Ancient ship research expert: 'Ancient boat in Bac Ninh is actually two buoys'

Chuyên gia nghiên cứu tàu cổ: 'Thuyền cổ ở Bắc Ninh thực ra là hai cái phao'- Ảnh 1.

The boat has absolutely no metal nails, the joints are all wooden. How do you evaluate this, from the perspective of shipbuilding engineering?

Mr. Do Thai Binh : Regarding the age of the boat, we are waiting for the C14 results (a method using carbon isotopes to determine age - NV ). But from the ethnographic technology of shipbuilding, there are many interesting stories.

We imagine that the ancients went into the forest and saw a tree with a diameter of over 1 m, maybe 1.2 - 1.5 m, and a height of over 10 m, then cut it down and used an axe and fire to burn it. At that time, metal was not very developed, so they mainly used an axe to carve the trunk and then made it into a dugout. Usually, people would then plank the dugout, usually about 2 - 3 strips of planks on each side of the boat. That was a lot because these planks were very thick. They also used fire to burn the bottom of the boat, also to soften the planks and then bend them to their liking.

The ancient boats in Bac Ninh can be seen to belong to the Southeast Asian boat building tradition. In Vietnam, there are two boat building traditions. The Northern boat building tradition, influenced by China, uses nails for fastening. Northern Vietnam mostly uses nails. The other tradition is Southeast Asia, influenced by the South, from Indonesia, the Philippines... mortise and tenon and dowel. That is the characteristic of Southern boat building technology.

Even archaeologists were surprised by the size of the ancient boat in Bac Ninh. As a researcher of shipbuilding techniques, what do you think about its size?

Traditionally, dugout canoes were made from only 2-3 planks, but the ancient boats in Bac Ninh were made up to 8 planks on each side of the boat. That created the depth of the boat. From the bottom up, it was already over a person's head, up to 1.8 m. If we talk about a boat body, it would be a giant dugout canoe, made up to 8 planks. That is very terrifying in size.

Chuyên gia nghiên cứu tàu cổ: 'Thuyền cổ ở Bắc Ninh thực ra là hai cái phao'- Ảnh 2. — The ancient boat bed of Bac Ninh is very deep.

When we lift it up like that, we pay attention to the bow and stern, the reinforcement block (there are 4 bumps like that)

4 cups), that's what I think is special. With ancient boats, there was no concept of using a keel like modern boats, so they used sideboards to connect the left and right sideboards. In the ancient boats of Bac Ninh, the sideboards would connect 8 strips of left sideboards and 8 strips of right sideboards, and at the same time that board would also connect to the bottom which was a dugout. The pins would go straight down to the dugout. That block (sideboard with 4 large pins) was very large. This is a unique detail. I've seen a lot of ancient dugout boats and have never seen a block as large as that.

The public is quite curious about the ancient boat of Bac Ninh, they are even more interested when archaeologists said that it was a double-hulled boat or a double-bottomed boat. Really, everyone wants to know what the boat looked like?

Chuyên gia nghiên cứu tàu cổ: 'Thuyền cổ ở Bắc Ninh thực ra là hai cái phao'- Ảnh 3. — The block of the sideboard and 4 pins of the ancient boat of Bac Ninh are highly appreciated by Mr. Binh for their rarity.

Vietnam has built dozens of catamarans. What the catamaran in Bac Ninh can do and its function remains to be seen. Because from the perspective of shipbuilding, the two hulls are just like two buoys, that is, to create buoyancy, not a cargo hold or a place for rowers. That is, it has nothing. Through research, the cargo hold is also not suitable. So what the upper part, the superstructure, is like still needs to be studied.

Associate Professor Dr. Tong Trung Tin said at the conference that it could be a boat for kings and mandarins to go out, or it could also be a floating dock. We will let the young people draw a plan for the upper part of that hypothesis. These two hulls must be connected to each other, but currently there are no traces of connecting rods on these two hulls. There must be some connection, because if only the bow is connected (which has been found), it will break immediately. The rudder is also a problem.

We still hear stories about the Dau River wharf, with foreign ships passing by. So from a technical perspective, do the ancient boats in Bac Ninh have any signs to show whether they are domestic or foreign boats, sir?

It is hard to say whether it is foreign or not. A foreign ship expert told me, Mr. Binh, this is an inland river boat, meaning it is a dugout made on the spot. But this boat could also have come from Champa. It can only be confirmed that this is a boat with Southeast Asian elements, only southern influence, no Chinese elements, no northern influence. This is a boat with the cultural imprint of Southeast Asia, with the Philippines, Indonesia, Champa and Central Vietnam.

Chuyên gia nghiên cứu tàu cổ: 'Thuyền cổ ở Bắc Ninh thực ra là hai cái phao'- Ảnh 4. — Two ancient boat hulls in Bac Ninh

On the ancient boat in Bac Ninh, archaeologists did not find many artifacts. But with such a huge size and superior technology, is there any reason to believe that this was a boat with royal elements, sir?

There is nothing to confirm that it is a royal boat. Because as I said above, it is just a float. To confirm that it is a royal boat depends on the upper deck that has not been seen yet. That deck is usually made of materials that we would call "cheap and perishable" compared to the dugout. So it will disintegrate over time. As for the float made of very thick wood, it is still like that.

Source: https://thanhnien.vn/chuyen-gia-nghien-cuu-tau-co-thuyen-co-o-bac-ninh-thuc-ra-la-hai-cai-phao-185250331232009019.htm