the.com/umiak
the boat so big it ferried whole families, hunters, and a dead whale home
means An umiak is a large, open Arctic boat made of a wooden frame covered in stretched animal skins, used by Inuit and Yupik peoples to carry people and cargo and to hunt big sea mammals.
from From the Inuit (Inuktitut) word *umiaq*, meaning simply 'boat.' It often travels in English alongside its smaller sibling the *kayak* — and where the kayak was the lone hunter's sleek skin-craft, the umiak was the family vessel, sometimes called the 'woman's boat' because women frequently rowed it while men hunted from kayaks. The word came into English in the 18th century by way of explorers and traders meeting Arctic peoples, carrying the boat's name across the cold water more or less intact.
- skin hull
- Driftwood frame stretched with sewn seal or walrus hide
- women's boat
- Often paddled by women while kayaks hunted
- open design
- Wide and open, unlike the sealed solo kayak
- whale hauler
- Strong enough to carry slaughtered whales ashore
- ancient ride
- Arctic peoples have used it for thousands of years
umiak at barrow alaska — traditional whaling boat still used by iñupiat hunters in barrow, alaska's northernmost city
umiak in greenland fjords — kalaallit (greenlandic) seal and whale hunting vessel used in disko bay and western greenland settlements
umiak at kotzebue — open skin boat used by iñupiat and yup'ik peoples for subsistence hunting near kotzebue, alaska