A palari was a type of Indonesian sailing vessel originating in South Sulawesi, now largely superseded by mechanised vessels. Palaris were primarily used by the people of Ara and Lemo Lemo (in the Bulukumba Regency), to transport goods and people. They were rigged using the pinisi rig, which often led to them being better known as "pinisi". In Singapore, palari were known as "makassar traders".[1]:110
The name is derived from the Makassarese word biseang palari. Biseang means "boat", and lari means "to run" or "running". The word pa is a suffix used in forming nouns designating persons according to their occupation or labor, similarly to the English suffix -or/-er. The meaning of palari would therefore be equivalent to "runner".[2] This description underlines the fact that this vessel was nimbler and faster than its predecessor, the padewakang.[3][4]:22–23
Description
Beached palari in South Sulawesi.
A typical palari would be about 50–70feet (15.24–21.34m) in length overall, with a length at the waterline (lightly laden) of 34–43 feet (10.36–13.1 m). The sails were made using light canvas, while the topsails were of linen cloth. The vessel would be crewed by seven or eight men. Steering was achieved using double quarter rudders (a pair of rudders, one hung from each side of the stern quarters of the boat). Under favorable conditions, they could reach 9–10 knots (16.7–18.5km/h) in speed. A vessel with 30ft LWL would have a capacity of nearly 400 pikul (22.7–25 tons).[1]:112–113 A typical palari would be about 50–70feet (15.24–21.34m) in length overall, with a length at the waterline (lightly laden) of 34–43feet (10.36–13.1m). The sails were made using light canvas, while the topsails were of linen cloth. The vessel would be crewed by seven or eight men. Steering was achieved using double quarter rudders (a pair of rudders, one hung from each side of the stern quarters of the boat). Under favorable conditions, they could reach 9–10 knots (16.7–18.5km/h) in speed. A vessel with 30ft LWL would have a capacity of nearly 400 pikul (22.7–25 tons).[1]:112–113
During the 1920s and 1930s, the palari's crew would normally sleep in narrow bunks hung from ropes below the deck. Traditionally, the captain would have a small cabin about 2 m in length and 1 m in height, situated under the stern deck planking. Passengers could be accommodated in temporary cabins built on deck. Cooking was done using clay pots in a movable hearth about 1–2 m high. Cooking would be done by one of the crew, unless a female cook was brought aboard: occasionally the captain's wife would take this role, but generally the crew subsisted primarily on rice. Toilet facilities were located aft, overhanging the stern. Water was stored in jerrycans, drums, and pots.[5]
The palari hull was based on an older type of bost from Sulawesi: the pajala. Pajalas were undecked coastal vessels usually having a tripod mast carrying a single large tanja sail. The hull was carvel-built, and like other Malay boats, it is a double ender (the bow and stern of the boat is sharp i.e having stem and sternpost). Palari hull, is built by adding more planks upwards the pajala hull about 2–3feet (61–91cm), adding an overhanging stern deck (called ambeng in Malay language), plus the construction of decking.[1]:113–114
History
The ambeng up close.
Pajala to palari hull
In the 18th century, Bugis people sailed a type of perahu similar with patorani. The hull is from pajala type, the rig is using a canted triangular sail in a tripod mast, with weight less than 50 tons. Many of them can bee seen in Australian beach collecting teripang between 1800–1840.[6] In 1880, a boat dubbed "Bugis prahu" seems to have been the prototype of palari hull. It was a midway development to palari, with western-styled deck but with traditional (indigenous) stern (the ambeng stern). A bowsprit and jibsail has been added, but it's still using a tanja sail on a single tripod mast. There was no cabin at the stern.[7]
Pajala hull then undergoes modification, by adding additional planking thus making the hull higher and increasing cargo capacity. A "step" is made at the bow and "overhanging stern deck" (ambeng) also added.[8]
From padewakang-tanja to palari-pinisi
The first Sulawesian "true" pinisi (i.e the palari hull using pinisi rig) was thought to has been first built in 1906 by the shipbuilders of Ara and Lemo-Lemo, they built the first penisiq[sic] for a Bira skipper.[9] A single-masted variant is called palari jengki (they are also called one-masted pinisi).[8] The one masted boats have a much simpler sail plan. They are rigged with nade sail (gunter rig), occasionally with loose-footed cutter rig (without pekaki, or lower spar).[1]:116
What pushed Sulawesi sailors to abandon the sombala tanja that has been used from the past for the pinisi rig which is more European in nature according to Haji Daeng Pale is the ease of its usage. When the wind rises, the person on the boat using the sails has to roll the big sail onto the boom below, a heavy and dangerous job. The pinisi sail can be reduced section by section starting with closing the topsail and the headsail. If the wind increases again, it is rather easy to reduce the large sail by pulling it towards the mast, so that the boat using the sail is closed halfway and one or more of the headsails is still functioning sufficiently and the steering power is not lost. Besides this, there is also a difference in sailing ability — the pinisi sail can sail closer to the wind. The most important thing is that the boat can turn around more easily when beating to windward.[3][4]:26
The fleet of palari-pinisi at the end of the 1930s became the archipelago's greatest trading fleet, competing with Madurese leti-leti, plied as far as Singapore to trade. But this changed when the World War II broke out. During the war, it was not profitable for them to sail further west than Surabaya and Semarang. Salemo island is a small trading centre that has been a home to about 100 trading pinisi. A villager from the island said that at the east shore of the island (which is about 650 m long):[10]:218–219
"The pinisi would form an uninterrupted line, as they anchor side by side, along the shore. One may go on board a pinisi from one end; walk over the decks of the vessels and get off at the other end; so that one may move from the south to the north of the island without stepping on the soil between"
At the port of Makassar.
During World War II, the Imperial Japanese Army forced Biran pinisi to load the necessities of modern warfare and many were sunk by Allied planes and warships.[11] The situation was the same on Salemo Island. Just before Indonesia's Independence Day,[when?] Salemo Island was targeted by Allies' air strike. Many of the pinisi were apprehended or bombed at sea. Surviving pinisi owners fled to Jakarta and Surabaya.[10]:218–219 After World War II, during the Indonesian National Revolution, many Biran vessels were engaged in smuggling weapons from Singapore to Java for the new Indonesian armed forces. When peace was restored, sailing ships were the only means of transport which could function without expensive spare parts which had to be imported from abroad, and Biran trading revived rapidly.[11]Because of the economical situation, new merchants could only afford to build the lambo, smaller in size than the pinisi.[10]:219 Nevertheless, whereas before the war[which?] the biggest ships could load only about 40 tons, in the 1950s Biran sailors started to order ships of 100 tons and more, and from 1960 on increasingly transported consigned cargoes owned by Chinese and Indonesian traders instead of bartering with commodities in East Indonesia.[11] In the period between 1960 and 1970, the palari-pinisi became the world's largest sailboat trading fleet, numbering 800–1000 units,[12] still competing with the leti-leti, which has about the same number.[13] Starting from the 1970s, the motorization of traditional vessels started, and it was found that the traditional palari hull couldn't accommodate engines effectively, unlike the lambo's hull. A new ship, the lambo-pinisi, took over the role of palari-pinisi, and then evolved into the PLM (Perahu Layar Motor — motorized sailboat), which can load up to 300ton.[11]
1 2 3 4 5 Gibson-Hill, C.A. (February 1950). "The Indonesian Trading Boats reaching Singapore". Journal of the Malayan Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society. 23: 108–138.
↑ Liebner, Horst H. and Rahman, Ahmad (1998): 'Pola Pengonsepan Pengetahuan Tradisional: Suatu Lontaraq Orang Bugis tentang Pelayaran ', Kesasteraan Bugis dalam Dunia Kontemporer (Makassar).
1 2 3 Salam, Aziz; Katsuya, Osozawa (September 2008). "Technological Adaptation in the Transformation of Traditional Boats in the Spermonde Archipelago, South Sulawesi". Southeast Asian Studies. 46: 200–227.
Liebner, Horst H. (2005), "Perahu-Perahu Tradisional Nusantara: Suatu Tinjauan Perkapalan dan Pelayaran", in Edi, Sedyawati (ed.), Eksplorasi Sumberdaya Budaya Maritim, Jakarta: Pusat Riset Wilayah Laut dan Sumber Daya Nonhayati, Badan Riset Kelautan dan Perikanan; Pusat Penelitian Kemasyarakatan dan Budaya, Universitas Indonesia, pp.53–124
Horridge, Adrian (2015). Perahu Layar Tradisional Nusantara. Yogyakarta: Penerbit Ombak. An Indonesian translation of Horridge, Adrian (1985). The Prahu: Traditional Sailing Boat of Indonesia,second edition. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
