Boats of Beypore

On December 24, 1800, Buchanan reached Vay-pura, which he mentions was also called Baypour in his maps.  He describes Baypour as most beautiful, especially the north side of the river where it enters the sea. He noticed the building of ships of war but the biggest industry at that time was timber.  The native collector informed him that in 1798, almost 10,000 teak trees were brought down the river.  The timber is cut on the Ghats, and conveyed by elephants to the part of the river which in the rainy season has water sufficient to float it.  This teak was suitable for ship-building.  There was something else noted by Buchanan which we found very interesting:

“At Vay-pura some private gentlemen, with the view of supplying the dock yard at Bomaby with Teak plank, have erected a saw mill … the power intended to have turned this mill was the wind; which appears to me to be far too precarious a moving power for such heavy machinery”.

Buchanan had inspired us to visit Beypore; our first visit was in December 2006.  We were lucky to find that traditional ship-building was still carried out in Beypore, although the demand now comes mainly from the Gulf and Europe.  Throughout 2007 we recorded the process of ship-building having decided to make a documentary film on the subject. Unfortunately, we were unable to do that.  But we still have not given up our plans and are now actively contemplating an ethnographical film on people’s lives and boats in Beypore.  Just last week, we (re)visited Beypore and set the ball rolling …