Coracle Making in the USA

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31 October 2015

As a child, I spent a great deal of time with my maternal grandfather, William Morgan, whose parents had come over from the Vale of Glamorgan. He was always proud of his Welsh background and passed that pride along to me as well as a few words of "yr hen iaith" (the old language). Having had the opportunity to visit Wales a couple times, I observed the coracles on display at St Fagans, and having a long time interest for hunting and fishing, thought that they would be an ideal craft for fishing in the broad, slow rivers of North Carolina.

Some months ago, I had the chance to purchase a coracle on eBay. Its exact origin is a little murky and it resembles an Ironbridge coracle, although when I got it it had a sticker on the seat that said "The Heart of Wales", which would indicate it came from somewhere in Wales. The seller was unsure of its origin. Julie Rees was kind enough to look at some photos I sent her of it, and first pointed out it's similarity to those made by Eustace Rogers at Ironbridge. After taking a close look at this style of coracle, and trying it out on a nearby lake, I decided to try my hand at making one myself. I read everything I could find on the topic and found that while there were several good books on the history of coracles, there were few on the actual building process. And here in North Carolina, it’s not like I could just pick up the phone and call a neighbour for advice. However, I decided to give it a try anyway.

At a local hardwood supply store I was able to buy a large plank of ash which a friend from church sawed up into 1⁄4 inch laths, roughly 9’ long. After soaking the laths I began the slow process of bending them to the desired shape. I used a heat gun (usually used to remove wallpaper) to heat the damp laths and after much deliberation I ended up tacking the bent laths to my workbench, tying them with bailing twine at the proper angle to hold them in place until they dried. While waiting for the laths to dry I worked on the seat and the paddle, both constructed out of cypress wood, a common wood in eastern North Carolina formerly used to make dug out canoes by the Native people and the early settlers.

I then attached the rim to the seat and put in the longitudinal laths. These went in easily enough, but I found that weaving the transverse laths in was more difficult. One thing I did notice, in examining many of the photos of older coracles, was that they were not always perfect, which was rather encouraging. I used a double layer of canvas as a covering, stretched it as tight as possible and stapled it to the rim, stitched the corners and waterproofed the canvas with a coat of bituminous paint. This is hard to find over here and rather expensive, so the second and third coats were applied using a product called Flex-Shield, a liquid rubber substance used here for waterproofing and sealing cracks and holes. This seems to work pretty well.

The last step is to finish staining and attaching the gunwales. Due to the size of the finished craft and the double layer of canvas, the total weight comes to roughly 35lbs. A bit more than I had planned, but I’m not planning to take it on any five mile hikes, just from the truck to the shoreline. If nothing else, I have learned that making a coracle is much like cooking North Carolina barbeque; it is not a process that can be rushed, but will be done when it’s done.

I look forward to visiting the Coracle Museum the next time I’m in Wales and perhaps meeting a few of the other members of the Society. I would encourage any of you with an interest to try making one; I see that there are several individuals and organizations that conduct courses in coracle building, which would surely be easier than doing it on your own. Hopefully it will give you the same sense of accomplishment it did me, as well as giving you a sense of what many of our ancestors went through making these without the benefit of modern tools, electric lights, or the many other conveniences we take for granted today.

Forest Hazel, North Carolina