ABSTRACT
Boats are said to have reverse-clinker planking (in Bangladesh Bengali, digekata) when each succeeding strake of planking overlaps inboard the upper edge of the strake below, rather than overlaps outboard, as is generally found in European clinker-built boats (Fig. 2.3). The strakes are fastened together, in both types of clinker work, through the overlap: in Europe by clenched nails; in South Asian reverse clinker either by hooked nails (in Orissa/West Bengal – see Fig. 2.3) or by boatbuilders’ staples (in Bangladesh – see Fig. 2.18). When using the term ‘European clinker’ to describe the planking lap shown in the upper part of Figure 2.3, there is no implication that the clinker planking of this style that is found in South Asia (Deloche, 1994: 168-70) is European in origin.
