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Felucca

 
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A felucca is a traditional wooden sailing boat
Boat

A boat is a watercraft of modest size designed to float or plane on water, and provide transport over it. Usually this water will be inland or in protected coastal areas....
 used in protected waters of the Red Sea
Red Sea

The Red Sea is a salt water inlet of the Indian Ocean between Africa and Asia. The connection to the ocean is in the south through the Bab el Mandeb sound and the Gulf of Aden....
 and eastern Mediterranean including Malta
Malta

Malta , officially the Republic of Malta , is a densely populated developed country European microstates microstate in the European Union....
, and particularly along the Nile
Nile

The Nile is a major north-flowing river in Africa, generally regarded as the List of rivers by length in the world.The Nile has two major tributary, the White Nile and Blue Nile, the latter being the source of most of the Nile's water and silt, but the former being the longer of the two....
 in Egypt
Egypt

Egypt is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Western Asia. Covering an area of about , Egypt borders the Mediterranean Sea to the north, the Gaza Strip and Israel to the northeast, the Red Sea to the east, Sudan to the south and Libya to the west....
. Its rig
Rigging

Rigging is, on sailboats and sailing ships, the collection of apparatus through which the force of the wind is transferred to the ship in order to propel it forward....
 consists of one or two lateen
Lateen

A lateen or latin-rig is a triangular sail set on a long Yard mounted at an angle on the mast , and running in a fore-and-aft direction....
 sail
Sail

A sail is any type of surface intended to generate thrust by being placed in a wind—in essence a vertically-oriented wing. Sails are used in sailing....
s.

They are usually able to board ten-some passengers and the crew consists of two or three people. Despite being made obsolete by motorboat
Motorboat

A motorboat is a Boat propelled by an internal combustion engine or electric motor driving a pump jet or a propeller. The International Regulations for Preventing Collisions at Sea defines a "power driven vessel" as any vessel propelled by machinery and even a sailboat while it has an engine running is technically a power driven ves...
s and ferries
Ferry

A ferry is a form of transport, usually a boat or ship, used to carry passengers and their vehicles across a body of water. Ferries are also used to transport freight and even railroad cars....
, feluccas are still in active use as a means of transport in Nile-adjacent cities like Aswan
Aswan

Aswan , Egyptian language: Swenet , Coptic language: Swan; Greek language: Syene; ) is a city in the south of Egypt, the capital of the Aswan Governorate....
 or Luxor
Luxor

Luxor is a city in Upper Egypt and the capital of Luxor Governorate. Its population numbers 376,022 , and its area is about . As the site of the ancient Egyptian city of Thebes, Egypt, Luxor has frequently been characterized as the "world's greatest open air museum", the ruins of the temple complexes at Karnak and Luxor Temple standing wi...
.






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A felucca is a traditional wooden sailing boat
Boat

A boat is a watercraft of modest size designed to float or plane on water, and provide transport over it. Usually this water will be inland or in protected coastal areas....
 used in protected waters of the Red Sea
Red Sea

The Red Sea is a salt water inlet of the Indian Ocean between Africa and Asia. The connection to the ocean is in the south through the Bab el Mandeb sound and the Gulf of Aden....
 and eastern Mediterranean including Malta
Malta

Malta , officially the Republic of Malta , is a densely populated developed country European microstates microstate in the European Union....
, and particularly along the Nile
Nile

The Nile is a major north-flowing river in Africa, generally regarded as the List of rivers by length in the world.The Nile has two major tributary, the White Nile and Blue Nile, the latter being the source of most of the Nile's water and silt, but the former being the longer of the two....
 in Egypt
Egypt

Egypt is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Western Asia. Covering an area of about , Egypt borders the Mediterranean Sea to the north, the Gaza Strip and Israel to the northeast, the Red Sea to the east, Sudan to the south and Libya to the west....
. Its rig
Rigging

Rigging is, on sailboats and sailing ships, the collection of apparatus through which the force of the wind is transferred to the ship in order to propel it forward....
 consists of one or two lateen
Lateen

A lateen or latin-rig is a triangular sail set on a long Yard mounted at an angle on the mast , and running in a fore-and-aft direction....
 sail
Sail

A sail is any type of surface intended to generate thrust by being placed in a wind—in essence a vertically-oriented wing. Sails are used in sailing....
s.

They are usually able to board ten-some passengers and the crew consists of two or three people. Despite being made obsolete by motorboat
Motorboat

A motorboat is a Boat propelled by an internal combustion engine or electric motor driving a pump jet or a propeller. The International Regulations for Preventing Collisions at Sea defines a "power driven vessel" as any vessel propelled by machinery and even a sailboat while it has an engine running is technically a power driven ves...
s and ferries
Ferry

A ferry is a form of transport, usually a boat or ship, used to carry passengers and their vehicles across a body of water. Ferries are also used to transport freight and even railroad cars....
, feluccas are still in active use as a means of transport in Nile-adjacent cities like Aswan
Aswan

Aswan , Egyptian language: Swenet , Coptic language: Swan; Greek language: Syene; ) is a city in the south of Egypt, the capital of the Aswan Governorate....
 or Luxor
Luxor

Luxor is a city in Upper Egypt and the capital of Luxor Governorate. Its population numbers 376,022 , and its area is about . As the site of the ancient Egyptian city of Thebes, Egypt, Luxor has frequently been characterized as the "world's greatest open air museum", the ruins of the temple complexes at Karnak and Luxor Temple standing wi...
. They are especially popular among tourists who can enjoy their quieter and calmer mood than motorboats have to offer.

San Francisco's feluccas

Sf Felluca From Nara 115
Americans are largely unaware of the fleet of lateen-rigged feluccas that thronged San Francisco's docks even before the construction of the state-owned Fisherman's Wharf
Fisherman's Wharf, San Francisco, California

Fisherman's Wharf is a neighborhood and popular tourist attraction in San Francisco, California, United StatesIt roughly encompasses the northern waterfront area of San Francisco from Ghirardelli Square or Van Ness Avenue east to Pier 35 or Kearny Street....
 in 1884. They were built by southern Italian
Italian people

The Italian people are a Southern European ethnic group located primarily in Italy and, by virtue of a wide-ranging Italian diaspora, throughout Western Europe, the Americas and Australia....
 immigrants (who called them "silenas"). The light small maneuverable feluccas were the mainstay of the fishing fleet of San Francisco Bay
San Francisco Bay

San Francisco Bay is a shallow, productive estuary through which water draining from approximately forty percent of California, flowing in the Sacramento River and San Joaquin River rivers from the Sierra Nevada mountains, enters the Pacific Ocean....
. "These workhorses featured a mast that angled, or raked, forward sharply, and a large triangular sail hanging down from a long, two-piece yard" John Muir
John Muir

John Muir was a Scottish-born American naturalist, author, and early advocate of preservation of U.S. wilderness. His letters, essays, and books telling of his adventures in nature, especially in the Sierra Nevada of California, have been read by millions and are still popular today....
 described them.

See also

  • dhow
    Dhow

    A dhow is a traditional Arab Sailing ship with one or more lateen. They are primarily used along the coasts of the Arabian Peninsula, Pakistan, India, and East Africa....


External links

  • : by John Muir, an Associate Curator of Small Craft at the San Francisco Maritime National Historical Park.