The Hiltons demonstrate another evidence of inhabited regions along Lehi’s route is that when Nephi began to build his ship he specified that he did not “build the ship after the manner of men” (1 Nephi 18:2). Could he have written such a statement if he had not seen ships--in fact, seen them being built? It was eye-opening to us to discover that all along the coast of the Red Sea are shipbuilding villages where the ancient art has been practiced for generations upon generations. [Lynn and Hope Hilton, In Search of Lehi’s Trail, p. 28]
1 Nephi 18:2 I Nephi did not work the timbers after the manner [of] men ([Illustration] Arabian shipbuilders shaping and drilling timbers for handmade dhows. At Yenbo and Jiddah we saw ships built by the nailing method, while at Yemen and Oman we saw the sewing of planks lashed with hemp rope. [Lynn and Hope Hilton, In Search of Lehi’s Trail, p. 85]
1 Nephi 18:2 Neither did I build the ship after the manner [of] men ([Illustration] Nephi built a ship. Illustrators: Jerry Thompson and Robert T. Barrett. [The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Book of Mormon Stories, cover]
“I Nephi Did Not Work the Timbers After the Manner Which Was Learned by Men”
In an explanation of his shipbuilding, Nephi says that he “did not work the timbers after the manner which was learned by men” (1 Nephi 18:2). According to the Hiltons, apparently the shipyards on the coast of the Red Sea had at least given him enough understanding to know that in following the Lord’s style of construction, he would be departing from “the manner of men.”
Shipbuilding was part of the Red Sea culture at least a thousand years before Lehi’s time even though all the timber had to be imported. Drawings and sculptures convince one that the style, shape and size of present Arab dhows (average length 65 feet) are not unlike those of antiquity.
From Tim Severin’s book (The Sinbad Voyage) we learn that “all early texts make it abundantly clear that early Arab ships were not nailed together, but that their planks were sewn together with cord made from coconut husks” (Severin:6).
Marco Polo had observed the stitched hulls of the Arabs and was not impressed:
Their ships are very bad, and many of them flounder, because they are not fastened with iron nails but stitched together with thread made of coconut husks. They soak the husks until they assume the texture of horse hair: then they make it into thread and stitch their ships … This makes it a risky undertaking to sail in these ships. And you can take my word that many of them sink, because the Indian Ocean is often stormy.
Such a stitched boat could never have made it to America. Nephi must have built his in a way different from what he had observed. Was Nephi’s ship different because it was nailed together? The plan was given to him by God. We know it had sails, because he “sailed” it (1 Nephi 18:22), a rudder because he “steered” it (1 Ne. 18:13), and perhaps a deck on which the families of Laman and Lemuel and Ishmael’s sons could sing and dance (1 Ne. 18:9,22). [Lynn M. and Hope A. Hilton, Discovering Lehi, pp. 120-121]
“Neither Did I Build the Ship After the Manner of Men”
According to Potter and Wellington, using imported lumber would certainly not contradict Nephi’s claim that he worked timbers. (1 Nephi 18:2) Historically, the first records in the Near East of timbers being imported from foreign lands date to an inscription of Ur-Nanshe, King of Lagash in Sumer in about 2520 B.C. The cargoes which the ships from Meluhha (India), Magan (Oman) and Dilmun (Northwest Persian Gulf) carried to Mesopotamia consisted of copper, other metals, diorite, carmelian, onions, spices and wood--which perhaps included Indian teak, as in later historical periods, for ship building. In ancient Yemen teak was the wood of preference for building ships, and was imported from India. The Omani Ministry of National Heritage and Culture also notes:
Teak and coconut wood were used exclusively for building hulls. Teak had to be imported from India, and the Periplus of the Erythraean suggest that this practice was already current when it was written, at least 400 years before Islam, since it states that the port of Omana imported “beams and rafters” from Barygaza. Indeed, the virtues of the wood would have been known in the Gulf from the earliest sea voyages to the Indus in the third millennium B.C… . Coconut wood also had to be imported-mainly from the Maldive and Laccadive Islands from where it is possible that the coconut tree spread to Dhofar in the Middle Ages.
Presently it is not certain if coconuts were cultivated at Dhofar in Nephi’s time. In the eleventh century Nasir-I-khusraw observed coconuts growing in Oman. If Nephi found large plantations of coconut palms in Bountiful, it was possible that he made some of the p;arts of the ship using timber and fiber from the palm. Potter and Wellington guess that Nephi saw coconut palms around Khor Rori.
It appears that all the ancient commodities needed for shipbuilding were available at Khor Rori either gown domestically or acquired by trade. These would have included timber (teak, deodar, etc.); rope from vegetation fiber; cotton, flax or rush matting for sails; bamboo or wood, or bronze for pegs or nails; stones for anchors and ballast, and probably bitumen, resin, fish oil or animal fat for caulking. But this begs the question: How could Nephi have afforded the imported lumber or imported materials? In Oman in 1990, a 110 foot Dhow made of imported wood cost up to $535,000 to build. Assuming relative parity in cost over time, it is difficult to see how the family could have earned enough to import all the wood for the ship from India. But there are a number of possibilities: (1) Camels need for the trip could have been sold; (2) Nephi could have used a large amount of local timber and his group’s labor; (3) The journey to Jerusalem was only 4 months. Lehi could have sent an agent to negotiate with some servants left behind at his land of inheritance. [George Potter & Richard Wellington, Discovering The Lehi-Nephi Trail, Unpublished Manuscript (July 2000), pp. 248-250]
Note* An agent could have been sent back to Lehi’s land of inheritance anytime from the valley of Lemuel onward (see 1 Nephi 2:16-20). Lehi’s gold and silver could also have been retrieved by Zoram & Nephi. [Alan C. Miner, Personal Notes]
1 Nephi 18:3 I Nephi did go to the mount oft ([Illustration] (In Wadi Sayq) this prominent peak overlooking the site on the western side of the bay may be “the mount” Nephi wrote of… . Steep cliffs lie at its base. [Warren and Michaela Aston, In the Footsteps of Lehi, pp. 66-77]
1 Nephi 18:3 I, Nephi, did go to the mount oft ([Illustration] Western light spills over awesome mount at the seashore site of Wadi Sayq. This mountain, situated next to the isolated beach, is a candidate for the place Nephi would have come to receive instructions from the Lord. [Maurine and Scot Proctor, “Where Did Nephi Build the Ship?,” in This People , Fall 1993, p. 42]