers and converts all scudding at will and often at a
moments notice around the Lau, eastern Viti Levu and Kadavu spreading the gospel on a
variety of large and small camakau and drua.
Drua were multifunctional vessels. Primarily the naval attack weapon of choice, they saw
service as blockade-runners and enforcers, landing craft, fleet battleships, troop and supply
transporters and deadly effective rammers. There are graphic descriptions of the naval battles
fought (e.g. Clunie, 1987). In times of peace they performed as diplomatic missions and
passenger/cargo traders. They were used extensively in the service of the new Christian
religion as essential transport for both European and local missionaries, especially by the
Tongan teachers who used massive kalia on regular conversion voyages from Tonga to Fiji
via the Lau. The missionaries Lawry, Thomas, and Williams reported regularly travelling by
drua, often in extremely rough weather and sea conditions.
The majority of the vessels described above were constructed in the southern Lau. The Fiji
islanders make their canoes principally of a hard firm wood, called fehi, which is not liable to
become worm-eaten; and as the Tonga Islands do not produce this wood, the natives are not
able to build canoes so large or so strong as those of their instructors. All their large canoes,
therefore, are either purchased or taken by force from the natives of Fiji (Mariner,
1827:359).

The translocation of mataitoga craftsmen from Tonga and descendants of

Lemaki, a Samoan plank-building specialist, to the Lau in temporary and permanent

settlements is well recorded by, amongst others, Thompson (1940), Tippet (1968), and Reid
(1990) and the unique mixed cultural legacy is clearly evident today.


Drua were comparable in size and superior in speed and windward capability than
equivalent European designs of the contact period. They were bluewater, long-range
capable and superior to any other vessel seen by early European explorers, of a comparable
length to the Endeavour, with a larger complement, three times faster and capable of sailing
three points closer to the wind. It is worth noting that even the earlier tongiaki (Tongan)
vessel classes seen by the Dutch in the 17th century were considered by them to sail so
swiftly that there are few ships in Holland that would outdo them. The drua by comparison
was in a class above. And this was all the more remarkable in that it was achieved without
recourse to metals (and arguably because of a lack of metals). The comparison is not a fair
one. European deep-draught displacement monohulls were built to a totally different design
paradigm that required vessels to carry extreme loads and keep to sea for months at a time.
The Endeavour was a converted collier, chosen for her durability not her speed.
All commentators refer to the drua as a recent (mid to late 18th century) design
evolution. Although there is universal consensus in the literature on this point, it is not
necessarily conclusively proved. Drua are increasingly reported from the Viti Levu seaboard
to the extremities of the recorded 18th century Tongan sphere of influence (with a later
introduction to New Caledonia from Tonga around 1900) from at least6 the time of Cook
onward (1770s). But, if the hull innovations had a Melanesian origin not a Tongan one, as
Haddon and others suggest, and/or the drua existed in Fiji prior to eastward expansion from
Bau to an already populated Lau (Reid, 1990 suggests this as circa 1750) it could be
reasonable to assume the Levukans (Williams, 1870; Reid, 1990) travelled to Lau in drua to
get there. If this is held to be true then the subsequent transfer of technology to Tonga is
easily explained and agreed. It would leave unanswered the questions of whether the drua
originated in Bau or west of there; how long the drua was known west of Bau; and whether
the original drua was only built shortly before the Levukan expansion or at some
undetermined point between the original Fijian settlement and 1750.
The Drua evolution did not move east of West Polynesia. Again, this is agreed by all
commentators reviewed. How far east it travelled is unproven but Niue and Tokelau are
probably the eastern most points with the northern Cooks an outside possibility.

6

All historical commentators refer to Cook arriving during a period of transition, not at or immediately prior
to its commencement.


If drua were not a Tongan invention and migrated from west of Bau eastward circa 1750 then
the technological innovation is almost certainly pre-European contact and indigenous in
origin. It is only possible to speculate what effect a further expansion of drua culture might
have meant to the wider region if its migration further into Oceania had not been impeded by
European arrival. Given the speed at which the previously dominant tongiaki class was
replaced by drua, (presumably no tongiaki were commissioned post drua knowledge being
introduced to Tonga although existing tongiaki hulls were almost certainly retro-fitted with
drua rig), it is arguable that drua could have effected a revolution in canoe technology
elsewhere in Oceania with similar speed of uptake as witnessed in Tonga (Dale, 1996; Lawry,
1851; Wilkes, 1845) which saw near total displacement of the earlier designs within a
generation.
There is no record of the Fijian predecessor to the Drua. It is highly improbable that the
ancestors of the Fijians arrived in Fiji 3,000 or more years ago aboard drua. Irwin (2006:79)
considers the traditional three-spar-rig appeared in Fiji and West Polynesia long after initial
settlement. It follows then that they came in another class of vessel. There is no available
evidence as to this craft and what its contribution, if any, to the design of the later drua was,
although Hornell (1975:334) holds the primitive New Caledonia hull to be the druas closest
relative. Nor is there available evidence for any design or technology transition of Fijian
nautical craft from the time of first settlement and the arrival of the drua.
Clunie (1987:11), who strongly favours a Tongan designer for the drua, describes the Fijians,
prior to them being educated in drua culture by the Tongans, as a rather lubberly people
implying their pre-drua maritime capacity was limited. Against this must be argued the
extent of the Fiji islands group (~400 islands covering 6 degrees of latitude and 5 of longitude
with numerous bluewater passages between islands), the oral record of inter-island contact
within this group prior to this period and the speed at which Fijians adopted a drua culture.
From the records of most commentators by the early to mid-19th century (see Dale, 1996;
Erskine, 1858; Wall, 1916), Fijians were widespread owners and consummate handlers of
their craft. This would be a startling short period of technology transfer and uptake for a
culture that displayed minimal capacity prior to the 1770s.
Based on the oral evidence of inter-archipelago connections between the groups (see for
example Fison, 1904) it appears reasonable to speculate that Fijians had at least access to or
knowledge of Tongan tongiaki class vessels within their home waters, if not ownership and

10


management. Whether they also had an indigenous design of double-hulled canoe,
presumably either descended from the Melanesian/New Caledonia design or a descendant of
earlier Fijian double-hulled evolution (Irwin, 2006:76 considers the historic distribution of
canoe types suggests the double-hulled canoe developed in Fiji and West Polynesia and there
is linguistic support for this) is unknown.
The sail and rig of the drua and camakau7 are identical designs and originated from
Micronesia8. The Oceanic lateen rig is unknown elsewhere in Polynesia but is prevalent in
Micronesia. The literature is divided as to whether it was Fijian or Tongan or Micronesianinitiated contact that provided the sail and rig technology transfer. It is also not known
whether the camakau led to the drua (or vice versa) or whether they evolved
contemporaneously. The large camakau recorded in Fiji post-1800 were certainly bluewater
capable. It is reasonable to assume that the outrigger and the double hull have a common
geographical origin and technology transfer route.
Alternatives include a camakau origin with Fiji or Tongan-initiated contact, a camakau origin
with Micronesia-initiated contact, a drua/kalia origin with Fiji or Tongan-initiated contact, a
drua origin with Micronesia-initiated contact, and a contemporaneous evolution with three
possible routes. Answering this conundrum is probably the key to determining whether the
drua hulls were modified tongiaki or expanded outriggers of Micronesian or Fijian origin.
The possibility that the transfer went the other way, to Micronesia from either Tonga or Fiji is
not considered by any commentator reviewed in this research but is not totally implausible.
Oceanic sea-transport technology in the Fiji/Tonga/Samoa region was in a progressive
(and aggressive) expansion phase at the time of European contact. This is the opposite to
that reported for much of the rest of Oceania inter-archipelago contact where double-hulled
voyaging was in decline at this time (e.g. Howe, 2006). It is uncertain to what extent this
progressive phase may have preceded sustained European contact. This wider development
of the kalia, `alia and ndrua type of canoe in the later decades of the 1700s was instrumental
in changing the balance of power in the Tonga, Samoa, and Fiji area. With their superior sail
rigs and mostly manned by Tongans, these canoes could beat into the wind, allowing closer
trade and political relations between Tonga, Samoa and Fiji (Neich, 2006:234).

7

Camakau are the outrigger version of drua, also built to large size and bluewater capable.

Clunie (1987) considers it most likely of Kiribati origin.

11


The introduction of European ship designs and technology did not immediately displace
local craft. Tabetebe drua remained the vessel of choice for Fijian chiefs until the end of the
19th century and saucoko vessel construction remained a vital component of inter-island and
interstate trade well into the 20th century. The increasing presence of Westerners did little to
influence Fijian maritime technology. Fijians learnt to use oars from observing Europeans,
but most inter-island traffic continued to be carried on drua and camakau ... Although
Cakobau ordered a schooner built overseas to enhance his mana, Fijians generally did not
take to western vessels.

Owning a schooner did not engender the same pride as the

construction of a great drua (DArcy, 2006:142).

Foye was an English geologist who travelled through Lau in 1912, initially on a missionary
cutter and then on local camakau. Foye (1917:384) found: The canoes [camakau] are much
swifter than the cutters, and natives often prefer to sail from island to island or even from Fiji
to Tonga in their canoes rather than to depend on the slower passage of a cutter.
Thompson (1940) reported a resurgence in building and use of traditional craft during the prewar depression, largely as a result of the crash of the copra market and a lack of any income
for other means of transport. Gillett et al (1993) found that by the 1990s only very smallscale use was evident with passages between Lau and Suva almost non-existent.

Two

important trips were well remembered. In 1953 a fleet of two camakau from Ogea and four
from Fulaga sailed to Suva for the arrival of Queen Elizabeth, sailing through the Lau and
Lomaiviti groups en route. In 1964 four Kabara canoes sailed to Suva for a Methodist
conference (Gillett, 1993:64). Since then there have been only sporadic reports, including the
drua Tabu Soro built on Ogea and Fulaga in the late 1980s and the drua of Simione Paki
which sailed from the Lau to Suva in 1992.
Drua were high value assets and had greater function than just vessels of burden. Drua
were arguably the most valuable and expensive asset a chief could possess. Construction
could take up to seven years during which a skilled workforce would be employed and paid.
Only a man of means could afford both the initial outlay and the continual maintenance a
lashed vessel built of organic materials would require. These were more than mere assets. A
warship capable of slight extra speed or agility could be the difference between life and death,
not only for the crew but also the community it protected. Vessel cost could be measured in
the number of lives sacrificed in its construction and operation that could run into scores.
Toganivalu (1915) and Thompson (1940) in particular discuss ritual and protocol associated

12


with drua culture. They were sacred canoes in all aspects of the term.
The analysis of Tippet is particularly important in understanding the role and function of drua
in more than morphological terms and reminds us that drua were not simply the conveyer of
goods and gifts on which the whole kinship and allegiance based networks of this region rest,
often they were the artefact and object of exchange itself.
The process of building and launching the sacred canoe provides a focal point for the
study of communal cooperation The canoe is an artefact of artefacts: (1) The
resultant canoe is the symbol of group achievement; (2) The project reinforces group
solidarity; (3) The building and eventual use of the canoe provide a continuity of
communal activity; (4) The resultant prestige for the whole group strengthens the
authority pattern; (5) The cultural inter-responsibilities are reapproved and reinforced
by a continuum of ceremonial activity that is religiously based; (6) The canoe
provides group satisfaction in strong naval defence, or did so if this was the purpose
of the project. In peace the satisfaction is in having a good canoe for public purposes;
(7) If the canoe was made for extra-community presentation, then foreign relations
were strengthened for the benefit of the whole group either economic or military
This function of a complex artefact is a mechanism for assuring the perpetuity of
society in the face of danger or threat (Tippet, 1968:84).
Although built primarily as a weapon of war, the peacetime function of drua as the
mechanism for economic activity and inter-island and international relations and, in particular
its function within the tribute system, were critically important. The services rendered to
Fijian communities by the giant sacred canoes were not confined to war and economic
configurations. They figured in the political patterns of honorific presentations, not as the
carrier or transporter of the presentations, but as the object of them. [Tippet describes the
function of the Musu Waqa] a canoe built, not as a memorial, but as a gift and symbol or
pledge of loyalty from one kingdom to a more powerful one (Tippet, 1968:104).
Hage and Harary (1996) used both mathematical and anthropological tools to model and
explain the complex exchange network that linked the differing islands of the Lau and to
understand the means by which differing islands obtained dominant or subservient positions
in this network. Bayliss-Smith et al (1988) discuss this network in terms of relationships
between Lau and Viti and Tonga. Drua and drua culture is, in my opinion, the fulcrum of

13


these networks, with vesi loa as the pivot pin. In a sense the floristic resources of Kabara are
an analogue of modern day strategic minerals. Just as the possession of titanium resources
important in aircraft construction bestows strategic importance on the country possessing
them, possession of large trees of Intsia bijuga [vesi] useful in canoe construction conferred a
political advantage on Kabara (Banack and Cox, 1987:161).
Areas of Divergence in the Literature
While there is consensus on the above, there are some aspects of the literature where the
commentators are strongly in contention, in particular the route of technology transfer that led
to the evolution of the drua and the origin of the distinctive hulls, the role of Fijian and other
Melanesian cultures in that evolution, the capacity of Fijian sailing culture prior to Tongan
18th century influence, and the role of introduced iron technology in the creation of a drua
prototype.
The Route of Technology Transfer and the Origin of the Drua Hull Form. There is
agreement amongst commentators that the sail and rig of the drua class are Micronesian in
origin9 although it is not known if this was a result of the technology being brought to Fiji by
Fijians, Micronesians or some other intermediary or Tongans obtaining it from Micronesia.
There is divergence on where the distinctive drua hull form comes from. There are a number
of theories.
Finney considers that they are adapted Polynesian hulls and the route of transfer was from
Micronesia to Tonga. Apparently, the Tongans had been in contact with sailors from
Micronesia, where a breakthrough in canoe design had occurred. The sailors had developed a
double-ended craft with a moveable sail that allowed them to sail more efficiently to
windward .... Tongans adapted this moveable-sail/double-ended configuration, coming up
with the kalia, a racehorse of a double canoe that could sail circles around the ships of Cook
and the other European navigators (Finney, 1994:234). In this he has the support of DArcy.
Drua were only developed in Fiji in the late 18th century. Although made in Fiji their
appearance owed much to skills and ideas developed elsewhere (DArcy, 2006:141).
Clunie (1986:15) is more adamant. Given long cherished, myths regarding Fijian origins
for Camakau outriggers and Drua, it must be emphasised that while made of Vitian timber,

9

Although, as previously stated, this is not proven and could have been to not from Micronesia.

14


their design and handling and hulls came from Tonga and Uvea ... and their builders from
Tonga and Samoa. In his 1987 article he argues voyaging canoes clearly ancestral to the
kalia once abounded in Tonga. As early as 1616, the Eendracht encountered many tongiaki
10

double canoes including one standing far to the north, bound for Samoa the hulls of the

drua originate in the hulls of the earlier tongiaki and that the distinctive opposing ends, one a
vertical cutwater, the other an ovulated truncate is further proof of the design originating from
Samoan Lemaki craftsmen (p.11).

Reids (1990:21) comments the meaning of the

derivative Fijian word karia can, however, be read either way in support of this claim. The
drua in Tonga acquired the name kalia which would appear to be derived from the Fijian
karia. This word described the certain shape of canoe end, no doubt contrasting in Tongan
eyes with the fixed bows of the tongiaki, the original double canoe of the Tongans.
In contrast to these, Hornell (1975:334) argued it is probable that each of these two classes
of double canoe had an independent origin, the Fijian type from an outrigger ancestor, the
Polynesian from the connection of two equal or twin hulls after the fashion which persisted to
the last in designs of the double canoes of the Hawaii and the Society Islands. Hornell
considers that the tongiaki could not have been the originator and argues that there is little
doubt that the modern Fijian double canoe is a hybrid between this old [New Caledonian]
type and the large sailing outrigger of Micronesia. The design may be described as a
compromise in which the sailing advantages of the single outrigger canoe have been adapted
to and combined with the cargo-carrying capacity of the double canoe (1975:334).
The Tongan route has also been disputed on linguistic evidence.

Pacific Islanders

experienced and innovated, and quickly assimilated innovations they perceived as being to
their advantage. This is particularly clear in the area of canoe construction. Accounts of
early explorers tell us, and linguistics confirms that the Tongans and Samoans borrowed the
double canoe and I have argued here that the shunting technology followed the same route
(Geraghty, 1994:64).
Reid (1990:8) offers a potential explanation for a west to east transfer of drua design. It was
during the reign of Ginigini also that Lakeban traditions place the arrival on the island of the

10

The tongiaki with two true hulls of equal length and a more primitive tacking rig were durable if somewhat
clumsy and with no windward performance. They did sterling service back to at least the early 17th century
and potentially for at least centuries if not millennia prior to this.

15


Levuka people, first indication of those stirrings in the west that were to have such
consequence in Fijis history. A seafaring folk, they had been the original inhabitants of
Korolevu, the small isle off the south east coast of Viti Levu which the Bauan chiefs took
over as their base. The date of this occupation has been suggested as 1760, and the removal
of the former incumbents may therefore be regarded as mid-eighteenth century event. The
account of their exodus and migration from island to island until they reached Lakeba has
been told in many ways. If these Levukans, also referred to by Williams (1870) and Wilkes
(1845), arrived on drua then it is possible these would have been the vessels seen by visiting
Tongans on inferior tongiaki class vessels.
Reid (1990:12) concurs with Clunie in regard to the Lemaki chronology and influence but
describes the transition thus: [t]he first permanent settlers from the east [Tongans settling in
the Lau] appear to have been shipwrights. Tongans had recognised the double-hulled drua as
superior to their own sea-going craft in speed and handling, and even more important, they
had seen the hardwood resources of the Lau limestone belt which were incomparably superior
to the timber available in Tonga. This explanation is consistent with Williams (1870:76):
The well built and excellently designed canoes of the Fijians were for a long time superior to
those of any other islanders in the Pacific. Their neighbours, the Friendly Islanders, are more
finished carpenters and bolder sailors, and used to build large canoes, but not equal to those
of Fiji. Though considering the Fijians as their inferiors, yet the Tongans have adopted their
canoes, and imitate them even in the make of their sails.
Thomas (1908:293) concurred. And now we come to a remarkable paradox. The Tongans
were the great navigators of the Pacific; the Fijians are not known to have voyaged beyond
their own group. The Tongans were so expert with the adze that they rapidly displaced the
Fijian canoe-builder in his own country. And yet the Tongan counterpart to the ndrua was
the tongiaki, a craft so clumsy and ill-finished that it did not survive the eighteenth century,
when the Tongans learned the art of canoe sailing from Fijians.
Fijian Voyaging Ability and History. The second major point of dissention, and related to the
first, is the capability of Fijian sailors and shipwrights prior to the 18th century. The range of
opinion on Fijian sailing capability prior to European contact ranges from rather lubberly
(Clunie 1987:11), to capable but restricted to their home waters (Thomson, 1908:294), to
bluewater and long-range capable and experienced (Lawry, 1850:270; Wilkes 1845:366).
Clunie (1987:11) maintains it has been firmly established that Fijis indigenous craftsmen

16


could not have built the canoe; while Tongans were still teaching Fijians to sail it in the
1840s, several generations after they had supposedly developed it. Clunie, in this article at
least, does not evidence this claim but has since gained the agreement of Finney, Neich and
others.
The counter argument comes from numerous sources. Hornell (1936:344) concludes how
the Fijians came to seize upon the Micronesian design and modify an outrigger type into a
double canoe one we shall never know, but they certainly did accomplish this feat ... The
voyaging of the Marshall and Gilbert Islanders, noted navigators and confirmed wanderers,
almost certainly went as far south as Fiji, and it was in all probability from these people that
the Fijians gained the knowledge which led to the designing of that magnificent vessel the
ndrua. It is unquestionable that the Fijians were notably the superiors of the Tongans and
the Samoans in the art of canoe designing, although the Tongans could claim the credit of
being the more skilful carpenters and the more daring and experienced navigators (Hornell,
1975:264).
The shipwrecked sailors Mariner (Dale, 1996) in the first decade of the 19th century and
Twyning in 1829 (Twyning, 1850) witnessed large-scale deployment of multi-vessel fleets at
Bau and Laucala (Mariner) and throughout Fiji (Twyning) being expertly handled by Fijian
crews. If south-eastern Fiji was virtual Tongan colonies, (Finney, 1994:295) at this time
and if drua were only introduced to Fijians by Tongans at the end of the 18th century (Clunie,
1987:12) they would appear to have gained access to a considerable number of high value
craft (which would presumably all have gone direct to Tonga if Fiji were only a vassal state)
and have mastered the seamanship necessary to operate them effectively in large fleet
formations in less than a single generation. Certainly by the time of Williams and Wilkes
(circa 1840s) Fijians were acknowledged masters of their seafaring craft and use of drua and
camakau was widespread in Fijian waters.
Although (Williams 1858:85) assumed that the Fijians never ventured beyond the limits of
their own archipelago, Lawry (1850:270) considered that Fijians were bold navigators, and
make somewhat distant voyages. Wilkes (1845, Vol.3:366) described Fijians making very
long voyages to Tonga, Rotuma, and the Samoan islands. Speiser (1923:250) refers to
Fijian voyages to the New Hebrides and commented that the Tongans, conversely, have
been lauded as bolder navigators and the presence of Tongan settlements and culture in far
distant islands of Melanesia is instanced in support.

Without calling into question the

17


seafaring intrepidity of the Tongans, it must be pointed out that much of this seeming activity
was involuntary and due as much to the inferiority of their sailing craft as to their innate
enterprise and skill. Their sailing double canoe, the tongiaki, was a craft so clumsy and illdesigned that it could not beat to windward; when a favourable wind failed, there was no
alternative but to change course or drift with the sail down.
Hornell (1975:305) also considers that [t]he possession of fine sailing canoes suitable for
long voyages rendered inter-communication between the islands [of Fiji] so easy and frequent
that there are no local variations of any consequence in the design of the various types; the
description of the Mbau and Rewa canoes serves equally well for those of all other localities.
Commenting more recently, Rayawa (2001:31) is also of the opinion that there was a Fijian
origin for drua and notes that [t]he Tongans were especially daring sailors who prized the
superior Fijian canoes, often coming to Fiji to learn how to sail them ... A study of canoes
circa 1830 shows a wide range of specialised craft indicating a long and complex history.
The [Fijian] hereditary canoe building class had thousands of years of skills and experience at
their command and the vessels they produced reflect this. This, of course, can be equally
applied to the mataitoga.
DArcy (2006:114-115) summarises Fijian seafaring clans active in Fiji in the 18th and 19th
century:
the fragmentation of power meant that quite small polities with naval capacity could
exercise significant influence. They were often based on small islands off large
islands, and included groups distinguished as sea people ... The tiny island of Bau
was the vanua most clearly associated with sea people. Half a mile off the east coast
of Viti Levu, Bau is only twenty acres in extent. It was founded in the 1750s, and
rose to become Fijis leading naval power by the 1840s ... Baus initial strength was
based on an alliance between the founding chiefly line from the interior of Viti Levu
and the seafaring inhabitants of Bau - the Butoni. Other seafaring people joined later.
When disputes arose, the Butoni and Soso migrated to various localities around the
eastern islands of Fiji. Bau was not alone on relying on sea people as the nucleus of
its naval and military forces. Groups such as the Macui of Verata, the Vutia, Nukui
and Nasilai fishermen of Rewa, and the Navatu people of Cakaudrove filled similar
roles.

18


Even if the Fijian sailing culture was limited or in some form of limbo prior to the drua,
Fijian ancestors must have sailed at some point in their history and sail appears regularly in
the heritage record. For example Tippet (1968:105) records [t]he great canoes are featured
in many of the Fijian migration myths, especially those of the dispersion of the Nakauvadra
people. Many of these vessels, like the Kaunitoni are remembered in name in the local
traditions in many villages in Kadavu the people know the names of the crafts that brought
them to their current locations, and something of the routes taken.
There are some intriguing references from early historians of Fijian voyaging connections.
The following references are all from Goetzfridts 1992 review. In 1891 the New Zealand
ethnographer Percy Smith referred to an indigenous navigational chart of Fiji whose parallel
strings stretched on a frame illustrated the constant movements of the sea driven before the
trade-winds". He also discussed ... traditional indications of Maori familiarity with Samoa
and Fiji (quoted in Goefridzt, 1992:184). Burrows (1936) notes Futuna contact with Fiji
which he maintains must have existed before European contact (p.75). Macgregor (1937)
writing in Tokelau noted that voyages to Tonga and Samoa were common as were
marauding expeditions to Fiji (p.157). De Bisschop (1939) was informed by Futunan
sources that two-way voyages to Fiji were being made 50 years previously with other canoes
coming from Wallis (p.82). Lewis (1977) emphasizes evidence which points to extensive
voyaging of the Lapita people, particularly the passage through the Melanesian Trench to Fiji
and examines the ethnological and traditional evidence which indicates deliberate and
extensive Melanesian voyaging into Micronesia including Fijian voyages to Kiribati and
Nukuaro (Pohnpei State) and their subsequent adaption of principles of Micronesian canoe
design (p.31). Koch (1983) noted that large sailing canoes, which ceased to exist during the
19th century, were used for voyages to Samoa with elders maintaining that voyages were also
made to the Solomon Islands, Kiribati, Fiji, and Tonga (p.146). Finally, Neyret (1985) notes
that the northern two-mast double canoe of New Caledonia was developed with sailing
influence from Wallis and Fiji via Micronesia (p.274).
Hage and Harary (1996:17) examine previous literature on the Tonga-Fiji-Samoa network
through anthropological and mathematical lenses and argue that instead of viewing Tonga as
the apex of a three-cornered network as seen by Kaeppler (1978), a more global model
linking Tonga, Fiji, and Samoa in a single directed cycle of exchange can be discerned by
considering the most valued prestige good each society obtained from one other society.

19


Each island society, therefore, provided one other societys most valued marriage (and, more
generally, prestige) good, joining all three societies in a direct cycle analogous to a system of
generalized exchange. This cycle suggests that the Tongan monopoly on voyaging and trade
may have been historically recent and Tonga, Fiji, and Samoa were originally directly linked.
This would be consistent with the findings of Barnes and Hunt (2005).
Some confirmation of this comes from the Polynesian-speaking island of Nukuoro in the
southern Carolines where Eilers (1934:179) cited traditions of canoes from Hiti (Fiji)
visiting or being driven to the island on several occasions. As Lewis (1972:262) pointed out,
this lies more than 1800 miles north-west of Fiji and neither winds nor currents would
favour drift.
The collective quoted oral and linguistic evidence from central Oceania also appears to
strongly favour a long Fijian sailing history and cross-cultural influences. Taonui (2006:3238) offers: Rata is the second most well known demi-god in the Pacific after Maui ...
Samoan narratives say Lata was a Fijian canoe builder who taught the Samoans and Tongans
how to construct large double-hulled canoes. Tongan traditions say the guardian of the
forests prevented Lasa from felling a tree to build a great canoe. During a subsequent
struggle, Lasa caught the chief guardian, Ha-ele-feke, who agreed to help Lasa build the
canoe and navigate it to Fiji. He goes on to note that [t]raditions concerning the history of
ruling dynasties reflect frequent contact throughout West Polynesia ... Other traditions
describe contact with Niue and Fiji. A married couple expelled from Manua [Samoa]
escaped to Niue.

Their son Fitiaumua later conquered Fiji and Tonga ... Recorded

intermarriages reinforce this issue. One Tui Tonga married a daughter of the Tui Fiti (Fiji).
His daughter, Laufafaetonga married Tupainatuna, a Samoan. She later gave birth to her son
in Fiji, with whom she returned to Samoa.
Was the Drua a Purely Indigenous Evolution or was Iron a Catalytic Factor? Clunie
(1987:16) argues that the earliest metal introduction to Tonga by European sailors was
potentially a catalytic factor in the evolution of the drua class. The introduction of iron and
steel tools stimulated the development of the canoe by encouraging the use of vesi and the
production of much larger vessels. In Cooks time a spectacular tongiaki was some seventy
feet long and bore perhaps 80 men. By the 1820s when Lemakis grandson Maopo built the
Draunivia for Tanoa of Bau, winning his umpteenth wife, canoes had grown markedly in size
and - despite the proportionally smaller deck of the kalia in carrying capacity, the

20


Draunivia being 105 feet long and transporting several hundred passengers. It maybe of
course that the 70 tongiaki was only the biggest Cook saw and not the biggest there was. If
Clunie is correct (and the drua was not therefore a purely indigenous design) then it would
greatly strengthen the case for a Tongan designers claim. Against this is the continued use of
largely unchanged tongiaki for at least 150 years (and potentially millennia) prior to the kalia
revolution. If the kalia was a product, to some degree, of the influence of iron technology it
would make it, arguably, the earliest industrial cultural hybrid application in Oceania post
contact. In any cultures context, applying newly acquired technology to upgrading naval
capacity will be the highest priority of any maritime dominated decision-maker.
Finney (1994:49) is amongst a number of commentators who notes that at the time of
European contact the Tongans were adopting a double-ended hull design and movable lateenlike sail pioneered by Micronesian sailors that provided superior performance to their
traditional canoe and also when Cook visited Tonga in 1774 on his second voyage into the
Pacific, a new type of double canoe called the kalia was gaining popularity as the favoured
voyaging craft. If this is correct then the iron catalyst must have arrived pre-Cook as the
first kalia were by then already in production.
If iron was in use at this time it presumably came from contact with the earlier Dutch
explorers, Schouten and Le Marie in 1616 or Tasman in 1643. But Cook makes no reference
to Tongans using iron prior to his arrival, and King recorded no metal tools in the Tongan
carpenters toolbox (see below). Williams (1870:83) claims that the first iron goods [in Fiji]
were introduced among the Somosomoans. The first article of steel owned by them seems to
have been the half of a ship-carpenters draw-knife, ground to an edge at the broken end.
This was fixed as an adze, and greatly prized, receiving the name of Fulifuli after the chief
who brought it to Fiji. One of their first hatchets came through the Tongans, and was named
Sitia.
Finney discussed the extensiveness of Tongan voyaging, including their established contact
with Fiji and Melanesia, yet infers no role of non-Polynesians in canoe design or evolution
from outside of Tonga. Cooks comment of the outstanding capacity of Tongan canoe
builders in his earliest contact was discussed above.

This level of craftsmanship was

presumably achieved without influence of iron and can also be presumed to be of a level
capable of producing a drua without iron.

In Kings Journal from Cooks voyage he

describes the tongiaki hulls he witnessed as being built using only a stone hatchet, an Augur

21


made of Sharks teeth & rasp made of rough fish skin (Beaglehole, 1967:1367). Anderson
recorded in his Journal that each plank is fitted with such nicety that they would do credit to
an expert European artist, the only joining to be seen on the outside being a line not more
open than some in our common Cabinet work (Beaglehole, 1967: 936). There is no mention
of the use of metal tools here.
Participants at the 1996 Waka Moana Symposium in Auckland were treated to a carving
demonstration by acknowledged Maori master carvers Dante Bonica and Charles Koro Nehu
using stone adzes. The speed and precision of the removal of the wood was comparable to
that of a steel adze, given sufficient technique, and that was a revelation to most of the people
there (Bader and McCurdy, 1999:70).

I have also witnessed similar displays by

acknowledged carvers in Aotearoa/New Zealand.

Shineberg (1971) and DArcy (2000) are amongst authorities on Oceanic history who have
questioned the scale and extent that musket technology impact had in these islands and found
its historically vaunted capacity to change history as limited and overstated. A similar
argument could also be explored for the assumed influence of iron on the scale and speed at
which Oceanic craftsmen could construct naval hardware.
Conclusion
I contend that drua (kalia/alia) represent a pinnacle of Oceanic technological design and
innovation. The drua is arguably highly competitive against any other Oceanic design on all
points: speed, windward performance, size, construction, sail technology. Regardless of its
design origin, the drua in its finished form was the product of a unique and indigenous crosscultural collaboration.
The greatly increased windward capability of the drua immediately reduced the uncertainty
of return voyaging capacity (assuming the vessel itself withstood the rigours of the voyage),
as well as giving increased speed and performance. Within the sphere of Tongan influence
this capacity was exploited to great advantage as evidenced by the complexity of the interisland exchange and trade networks that followed in its wake, including increased martial and
religious (more latterly especially Christo-Judaic) exchange as occurred with every sea-going
power in the world at this time.
The vessel movements between Fiji and Tonga in particular were almost certainly at their

22


highest historical levels ever in the mid 19th century, used for military and naval operations,
diplomacy, trade and religious conversion and practice. Given the historical extent of the
Tongan empire using tongiaki class technology and the immensely increased capacity,
especially to windward, that drua technology provided, it is interesting to speculate the extent
it could have expanded if Europeans hadnt probed into central Oceania when they did.
Would drua have reached Hawaii and Aotearoa (New Zealand)? Would they have displaced
the local designs as quickly as they did tongiaki? What would have been the result to design
and performance under the influence of new cultures and access to materials such as
Harakeke (flax), Totora, and Kauri of New Zealand?
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