A
kora-kora or
kora kora or
coracora is a traditional canoe from the Maluku (Moluccas) Islands,
IndonesiaThe Republic of Indonesia is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania. Indonesia comprises 17,508 islands. With an estimated population of around 237 million people, it is the world's fourth most populous country, with the world's largest population of Muslims.Indonesia is a republic, with an...
. It was approximately ten metres long and very narrow, quite open, very low, and weighs about four tons. It had outriggers of
bambooThe bamboos are a group of woody perennial evergreen plants in the true grass family Poaceae, subfamily Bambusoideae, tribe Bambuseae. Some are giant bamboos, the largest members of the grass family. Bamboos are the fastest growing woody plants in the world...
about five feet off each side, which supported a bamboo platform extending the whole length of the vessel. On the extreme outside of this sit the twenty rowers (overall it needs 40 paddlers), while within was a convenient passage fore and aft.
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A
kora-kora or
kora kora or
coracora is a traditional canoe from the Maluku (Moluccas) Islands,
IndonesiaThe Republic of Indonesia is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania. Indonesia comprises 17,508 islands. With an estimated population of around 237 million people, it is the world's fourth most populous country, with the world's largest population of Muslims.Indonesia is a republic, with an...
. It was approximately ten metres long and very narrow, quite open, very low, and weighs about four tons. It had outriggers of
bambooThe bamboos are a group of woody perennial evergreen plants in the true grass family Poaceae, subfamily Bambusoideae, tribe Bambuseae. Some are giant bamboos, the largest members of the grass family. Bamboos are the fastest growing woody plants in the world...
about five feet off each side, which supported a bamboo platform extending the whole length of the vessel. On the extreme outside of this sit the twenty rowers (overall it needs 40 paddlers), while within was a convenient passage fore and aft. The middle portion of the boat is covered with a thatch-house, in which baggage and passengers are stowed. The
gunwaleThe gunwale is a nautical term describing the top edge of the side of a boat.Wale is the same word as the skin injury, a weal, which, too, forms a ridge. Originally the gunwale was the "Gun ridge" on a sailing warship...
was not more than a foot above water, and from the great top and side weight. The shape of the boat itself is similar to a
ChineseChina is a cultural region, an ancient civilization, and, depending on perspective, a national or multinational entity extending over a large area in East Asia....
Dragon BoatA dragon boat is a very long and narrow canoe-style human-powered boat. It is now used in the team paddling sport of dragon boat racing which originated in China over 2000 years ago...
.
This boat is used for both trade and warfare. Bigger kora-koras were used as war vessels during the war with the
DutchThe Netherlands is a country in Northwestern Europe, constituting the major portion of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. It is a parliamentary democratic constitutional monarchy. The Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east...
in the
Banda IslandsThe Banda Islands are a volcanic group of ten small volcanic islands in the Banda Sea, about 140 km south of Seram island and about 2000 km east of Java, and are part of the Indonesian province of Maluku. The main town and administrative centre is Bandanaira, located on the island of the...
during the 17
th century.
Since ancient times the steerer and paddlers of these traditional Moluccan rowing boats yelled 'Mena Muria', to syncronise their strokes during off shore expeditions. This literally means 'Front - Back', but is also translated to 'I go - We follow' or 'One for all - All for One'.
Some of the bigger rowing boats could have over a 100 rowers and when used on the maritime war path, during for instance a so called 'hongitocht' (war expeditions for the
VOCVOC may refer to:*Volatile organic compound, a vaporous chemical*Vereenigde Oost-Indische Compagnie or Dutch East India Company , an international Dutch trading organisation...
during the 17th century), the approach of the 'kora kora' struck fear in the hearts of the villagers from the attacked coastel village.