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A Cossack Kayuk in the Collection of the World Ocean Museum

The National M.A.Sholokhov Museum-Reserve donated a Cossack boat, a kayuk made in the Upper Don, to the Museum of the World Ocean (Kaliningrad). This exhibit joined the rich museum collection of the history of research and development of the World Ocean in Russia.

A kayuk is a small dugout flat-bottomed river boat made of willow, poplar or oak. Poplar and oak kayuks are heavier, but more durable. The bow and stern are blunt, linked by the same slope for the boat to move in both “bow” and “stern” directions. On the Don, the kayuk was usually steered with one oar to glide on the water. From ancient times Cossacks used it for fishing on still water, in the reeds.

Steering the kayuk requires special skills. It is unstable on the water, and any wrong movement can overturn the boat. So, old fishermen usually joked on this occasion, that the “kayuk is coming” meaning “the end is coming”.

The word “kayuk” is of Turkic origin. This was the name for lightweight Turkish vessels and flat-bottomed boats in Middle Asia and Eastern Europe and for river cargo vessels.

The Don Cossack kayuk dugout by the Upper Don craftsmen will take its place in the Museum of the World Ocean at the Embankment of the Historic Fleet, where ships of the naval, scientific, icebreaking fleets, fishing and space communication vessels are moored. 

Irina Korenyughina