1778: EXPLORER WILLIAM ELLIS, WAIMEA, KAUAI: "THEY HAVE ANOTHER MODE OF CONVEYING THEMSELVES, WHICH WE CALL SHARKBOARDS"

Their canoes or boats are the neatest we ever saw, and composed of two different coloured woods, the bottom being dark, the upper part light, and furnished with an out-rigger. Besides these, they have another mode of conveying themselves in the water, upon very light flat pieces of boards, which we called sharkboards, from the similitude the anterior part bore to the head of that fish. Upon these ...