Hammering nails into a traditional wooden boat he hand-built, Khaled Bahlawan works under the scorching sun on Syria’s Mediterranean coast to preserve a vanishing ancient skill.
“We are the last family making wooden ships and boats in Syria,” said the 39-year-old on the coast of Arwad Island near the city of Tartus.
“This is the heritage of our ancestors… We fight every day to preserve it”.
Located about three kilometers (less than two miles) off the coast, Arwad is Syria’s only inhabited island and an oasis of peace in a country torn by 11 years of war.
Hundreds of workers, residents, and visitors commute there and back daily in wooden boats, mostly built by the Bahlawan family.
But demand for a craft dating back to ancient Phoenician times has dwindled to a trickle.
The eight members of the Bahlawan family now share the work, building boats for fishermen, resorts and people transportation.
The tradition of building and repairing wooden boats has been in her family for hundreds of years.
Long power outages from years of conflict means Bahlawan is unable to use his electrical equipment.
Instead, he works with his grandfather’s hand tools, smoothing the wood by hand rather than with a power planer.
“It’s a tough job,” he said, standing in the hull of a boat and tapping gently on each nail.
Despite low demand and modest means, he goes to his cramped open-air workshop near the beach every day.
“We’re doing our best to overcome difficulties,” Bahlawan said, his face covered with sweat and the occasional wood chip.
– “Historical Responsibility” –
Boat building has been a village tradition since Phoenician times, said Noureddine Suleiman, who heads the Arwad community.
In the past, most residents of Arwad were boat builders, he said.
“Today, only the Bahlawan family remains,” he said.
Thousands of years ago, the Phoenicians, famous for their ship and boat building, laid the foundation for seafaring.
The skilled seafarers and traders roamed the seas, taking their knowledge, craftsmanship and alphabet to other parts of the Mediterranean.
But traditional boat building is now in danger of disappearing altogether, Suleiman warned, as young people migrate or look for easier, more lucrative jobs.
Farouk Bahlawan, Khaled’s uncle, said his family preserved the original shape and structure of the ancient Phoenician boats with some modifications.
“We make ships mainly from eucalyptus and mulberry wood from the forests of Tartus,” says the 54-year-old, a trained carpenter.
Small children played hide-and-seek in the workshop’s hulls while an elderly man smoked in the shadow of a large ship.
Nearby, more than 40 wooden boats were moored in Arwad harbour.
“We used to build four big ships and several boats every year, which we exported to Cyprus, Turkey and Lebanon,” said Farouk Bahlawan.
“We’ve only worked on one ship this year and it still needs a lot of work to finish.”
He looked at the beach where the children were running around in the sand.
“We must continue this journey,” he said, his voice rising with emotion. “We carry a historic responsibility on our shoulders.”
#Syrias #traditional #boat #builders #crafts #afloat
