The Beached Boat

Coastal India · landscape

A wooden fishing boat sits high on the sand with a row of casuarinas behind. The bow paint chipped, the seat planks worn smooth by years of fishermen.

Indian fishing boats look hand-built because they are. The hull is shaped on the beach, the planks fastened with iron nails, the seams caulked with cotton and tar. They get painted in whatever colours the boat-owner can afford — usually one bright colour for the hull, another for the bow trim. After a few seasons the paint chips and the wood underneath shows through, which is when the boat starts to look properly photogenic.

This one had been dragged up the beach for the day, far enough from the water that the next tide wouldn't take it. The casuarinas in the background ran in a thin dark strip — they're planted as windbreaks along the south Indian coast and they grow into these tall, straight, monoculture forests that you can hear before you see. I shot from the side because the lines of the hull were the photograph. The colour of the paint did the rest.

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