Expert: Aaltje van Zoelen - 10/14/2007

Question
I am converting my father's manuscript to text. I am looking for verification of the type of boat known as a kunghas. I have searched, with different spellings, and haven't found anything. Do you have any info for me or can you recommend someone who can verify. Thank you! Here is the section that mentions this craft: We rounded Mys Povorotny and soon after dropped anchor in an open bay by a small encampment. It was the base where all the crab caught by the local Korean fishermen was deposited, boiled and readied for transport to the Cannery. There were several small boats pulled up on the beach and offshore rode a few kunghas, tied to small red buoys. These were cargo-carrying barge-type boats of Japanese design. They had sharp prows and flat-bottomed sterns, which made them suitable for loading and unloading on unprotected beaches where surf was a problem.

Answer
We do not have this information in hand.  I will send an e-mail to Russia and see whether we can find a response. Please give us at least a week to respond to you.

This is a follow up on the original answer.  My associate in Khabarovsk Russia, who can be reached by this e-mail lkhakhaleva@yahoo.com has written the following to me

About kunghas: it's a fish boat about 15 metres long. This kind of boats were of Korean-Japanese origin and were used by fishers in the Far East.

Hope this is answer is sufficient to validate the original presumption.