ABSTRACT
During an exploratory visit to Tamil Nadu in 1994, vessels were seen being designed and built by ‘frame-first’ methods at a ship-building site in Tuticorin and at a boatyard in Atirampattinam (Fig. 7.1). These vessels were different in this fundamental aspect from all other traditional types of boat on the Bay of Bengal coast, which are built ‘plank first’. It was clear that these Tuticorin and Atirampattinam boats and ships needed further study, for they had never been recorded in detail, and they were increasingly being fitted with engines. Furthermore, it seemed likely that they might also shed light on a period of technological change in late medieval Europe when plank-first methods were increasingly replaced by frame-first methods.
