the.com/sampan
the flat little boat that carried whole lives across water before land could afford them.
means A small, flat-bottomed wooden boat used along rivers and coasts in East and Southeast Asia, propelled by oars or a single stern sculling oar and often roofed for shelter.
from From Chinese — Cantonese saam (三, "three") plus baan (板, "plank" or "board"): literally a "three-plank" boat, the humble idea being a hull built from a bottom board and two side boards. English borrowed it in the 16th–17th centuries through traders and sailors meeting these boats in Chinese and Malay waters; Portuguese and Malay carried the word along the same routes.
- name origin
- Cantonese for three planks, its literal hull recipe
- floating homes
- families lived aboard them for generations
- oar style
- sculled from the stern, never paddled forward
- river workhorse
- hauled fish, cargo, and passengers for centuries
- low profile
- flat bottom glides over shallow, muddy water
victoria peak sampan ferry — hong kong's traditional wooden boat service that transported residents up the peak for over 150 years until 1926
mekong delta sampans — floating markets in vietnam where vendors sell produce from sampans daily in can tho and cai rang
singapore river sampan — traditional bumboat sampans that transported goods and passengers on singapore river until the 1980s