There is no doubt that “Canoes of Oceania” by A.C. Haddon and James Hornell, Volume I, II and III is the authoritative source on canoes having sailed across all islands of the Pacific Ocean , from Hawaii down to New-Zealand and from the Philippines to Easter Island. The various canoes from Polynesia, Micronesia and Melanesia are described in minute details sometimes difficult to understand or visualize.

I really love to go into “Canoes of Oceania” in order to get an overall picture of the vessel in question.

But once I decide which canoe to replicate in a scaled-down version, the 2 volumes written by Jean Neyret in 1976 entitled PIROGUES OCEANIENNES provide a trove of extremely easy-to-understand descriptions and drawings about the hundreds of different types of canoes ever built across Oceania.

Whereas the writing by Haddon & Hornell is very academic, at least this is how I feel it to be, the one by Jean Neyret is easy to read, and nearly every construction detail is illustrated with numerous drawings.

I realized not everyone is fluent in French, since PIROGUES OCEANIENNES is written in French and hasn't been translated into English.

The 2 volumes by Jean Neyret are illustrated in the books section.