Gibban

Rob Whitehurst is a tug driver in Louisiana. When serving in Viet Nam from 1970-72, he had the opportunity to observe and photograph hundreds of native boats of all types, on rivers, canals, on the Mekong Delta, and in Saigon Harbor. Here are a few that I particularly like, along with Rob's own captions. (Click any image to enlarge.)  Fishing near the Kinh Cho Gao, the Rice Market Canal River packet boat running downstream off of My Tho (Indig.Boats comment: this is very similar to certain Cambodian passenger boats of the present day) Sculling and Rowing a small river sampan on the Vai Co River A Hoa Hao Buddhist minaret. There were over 800 of these in the Mekong Delta in 1975. Most are gone today. Market at Binh Phuc-Nhut Village on Kinh Cho Gao canal. A girl named Phuong at 14, never smiled more than this, but cheerful and intelligent, always accompanying her mother on the river at Vinh Long Net fishing on the Rach Ong Chuong, An Giang Province Waterborne tea...

Here's an advertisement post Pearl Harbor.

An Ebay seller has posted what looks to be an early (1920s-30s) Chestnut Bobs Special wood canvas canoe. These wide beam canoes were first marketed as "50-Pound Specials" since they weighed roughly 50 pounds and were nearly 10 pounds lighter than any other canoe of comparable size using novel construction methods of the time. Their relatively flat bottoms allowed for more stability when standing in flat water so were preferred by fisherman and other sportsmen.  A more detailed history of the Bobs Special (including the curious originating source of the name) can be read in this article by Kaydi Pyette of Canoe Roots magazine. One of the more "famous" users of this canoe was Grey Owl (Archie Belaney). Here is a photo of him standing in an early model 50 Pound Special. The photo was taken during his stay in Prince Albert Nation Park sometime after 1931. Grey Owl in Chestnut 50-Pound (Bobs) Special Back in 2010, I wrote a post researching Grey Owl's paddles and dis...