Naval History - Ancient Peru
The Navy of Peru is an institution that arose in the context of the independence process. Nevertheless, the relationship with the sea of ancient Peruvian population dates back to ancient times to times when hunter-gatherers who occupied the Andes down to the coast to exploit the rich marine resources that facilitates the Peruvian Current. Initially, the exploitation of resources was limited to gathering shellfish at certain times of the year, and there remains large middens today testifying to this activity in some parts of the coast. Then, the abundance of marine species led to the development of fishing with hooks and initially nets from the shore, as attested to those found in Paracas (8,830 BC).
They then entered the sea, having had to devise the development of floats devices and later boats themselves. The appearance of vessels in the current Peruvian coast was due to specific needs that a people or culture found. It is not possible with the available evidence to indicate a date when this process began, but certainly some 4,500 years ago the diet of costal people man had begun to include larger fish, living away from the shore.
Using locally available materials, some of these groups built buoyancy aids which then evolved to achieve the status of rafts capable of crossing the surf. When this level was reached, some of these groups raided at greater distances, carrying out sailings that allowed them to alter their ancestral patterns barter and reciprocity, so widespread in the Andean world. With them came the first glimpse of a new social order, appearing a specialized trade and navigation group. Such, at least in the Peruvian coast, the case of Chincha.
The totora reed has been used since the time of the Incas up to the present day, in the construction of the "caballitos de totora" - literally translated as "little horses made of totora reeds". These reed boats, much used by artisanal fishermen, are a Huanchaco tradition and are one of Huanchaco's most iconographic images.
In most of coastal Peru, reeds grow naturally and are planted and harvested as a construction material to build homes and shelters. Reeds are also used for the country’s iconic native boats, the caballitos de totora (little reed horses). In the north of Peru, at Mancora and in communities near the Ecuadorian border, there are different type of fishing vessel. Here, due to the scarcity of reeds, fishermen take to the sea on narrow bamboo rafts.
Coastal fishermen ride their caballitos like a horse, sitting astride them; launching into the incoming surf is not difficult when your feet are on the sand. The riders paddle their caballitos kayak-style with a double bladed paddle, usually a single board of bamboo or wood.
By the nature of their construction, caballitos de totora become waterlogged after a week or so. Most fisherman own several boats, allowing them to dry one craft in the sun while continuing to fish using another. Caballitos remain a common and identifiable part of Peru’s coastal traditions. Similar craft have also been used for centuries on Lake Titicaca, but these are usually broader beamed and designed to carry cargo.
The boats of the Andean world had their own evolutionary process. Apparently, the earliest were cattails and stick, which were used in fishing to become current reed horses and Balsillas North coast. Apparently, because of the Moche state needs, reed raft grew and reached important dimensions, being used for the exchange and eventually to the war, as evidenced by its rich iconography.
The balsilla stick evolved more slowly, but managed to incorporate some important issues such as the aerofoil advances, with a corresponding gear, and a peculiar system of navigation, using guares or pairs of plates which plunged between the logs to govern and avoid drift. The raft of clubs spread throughout the Andean world by the beginning of this millennium, replacing the great reed raft. When Europeans arrived in the Peruvian coasts, they could find a boat similar to some of their own size, with capacity of up to 60 or 70 tons. Its ingenious system of navigation was adequate to European vessels thus resulting in the daggerboard or variable keel, Peruvian contribution to the global navigation.
Finally, at the time of the Spanish arrival and in some parts of the coast and Ilo and Chancay had started to use small boats for fishing purposes.
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