Images from David MacRitchie's 1912 article “Kayaks of the North Sea” of the so-called “Aberdeen Kayak”. It was supposedly captured off the east Scottish coast “with an Indian man in it” at the beginning of the 18th century, however, actual evidence of the event and the kayak's origins is scant to say the least.
Featured on PDR in the essay The Orkney Finnmen Legends: From Early Modern Science to Modern Myth
At the end of the 17th century there appeared the first noting of a mysterious kayak-paddling “Finnman” seen in Orkney waters. Jonathan Westaway explores the subsequent explanations and how early modern science’s fascination with unfamiliar objects, and the “out-of-place” in general, helped conjure the idea of an Inuit presence in the region and, in turn, a new chapter of Scottish folklore.
Also appearing in the essay…
The “Aberdeen Kayak”
Date
1912
From
Kayaks of the North Sea
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