Artisanal Watercraft Industry in Nineteenth-Century Cyprus: Vessel Types, Shipwrights, and Local Vessel Owners

Abstract

Recent scholarly work demonstrated that artisanal watercraft is an important aspect of Cypriot maritime culture, seaborne transport history, and trade deserving further study. A careful study of visual and historical sources allows for a discussion of this craft within its nineteenth-century setting and understanding of local market needs. A careful study of a variety of sources provides information on vessel types, local ownership, and, occasionally, the shipwrights. The Ottoman Empire’s nineteenth-century administrative inertia, combined with the fact that Cyprus was a stop along seaborne routes leading to other ports rather than a regular destination itself, impeded development of a local shipbuilding industry. Improvements on port infrastructure after Cyprus’s 1878 annexation by the British Empire initiated a modest growth but the industry never became vibrant like that of Greece. Nonetheless, analysis of the collected data illuminates previously unknown aspects of seafaring, coastal trading, and transportation. They demonstrate a cycle of choices and adaptations shaping coastal communities island-wide that are reinforced by oral testimonies of interlocutors born during the 1890s to 1920s period. Their testimonies highlight which aspects of maritime life survived in the twentieth century, such as established seaborne trade port destinations, island-wide supply networks (exchanges and trade of products), and seaborne transportation of people and goods. The data further illuminate the evolution of watercraft construction practices to meet local market demands for larger vessels (like the karavoskaro [caique]), which were bought from Greece in early to mid-nineteenth century, whereas in the late nineteenth century they were constructed locally.