Images(3)

Suria Jaya

Vessel numberHV000758

Date1973

DimensionsVessel Dimensions: 5.37 m × 1.28 m (17.62 ft × 4.2 ft)

DescriptionSURIA JAYA comes from Home Island, in the Cocos Islands. They are located off the Western Australian coast in the Indian Ocean. It was built there in 1973 by Nek Nani (puria Bin Amin) with the help of his two sons Alpan Bin Puria and Zeta Bin Puria. The craft was purchased from the islands by the Museum and Art Gallery of Northern Territory (MAGNT) in 2005.

SURIA JAYA is a small sailing skiff or dinghy. The type is known as a jukung (also spelt as jukong, dukong, djukong) and the design is specific to the Cocos Island. It is modelled after an English whaleboat or whaler that was introduced to the Islands by English adventurer Alexander Hare and Scottish mariner John Clunies-Ross in the 1827. Hare and Clunies-Ross settled the uninhabited islands in 1827 and established a copra plantation.

In the Cocos the Malay people originally built jukung to carry copra and supplies between the islands and for fishing the reefs and lagoons. In the more recent period they have built them for recreational purposes, and this example represents that purpose and period.

SURIA JAYA represents an excellent example of the jukung’s interesting chine hull shape and construction from the period it was built in 1973. The lines for the double ended, single chine hull shape show the jukung’s typical fine entry at their plumb stem, with a veed shape to the bottom panel that holds to a modest deadrise midships, and runs out to a fine ended raked stern frame forming the double-ended hull shape. It has a rounded profile rudder attached to the stern frame and the jukung yoke steering. The hull has the deeper dead wood keel running full length which along with its deep veed hull shape is a principal element of the craft’s sailing ability. The deep keel section is replacing a centreboard, which has potential for damage in the shallow lagoon they are sailed in.

The hull shows the typical carvel planked, single chine shape where the panels are planked with three planks on bottom, two on topsides. The planking is supported with frames, five stringers, a chine log, and a riser for the thwarts. The frames are given a closer spacing at mast step and thwarts. One thwart serves as a mast partner. The centreline has a keel with a raised keelson set over the frame ends and their connecting brackets on the centreline. There is a deadwood keel extension on the bottom as an alternative to a centreboard for windward sailing. The covering board at the sheer is fitted an inwale on inboard edge. There is cross-planked decking fore and aft, and a breast hook at the bow. Fastenings are brass or copper. The mast and rigging includes a gunter rigged main and small jib, side stays and running backstays.

The hull presents as an elegant and efficient shape and an example of a craft well designed for its use and environment. It is a very strong and well-shaped hull and with its sail set creates an impressive appearance for a small craft, accentuated by the varnished interior and topside strake and overall detailing. It has very good original integrity.

SURIA JAYA demonstrates the style and construction of the jukung. This is able to teach people about the ingenuity of Malay people on the Cocos Islands to produce craft specific to their location combining old and new ideas.
The craft shows the shape derived from its whaleboat origins as adapted by the Malay people who have introduced the its chine shape and vertical stem, and the clever use of a deadwood keel instead of a centreboard to suit the shallow waters it sailed in.

SURIA JAYA has a very strong connection to the Cocos Island community, representing a type of craft they have developed and has since become identified with their community over a long period. The Cocos Islands are an external territory administered by Australia in the Indian Ocean the craft is very close to its context for operation and use. Although other jukung remain in use on the island, and it remains possible to build them, it is important to have an original example secured in a collection, representing a specific period as a reference point in their evolving history.

SignificanceSURIA JAYA is a wooden open boat built on the Cocos (Keeling) Islands, a Territory of Australia in 1973. It is a jukung and has a background that relates directly to this island region where the jukung type was used extensively past and present.