Felucca

Information about Felucca

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Feluccas at Luxor


A felucca is a traditional wooden sailing boat used in protected waters of the Red Sea and eastern Mediterranean including Malta, and particularly along the Nile in Egypt. Its rig consists of one or two lateen sails.

They are usually able to board ten-some passengers and the crew consists of two or three people. Despite being made obsolete by motorboats and ferries, feluccas are still in active use as a means of transport in Nile-adjacent cities like Aswan or Luxor. They are especially popular among tourists who can enjoy their quieter and calmer mood than motorboats have to offer.

San Francisco's feluccas

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Italian fishermen mending nets on wharf in San Francisco. Fellucas in background. 1891. Source: NARA


Americans are largely unaware of the fleet of lateen-rigged feluccas that thronged San Francisco's docks even before the construction of the state-owned Fisherman's Wharf in 1884. They were built by southern Italian immigrants (who called them "silene"). The light small maneuverable feluccas were the mainstay of the fishing fleet of San Francisco Bay. "These workhorses featured a mast that angled, or raked, forward sharply, and a large triangular sail hanging down from a long, two-piece yard" John Muir described them.

The felucca of the Red Sea is depicted on a postage stamp of British Aden (illustration, right).

See also

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Aden postage stamp of 1937

External links

References

  • Vincent Zammit, The Gilded Felucca and Maltese Boatbuilding Techniques
In the Ultima series of computer role-playing games, Felucca is one of the moons of Britannia. The other moon is Trammel.

In the Ultima Online continuity, Felucca is the name of the one of the facets of Britannia.
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sail is any type of surface intended to generate thrust by being placed in a wind — in essence a vertically-oriented wing. Sails are used in sailing.

Use of sails

Sails are primarily used at sea, on sailing ships as a propulsion system.
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A boat is a watercraft designed to float or plane on, and provide transport over, water. Usually this water will be inland (lakes) or in protected coastal areas. However, boats such as the whaleboat were historically designed to be operated from a ship in an offshore environment.
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Red Sea is an inlet of the Indian Ocean between Africa and Asia. The connection to the ocean is in the south through the Bab el Mandeb sound and the Gulf of Aden. In the north are the Sinai Peninsula, the Gulf of Aqaba) and the Gulf of Suez (leading to the Suez Canal).
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Mediterranean is a sea of the Atlantic Ocean almost completely enclosed by land: on the north by Europe, on the south by Africa, and on the east by Asia. It covers an approximate area of 2.
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Anthem
L-Innu Malti
("The Maltese Anthem")

Location of  

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Origin Africa
Mouth Mediterranean Sea
Basin countries Sudan, Burundi, Rwanda, DR Congo, Tanzania, Kenya, Uganda, Ethiopia, Egypt
Length 6,650 km (4,132 mi)
Source elevation 1,134 m (3,721 ft)

Avg.
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Gumhūriyyat Miṣr al-ʿArabiyyah
Arab Republic of Egypt


Flag Coat of arms
Anthem
Bilady, Bilady, Bilady
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lateen (from a la trina, meaning triangular) is a triangular sail set on a long yardarm mounted at an angle on the mast, and running in a fore-and-aft direction. Originally found on sailing ships, the lateen is used today in a slightly different form on small boats like
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motorboat is a vessel propelled by an internal combustion engine driving a jet or a propeller. The International Regulations for Preventing Collisions at Sea defines a "power driven vessel" as any vessel propelled by machinery
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ferry is a form of transport, usually a boat or ship, but also other forms, carrying (or ferrying) passengers and sometimes their vehicles. Ferries are also used to transport freight (in lorries and sometimes unpowered freight containers) and even railroad cars.
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Aswan (Egyptian: Swenet (=trade); Coptic: Swān; Greek: Συήνη Syene; Arabic: أسوان Aswān
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Luxor (Arabic: الأقصر ) is a city in Upper (southern) Egypt and the capital of Luxor Governorate. Its population numbers 376,022 (1999 survey), and its area is about 416 km² [1].
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City and County of San Francisco
"The Painted Ladies"

Flag
Seal
Nickname: The City, The City by the Bay, San Fran, Frisco,[1] Baghdad by the Bay[2]
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Fisherman's Wharf may refer to:
  • Fisherman's Wharf, Monterey, California - a historic fishing wharf in Monterey, California
  • Fisherman's Wharf, San Francisco, California - a hugely popular tourist destination and still-functioning wharf, located in San Francisco,

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San Francisco Bay is a shallow, productive estuary through which water draining from approximately forty percent of California, flowing in the Sacramento and San Joaquin rivers from the Sierra Nevada mountains, enters the Pacific Ocean.
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John Muir (April 21, 1838 – December 24, 1914) was one of the first modern preservationists. His letters, essays, and books telling of his adventures in nature, and wildlife, especially in the Sierra Nevada Mountains of California, were read by millions and are still popular
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lateen (from a la trina, meaning triangular) is a triangular sail set on a long yardarm mounted at an angle on the mast, and running in a fore-and-aft direction. Originally found on sailing ships, the lateen is used today in a slightly different form on small boats like
..... Click the link for more information.
Rigging (from Anglo-Saxon wrigan or wrihan, "to clothe") is, on sailboats and sailing ships, the collection of apparatuses through which the force of the wind is transferred to the ship in order to propel it forward.
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sail is any type of surface intended to generate thrust by being placed in a wind — in essence a vertically-oriented wing. Sails are used in sailing.

Use of sails

Sails are primarily used at sea, on sailing ships as a propulsion system.
..... Click the link for more information.
Origin Africa
Mouth Mediterranean Sea
Basin countries Sudan, Burundi, Rwanda, DR Congo, Tanzania, Kenya, Uganda, Ethiopia, Egypt
Length 6,650 km (4,132 mi)
Source elevation 1,134 m (3,721 ft)

Avg.
..... Click the link for more information.

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