Yaranga
Bidarka
This slender, watertight one-person boat was invented by the Inuit and used for transportation and hunting sea animals.
Propelled by double-bladed paddles like a canoe, a traditional kayak was made of a light driftwood or whalebone frame completely covered with sealskin, except for one hole, or cockpit, where the paddler sat.
Kayak means hunter's boat, and it was perfect for hunting on the water. The boats were almost silent, making it easy to sneak up behind prey. And, if a white cloth were draped on the front of the kayak, animals might be fooled into thinking that it was a drifting piece of ice.
These traditional one-man boats were usually just that. They were custom-made for just one man, to his size and weight. When a person had fallen into the water or died from kayak hunting, it was often said that he had borrowed a kayak from some else, so did not have the same sense of balance.
Inuit kayaks were very buoyant and could be easily turned back over by a seated person, even if completely overturned in the water. It was considered suicide to come out of the boat because there was no protection from the icy cold water, no buoyancy in heavy skin clothing, and who knew how to swim? If someone rolled their boat over, they had to know how to roll right back up!
When the Russians established trading posts in Alaska, they had the Alaskan Natives make three-hole bidarkas. The extra cockpits of these bidarkas were then used to transport traders, explorers, and Russian Orthodox priests.
This Inuit boat design was eventually copied by Europeans, who still make these boats that have kept their Inuit name, kayak.
Source courtesy of: athropolis.com/arctic-facts/fact-kayak.htm, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inuit, uaf.edu/museum/nj/sea/BM-intro.html#
Photo courtesy of: athropolis.com/arctic-facts/fact-kayak.htm
