They were used for trade, as war canoes, and in competitions.

The city also has a fine collection of Maori work, including a 75-foot-long war canoe.

Whenever a trader had become successful enough to keep a war canoe, he was expected to form his own "house".

Their great war canoes can creep up the coast, attack and be away again.

Their war canoes could hold more than 100 men and were fast enough to catch a sailing ship.

The war canoes were the most important manifestations of naval forces during this early period.

In the water, they were no match for the weapons-laden war canoes.

Terangi later finds a war canoe in the water, which he uses to get his party to a small island.

Nobody around the lake owned such a war canoe, and nothing like it had been seen on the lake for many years.

The large war canoes, seating fifty men, were left behind, bottom up, upon the shore.