A dhow under full sail

Source: http://www.taletwist.com/studio/pages/ttinlife0003.htm
(downloaded Dec. 2000)

Dhow anchored off Salalah, southern Oman; photo by Nicolas Sapieha

Source: http://www.archaeology.org/9705/abstracts/dhow.html
(downloaded Dec. 1999)

"For thousands of years Omanis have plied a sea-trading thoroughfare stretching north to Mesopotamia, east to India, and southwest to Africa. Taking advantage of seasonal winds, they sailed to foreign ports during the winter, returning home in the summer. In addition, the Arabs developed a highly effective triangular sail, called a lateen, and the kamal, a navigating device that enabled them to determine latitude by gauging the height of the Pole Star above the horizon. They eventually established colonies along the African coast, in Mogadishu, Mombasa, Lamu, and Zanzibar, where they operated lucrative clove plantations.

Indigenous to the coasts of the Arabian peninsula, India, and East Africa, the earliest dhows were shell built--simple dugouts with teak planks sewn to their sides to form a hull. Gradually, larger vessels evolved, employing a keel to which planking was sewn. Shell-built construction differed from the European frame-first method, in which planking was attached to ribbing. Shell-building allowed shipwrights to create a vessel one plank at a time. If changes were requested, one could simply alter the shape of a plank or its angle of attachment."  --Tom Vosmer, "The Durable Dhow"

Dhows in Bombay, an albumen photo from the 1890's

Source: ebay, June 2007

A dhow featured, quite appropriately, on a Zanzibar banknote in 1920

Source: http://www.banknotes.com/ZZ1.JPG
(downloaded May 2002)

A detailed replica of a dhow, created in silver

Source: http://www.softleyandpage.com/images/wpc411b.jpg
(downloaded May 2002)

A beautiful dhow

Source: http://www.jmr.nmm.ac.uk/site/request/setTemplate:singlecontent/contentTypeA/conJmrBookReview/contentId/32
(downloaded Dec. 2004)