Gjøa 1872 by Harvey Golden - Roald Amundsen's Cutter built at Rosedahl, Norway

[Dr PR]

Harvey,

 

Nice recovery! It looks very nice.

 

Happy holidays!

[Harvey Golden]

The Gaff Topsail is hoisted!  Next up are the yards' lifts, braces and sheets.  

As I've built the two intact Nattilingmiut kayaks that Amundsen collected on King William Island, I thought I'd also make the three wood and caribou antler sleds-- the specs for these come from J. Garth Taylor's 1974 "Netsilik Eskimo Material Culture: The Roald Amundsen Collection from King William Island."  The model sleds are made from cedar, paper, and copper wire, lashed with button thread. 

[Glen McGuire]

Those sleds look fantastic, Harvey.

[wefalck]

These kayaks look very realistic 👍🏻 I don't remember, did you already describe how they were made?

 

Since I worked for some years in one of the French arctic research instutes (long story how this came about), I got interested a bit in traditional skin-boats and began to collect literature on them: https://www.maritima-et-mechanika.org/maritime/maritimebibliographies/skin-boat-bibliography.pdf. I had a Greenland kayak lying in the corridor in front of my office.

 

[Harvey Golden]

On 12/28/2025 at 2:31 AM, wefalck said:

These kayaks look very realistic 👍🏻 I don't remember, did you already describe how they were made?

Thank you Wefalck!  I probably didn't describe them; easier to do so again than check. They're just fine pieces of cedar and thin strips of bamboo glued together; the bent ribs are bamboo 'cracked' at the bilges, as Nattilingmiut kayaks have very flat bottoms and slab sides. The 'skin' covering is just tissue, stained, with painted seams. 

My interest in this ship, and in Amundsen comes from the three Nattilingmiut kayaks he collected on King William Island in 1905-06. I study kayaks in museums, and the two intact kayaks Amundsen collected will be in my next book (I see my previous two books have made it to your list! That is a superb and thorough list, BTW).  Here is a scale drawing of one of them: 

Part of my studies with Inuit (and other) northern kayaks involves full-size reconstruction; here is a full-size functional replica of the other intact Nattilingmiut kayak Amundsen collected: 

The joinery, scantlings, and lashing patterns are the same as on the originals; the primary material substitution is nylon for the 'skin' as using seal skin would land me in federal prison. 

I've built a few others as well: https://www.traditionalkayaks.com/Kayakreplicas/KayakReplicas.html

All the best and happy new year!

-Harvey

[wefalck]

"...  as using seal skin would land me in federal prison." ... and I suppose it would be difficult to rope-in female family members to 'tan' the skins be chewing them 😁

 

I didn't realise you were that H. Golden 👍🏻   I haven't updated the literature list for quite a while, basically since I left that institute, I think. They have a master-course on artic studies (pretty broad) on which I used to teach and as a sort of extra I also gave a lecture on arctic boats. The director of the institute also is the director of the Malaurie Institute of Artic Research in Monaco (https://miarctic.org) that takes care of Jean Malaurie's legacy. 

 

[Harvey Golden]

2 hours ago, wefalck said:

"...  as using seal skin would land me in federal prison." ... and I suppose it would be difficult to rope-in female family members to 'tan' the skins be chewing them 😁

Yes, the Federal Prison would have been much more pleasant than the result of such an inquiry.

 

2 hours ago, wefalck said:

I didn't realise you were that H. Golden 👍🏻  

(Blush). It's true. Not many "Harvey Goldens" out there, and if you google the name, you'll come across a lot of Golden Retrievers named Harvey. 😉

 

[Keith Black]

  Harvey, in your link to kayaks you've built I don't see any doubles or triples. My wife is 50% Aleut and when we lived in Egegik I became very interested in Aleut culture and history. Kayaks were no longer built by the elders as memory of how to had long faded. I did have the opportunity to witness the building of a traditional dogsled built by a village elder sharing his knowledge.

 

 A great photo of doubles. 

                  Aleut sea otter hunters resting next to kayaks, gut parkas hanging up to dry, and kayak covers, Unalaska, Alaska, 1896

[Harvey Golden]

10 minutes ago, Keith Black said:

  Harvey, in your link to kayaks you've built I don't see any doubles or triples.

Hi Keith-- there should be four or five in the first two columns; here's a link to one: https://www.traditionalkayaks.com/Kayakreplicas/398278.html

Best, 

Harvey

[Capt. Kelso]

Very impressive!