A note on the small boats of the Rhio and Lingga Archipelago
C. A. Gibson-Hill’s 1951 note documents the small fishing and cargo-carrying boats of the Rhio-Lingga archipelago, a sparsely populated group of islands in the eastern Singapore Strait. Working from field observations made in 1950, Gibson-Hill identifies four principal boat types—the Jongkong, the Kolek (in its Johore and Singkep variants), the Sampan Rhio, and the Chinese Seine-Boat—and traces their distribution, construction, and sail plans across a north-south gradient from Pulau Sambo to Lingga and Singkep. The article is the third in a series on Malayan watercraft, following his 1950 papers on Indonesian trading boats reaching Singapore and the fishing boats of Singapore Island.
Summary
Gibson-Hill’s central concern is to place on record the form and appearance of the native small craft used across the Rhio-Lingga area, which he considers of value to the broader study of Malayan boats despite their unremarkable character. The region’s sheltered, mangrove-flanked waters support a fishing economy based on hand-lines, drift-nets, portable traps, and seros, all worked from lightly built one- to three-man canoes rarely exceeding 22–24 feet. A defining feature throughout is the near-universal use of the fore-and-aft rig: the smallest boats set a single triangular sail with a very short leech, while larger examples add a jib or step two short masts. Square-headed lugs, the typical Malay sail of the peninsula, are almost unknown in this region, and sprit-sails are confined to the Chinese Seine-Boat and are themselves waning.
The article traces a clear north-south transition in boat types. In the north, around Pulau Sambo and Belakang Padang, the Kolek Johore predominates, with smaller numbers of Kolek Chiau, Kolek Selat, and a few Sampan Rhio. Moving south along the Rhio, Boelan, and Dempo Straits, the Kolek Johore is gradually replaced by small and medium-sized Sampan Rhio. On Lingga and Singkep at the southern end, the small boats are Golek (Kolek Singkep) and Jongkong, while the Kolek Johore is virtually absent. Gibson-Hill argues that the Sampan Rhio and the Jongkong were formerly far more numerous in Singapore waters, where they comprised the great majority of smaller boats among Malay and Orang Laut communities, before being displaced by the Malay-built Kolek Johore spreading from the Johore Strait and the Chinese-built Kolek Chiau and Kolek Selat. He also draws a notable comparison between the profile of the smaller Sampan Rhio and the Malacca Kolek, whose hull lines are “strikingly similar” despite the latter’s more restricted distribution.
The appendix provides a critical assessment of Warington Smyth’s 1902/1906 paper on Malayan boats, arguing that it is “comprehensive only in its title,” having been written on the basis of a personal knowledge of some parts of Peninsular Siam, a passage through Singapore, and a “prolonged though not conspicuously critical examination” of the Skeat collection. Gibson-Hill stresses that the Skeat collection, formed in Kuala Langat in 1896–1897, was never a comprehensive survey of Malayan boats as a whole, and that the absence of a form from it does not mean it was not in use elsewhere.
Key Findings
- The Jongkong is a small inshore boat rarely exceeding 12–14 feet, typically 9–10 feet long with a mid-section depth of 10–12 inches, consisting of a dug-out base with a single added plank or wash-strake on each side; three distinct forms (a, b, c) are identified, with form (b) being the commonest in the area (pp. 121–123).
- The Kolek Johore in the northern Rhio Archipelago ranges from 12 to 20 feet in length and differs only slightly from the Singapore and Johore Strait version, carrying a little more sheer and a more heavily raked stem; rudders are rare and the boats are steered with a single paddle (p. 125).
- The Golek (Kolek Singkep) ranges from 10 to 15 feet and is distinguished from the Kolek Johore primarily by the profile of its ends, which show two angles at the forefoot and heel; Gibson-Hill argues that “Golek” is an earlier form of “Kolek,” both deriving from a root meaning “swaying readily or crank” (p. 126).
- The Sampan Rhio is now built on European lines (formerly from a dug-out base, a practice that persisted in some places until about 15–20 years before 1950), with a straight, well-raked stern post, a straight keel with angled heel and forefoot, and a short bowsprit; smaller versions (up to 20–22 feet) replace the Kolek Johore over most of the area, while larger examples (up to 30 feet) serve as cargo-carrying vessels with atap-covered shelters (pp. 127–128).
- The Chinese (Teochew) Seine-Boat is a long, narrow, keel-less boat generally 35–45 feet long with a beam of about 5–5¼ feet and a depth amidships of 28–30 inches, used almost exclusively by Teochew Chinese with a beach seine on and around Pulau Bintan; it is rigged with two sprit-sails (the older plan) or a single broad dipping lug (the newer Singapore plan) (pp. 129–130).
- The term “Nadeh” (or “Nadir”), applied by Pulau Brani people to their model Jongs and by the Singapore regatta committee to full-size boats, has no root in Malay and is probably of European origin; four models bearing this name in the Skeat collection at Cambridge represent small sailing boats built on European lines (p. 129).
Conclusion
Gibson-Hill’s definitive takeaway is that the small boats of the Rhio-Lingga area, while unremarkable in isolation, are essential to completing the picture of Malayan watercraft and reveal a clear pattern of cultural diffusion: the Kolek Johore spreading southward from the Johore Strait, the Chinese-built Kolek Chiau and Kolek Selat following in its wake, and the older Sampan Rhio and Jongkong retreating from Singapore waters to their southern strongholds on Lingga and Singkep. The article also serves as a corrective to the overstatement of Warington Smyth’s earlier survey, reminding readers that the Skeat collection, though historically valuable, cannot be treated as an exhaustive catalogue of Malayan boat types.
Context
- The study draws on Gibson-Hill’s own field observations in the Rhio-Lingga area (1950), the Skeat collection of boat models at the Museum of Ethnology and Anthropology, Cambridge, and a historical photograph of the Kallang estuary (c. 1890–1910) reproduced on plate 3.
- Historiographically, the article is part of Gibson-Hill’s systematic programme of documenting Malayan boats (1950a, 1950b, 1951) and represents a deliberate correction to the limitations of Warington Smyth’s 1902/1906 survey, which had long been treated as the standard reference on the subject.