70
BARBARA E. WARD
All the fore part of the deck remains open. This is the working platform from which fishing operations are conducted, fish and nets both being stored just below. Usually this open deck is also used for storing things: lamps, sinkers, landing nets, fish tubs and baskets, coils of rope, often a sampan when not in use. The wooden partition immediately aft of the main mast has sliding doors on either side. At New Year these are decorated with new paper Door Gods, and often lucky couplets. The main function of the partition is to provide support for the forward end of the removable cover which can be spread between it and the roof of the wooden cabin further aft again. These covers are usually made of oiled cloth or canvas stretched over bamboo slats. They are easily rolled up or down on either side and can be removed altogether if necessary. Similar covers project beyond the cabin roof towards the poop. It is, of course, impossible to stand up under the covers, but the space is perfectly comfortable for sitting, with about a foot to spare overhead. To move from one part of the deck to another one must either step outside and walk along the gunwale or the catwalk, or crawl through the doors. The bamboo slats which are always on the inside of the covers are useful for hanging things from.
The small wooden cabins are peculiar to the purse-seiners. Though they are not unknown on some of the smaller craft in other places, no other Kau Sai junks had such cabins, and I was always told that this was because the purse-seiners carried more people aboard and were more likely to hire non-family members as additional crew. In such cases, and indeed usually, the cabin was the sleeping place for unmarried girls. The cabins had sliding doors fore and aft. Some of them were fitted also with sliding windows at the sides. Inside most cabins on the port side was a small cupboard with doors which opened to reveal the family's ancestral shrine. Here, too, incense was offered every day.
The covered spaces fore and aft of the cabin were the main "living rooms". In summer meals were taken on the open deck forward, but in poor weather they were always eaten in the forward covered shelter, though women and very young children