In this engraving, the rowers are transporting a priest who is carrying a feather-covered image of Kukailimoku, the Hawaiian god of war. The priests and paddlers are all wearing gourd masks, and their double-hulled canoe is rigged with a woven sail.

Double-hulled or single-hulled outrigger canoes were the primary form of transportation in Polynesian Hawaii. The smaller canoes, like the one depicted here, were shaped from a single, great koa log harvested from upcountry rainforests where they were carved before being hauled to the coast. Each canoe typically held five or six paddlers.