A dhow is a traditional arab sailing vessel with one or more triangular sails, called lateens. It is indigenous to the coasts of the Arabian Peninsula, India, and East Africa. A larger dhow may have a crew of approximately thirty while smaller dhow have crews typically ranging around twelve.
For celestial navigation, dhow sailors have traditionally used the kamal. This observation device determines latitude by finding the angle of the Pole Star above the horizon.
1937 stamp of Aden depicting a dhow.
Up to the 1960s, dhows made commercial journeys between the Arabian Gulf and East Africa using only sails as a means of propulsion. The freight was mostly dates and fish to East Africa and mangrove timber to the lands in the Arabian Gulf. They sailed south with the monsoon in winter or early spring and back again to Arabia in late spring or early summer.
Types of dhow
- Ghanjah - a large vessel with a curved stem and a sloping, ornately carved transom.
- Baghlah - the traditional deep-sea dhow
- Battil - featured long stems topped by large, club-shaped stem heads
- Badan - a smaller vessel requiring a shallow draught
Other types of sailing vessel
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