Building Pâris’ Beden Seyad: a replica of the Omani 19th‐century sewn fishing vessel

Abstract

The beden seyad is a simple yet elegant Omani sewn fishing craft documented by the French naval officer François‐Edmond Pâris during his visit in Oman in 1838–1839. A 10m‐long scaled‐down replica of the vessel was built by a team of experts in a traditional boatyard in Qantab, the Sultanate of Oman, and is displayed in the Maritime History Gallery at the National Museum of Oman. This article describes different aspects of the building process of the vessel, from the material used to the method of construction. It compares the different versions of the beden drawing provided by Pâris and discusses the decision‐making and problem‐solving procedures carried out by the construction team.

Sewn Boats in Oman and the Indian Ocean

“…The strength of the hull is clearly demonstrated by the fact that some vessels, such as the 22m‐long Omani beden seyad illustrated by Pâris in the early 18th century (Fig. )(Ghidoni, ) and the masula surf boats were totally without frames (Pâris, ; Rieth, : 238). There was a negative side to the technique, however, as with rows of closely spaced holes (5–10cm centre‐to‐centre) drilled along the edges of the planks, there might be a tendency for the planks to ‘split along the dotted line’.…”

Sewn‐Plank Reconstructions of Oman: construction and documentation

“…Although at the time of Jewel of Muscat ’s construction, it was thought that this would be the only opportunity to document the building of sewn‐plank western Indian Ocean vessel in such depth, core members of the team subsequently reconstructed two more sewn‐plank vessels. One of these is the Beden sayed undertaken for the National Museum of the Sultanate of Oman, which Ghidoni () discusses elsewhere in this volume. The other is the al‐Hariri Boat .…”

“…The evidence for sewn‐plank construction in Oman is also found in the 19th and 20th centuries. The French naval officer François‐Edmond Pâris, during his visit to Muscat in 1839 drew a sewn badan predominantly used for fishing in Oman at the time, and sewn hood‐ends were still found on fishing badan s until recently (Pâris, ; Reith, ; Weismann, ; Ghidoni, ). Fishing vessels and lighters in Dhofar, Oman, known as kambārī , were sewn until the final decades of the 20th century (Weismann et al ., ), and the fishing battīl of Musandam still contain sewn features, such as through‐beam and hood‐end sewing, in spite of the fact that the rest of the planking is clench‐nailed to the frames (Vosmer, ; Alian, ; Weisman et al ., ).…”

“…It is a replica of the 19th‐century sewn‐plank fishing badan based on François‐Edmond Pâris’ drawings of a ‘ beden seyad’ in Essai sur la construction navale des peuples extra‐européens ou collection des navires et pirogues (Pâris, ), for the National Museum of Oman. It is not a medieval craft, and is the focus of another article in this publication (Ghidoni, ), so it will not be analyzed in any depth here.…”

“…The Sultanate of Oman, located on the southeastern corner of the Arabian Peninsula on the edge of the Indian Ocean, has played a particularly unique role in this regard. Although Oman has in fact been involved in a wide variety of maritime experimental reconstruction projects—from Bronze Age composite reed‐bitumen‐timber craft to more modern clench‐nailed dhow replicas—the country has also undertaken a number of different sewn‐plank experimental projects (Severin, ; Vosmer, ; Vosmer, ; Vosmer et al ., ; Vosmer, ; Ghidoni, ).…”